Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/559

 A Sketch of Dehray's Tioenty-Sixth Beyiment. 549

officers, Colonel Davis resigned, and an election was ordered to be held on the 17th of March, 1862, in which the following officers were chosen : X. B. Debray, Colonel; J. J, Myers, Lieutenant-Colonel; and M. Menard, Major. Owing to delays, either at District or Depart- ment headquarters, in forwarding the muster-rolls, or in examining them in the War Department, the regiment was recognized as the Twenty-sixth regiment of Texas cavalry, while, according to the date of its organization, it should have been the Tenth or the Eleventh,

The organization of the regiment was completed by the promotion of Sergeant R. M. Franklin, of Company D, to the rank of Lieuten- ant and Adjutant, and the appointment of William Armstrong to be Quartermaster with the rank of Captain. The latter officer, having been transferred to the Engineer Corps, was superseded by Lieutenant T. R. Franklin, of Company D. Lieutenants Lane, of Company B, and Armstrong, of Company F, became the Captains of their re- spective companies, to fill the vacancies created by the election of Lieutenant-Colonel Myers, and Major Menard.

The one-year term of service of Captain Atchison's company having expired, it was replaced in the regiment by Captain Roun- tree's company, theretofore unattached.

Soon after orders were received from the War Department to re- duce the companies of cavalry to the number of eighty, rank and file. Few of the companies of the regiment numbered less than one hundred men, and it was considered a great hardship to be turned out of the regiment and be attached to some some other organization. To obviate this unpleasant contingency, the Colonel's first step was to obtain the dropping of Captain Rountree's company from the rolls of the regiment ; next, such men as were found to be unfitted for active service in the field were discharged, and, finally, volunteers from the several companies, having a surplus of men, joined together to form a new company, G, and elected R. L. Fulton, formerly of Company B, to be their Captain.

Thus Debray's regiment was definitely constituted with its full complement of young, robust, enthusiastic, well-mounted, well-disci- plined, and drilled volunteers, when the order was received to pre- pare to march to the State of Mississippi and report to General Van Dorn. The prospect of entering into service in the field, gladly hailed, was soon darkened by disappointment. The report of the fall of New Orleans caused the destination of the regiment to be changed, and it was ordered to proceed, with Brown's battalion of cavalry, to re-enforce General Sibley in Arizona and New Mexico.