15th Texas Infantry Companies E and G
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Several communities in Navarro County organized military units that saw action in the Civil War. Company E of the 15th Texas Infantry was formed on April 16, 1862, when two squads were combined into one unit under the leadership of Captain Joshua Long Halbert, a prominent Corsicana lawyer. Company G, 15th Texas Infantry, was originally part of William Melton's 13th Texas Infantry, but the company was reorganized during the winter of 1861-1862 as Company G, under the command of Captain Clinton Fouty. The two companies were assigned to Colonel William Speight, and saw action throughout the Trans-Mississippi region, including Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Indian Territory. As they began their journey to Arkansas, the regiment first saw combat on September 29, 1863 at the Battle of Bayou Fordoche, northeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After the battle, the 15th Texas saw action at Bayou Bourbeau, which was one of the early skirmishes that led to the Red River Campaign. Although a Confederate victory, the battle took a toll on the soldiers from Navarro County, with 7 killed in action, 22 wounded and 5 missing. Additionally, the group later saw action during the Red River Campaign at the battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Mansura and Yellow Bayou, Louisiana. The campaign resulted in the halting of the Union advance by the Confederate forces, and may have prolonged the war by distracting the Union's efforts to capture Mobile, Alabama. The men of Companies E and G started their journey back to Navarro County on February 20, 1865 and were discharged later that spring. (2009)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Civil War came, Navarro County raised its own fighting men, including Companies E and G of the 15th Texas Infantry, mustered in 1862 under Captains Joshua Long Halbert and Clinton Fouty. Assigned to the Trans-Mississippi theater, they fought across Arkansas, Louisiana, and Indian Territory, seeing hard combat at Bayou Bourbeau and through the Red River Campaign at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Mansura, and Yellow Bayou. The survivors began the long journey home in early 1865 and were discharged that spring.
Why it matters
These companies illustrate the war west of the Mississippi—often overshadowed by the eastern battles—where Confederate forces blunted the Union's Red River offensive and small-town Texans paid the cost in killed, wounded, and missing.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When the Civil War came in 1861, it reached even the newer, thinly settled counties of central Texas. Navarro County, with Corsicana at its heart, was frontier-adjacent country, and like communities across the South it answered the call to arms by raising units from among its own men — neighbors, tradesmen, and professionals who formed up together and marched off together.
These Texans were bound for the Trans-Mississippi theater, the vast war west of the Mississippi River that stretched across Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Indian Territory. It was a sprawling, often overlooked front, far from the great eastern battlefields that dominate popular memory, yet it carried real strategic weight in the struggle for control of the rivers and the Southwest.
Understanding this marker means holding both scales at once: a handful of companies from one Texas county, and the enormous geography they were swept across. The men who mustered at Corsicana would end up fighting hundreds of miles from home, in swamps and bayous most had never seen.
People & events
Company E of the 15th Texas Infantry formed on April 16, 1862, when two squads were combined under Captain Joshua Long Halbert, a prominent Corsicana lawyer who traded the courtroom for command. Company G had a different path: originally part of William Melton's 13th Texas Infantry, it was reorganized during the winter of 1861–1862 as Company G under Captain Clinton Fouty. Both companies were assigned to Colonel William Speight, and together they ranged across the Trans-Mississippi region.
Their first taste of combat came on September 29, 1863, at the Battle of Bayou Fordoche, northeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as the regiment set out toward Arkansas. Then came Bayou Bourbeau, an early skirmish on the road to the larger Red River Campaign. It was counted a Confederate victory, but victory has a price, and the men from Navarro County paid it: 7 killed, 22 wounded, and 5 missing — a heavy toll for companies raised from a single county's neighborhoods.
The hard fighting continued through the Red River Campaign, with the two companies seeing action at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Mansura, and Yellow Bayou in Louisiana. The campaign ended with Confederate forces halting the Union advance — a result that, the marker notes, may have prolonged the war by diverting Union efforts away from the capture of Mobile, Alabama. On February 20, 1865, the men of Companies E and G began the long journey home, and were discharged later that spring.
Its place in the American story
This monument speaks for the war most Americans never learned about. The battles that fill the history books — the great clashes of the East — have all but eclipsed the Trans-Mississippi theater, yet men fought and died there too, and their campaigns shaped the war's course. Companies E and G put names and a hometown to that forgotten front.
The Red River Campaign is the crux. By blunting the Union advance up the Red River, Confederate forces in the West achieved something with consequences beyond their own theater: the marker records that the campaign may have prolonged the war by pulling Union attention and resources away from Mobile. It's a striking reminder that a fight in the Louisiana bayous could ripple outward to the whole strategic map.
And then there is the human arithmetic that every such monument finally comes down to. Seven killed, twenty-two wounded, five missing — from companies formed out of one county's squads and neighborhoods. Multiply that arithmetic across thousands of communities, North and South, and you begin to grasp the war's true cost. The monument at Corsicana insists that small-town Texans were part of that reckoning.
If you visit
Approach this one as a monument rather than a building — a place to stand, read, and reckon with names. Corsicana sits in Navarro County, and the marker roots a national catastrophe in a specific, walkable spot where local men once mustered before marching off to a war most never imagined would take them so far.
Let the names anchor your visit: Captain Joshua Long Halbert, the Corsicana lawyer who led Company E; Captain Clinton Fouty of Company G; Colonel William Speight, who commanded them both. Then trace the geography in your mind — Bayou Fordoche, Bayou Bourbeau, and the Red River battles at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Mansura, and Yellow Bayou. These men from central Texas fought across Arkansas, Louisiana, and Indian Territory, and the sweep of that map is part of the story the stone can only compress.
Pause, especially, over the casualty count. Seven killed, twenty-two wounded, five missing is not an abstraction when the men came from the community around you. For anyone touring Texas Civil War history, this is a meaningful stop precisely because it commemorates the war's neglected western front — and because it brings that vast conflict down to the scale of a single county's sons, who began their journey home in the last winter of the war.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Joshua Long Halbert
- · Clinton Fouty
- · William Speight
Related events
- · Battle of Bayou Bourbeau
- · Red River Campaign
- · Battle of Mansfield
- · Battle of Pleasant Hill
Themes & tags
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