Bayland Guards
Baytown, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On April 27, 1861, Dr. Ashbel Smith organized a group of volunteers from Bayland (now Baytown) and Cedar Bayou in Harris County, and Barbers Hill in Chambers County. The group, known as the Bayland Guards, drilled on Smith’s Evergreen Plantation and worked in local defense of Galveston Bay. On August 13, 1861, they mustered into the Confederate forces as Company C of the Galveston Infantry Regiment. The regiment was redesignated in October as the Second Texas Infantry Regiment and that December, it moved to Camp Bee in Houston. Among the Bayland Guards were three sons of Republic of Texas presidents Sam Houston and Anson Jones: Samuel Houston, Jr., Charles Elliot Jones and Samuel Edward Jones. The Bayland Guards fought with the rest of the regiment at the Battles of Shiloh, Corinth and Hatchie Bridge in 1862. At the Battle of Shiloh, half of Company C was wounded or killed. During the Vicksburg campaign in 1863, the Second Texas distinguished itself by defending a crescent-shaped fortification in the center of the line of Confederate defense while withstanding Union assaults and 46 days and nights of shelling and bombardment. The Second Texas infantry and the other defenders were surrendered at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 and were promptly paroled to make their way back to Texas. The decimated regiment reorganized at Houston in the fall of 1863 and served out the war on the Texas coast from Matagorda to Galveston, helping to deter General Banks’ attempt to invade Texas early in 1864. The regiment was surrendered on May 26, 1865. After the war, many members of the Bayland Guards became leaders and respected individuals in their communities.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the spring of 1861 Dr. Ashbel Smith raised a company of volunteers from the Galveston Bay settlements, drilling them on his own plantation before they mustered into Confederate service as part of what became the Second Texas Infantry. Among their ranks were sons of Republic of Texas presidents Sam Houston and Anson Jones. The regiment fought at Shiloh, where half the company fell, and endured the forty-six-day siege of Vicksburg before its survivors were paroled and served out the war along the Texas coast.
Why it matters
The Bayland Guards trace one Texas community's path through the Civil War, from a plantation drill field to the bloodiest battlefields of the western theater and the fall of Vicksburg.
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Related people
- · Dr. Ashbel Smith
- · Samuel Houston, Jr.
Related events
- · Battle of Shiloh
- · Siege of Vicksburg
Themes & tags
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