Eleventh Texas Cavalry
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In May 1861, a frontier unit was organized at Camp Reeves in Sherman. Drawing volunteers from Cooke, Grayson, Hopkins, Red River, Fannin, Collin, Titus and Bowie counties, the regiment began with nearly 900 men and officers. Initially led by the noted Col. William Cocke Young, the unit fought its first battles in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, securing the territory for the Confederacy. In October of that year, the unit was inducted into Confederate service as the 11th Texas Cavalry and joined with other forces in Arkansas. Beginning in March 1862, at the Battle of Pea Ridge, or Elkhorn Tavern, the 11th Texas supported the Confederate Army. Following the battle, the unit became an infantry regiment, designated the 11th Texas Cavalry, Dismounted. For the remainder of the year, the troops were active in Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. In early 1863, the 11th Texas fought at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and shortly thereafter became a cavalry unit again. For the remainder of the war, the cavalry fought in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, participating in more than 100 battles and skirmishes. Notable engagements included Chickamauga, Knoxville, Dalton, Resaca, Allatoona Pass, Dallas/New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Savannah, and, finally, Bentonville, North Carolina. A small number of 11th Texas troops were present at the Confederate surrender at Durham Station, North Carolina, in April 1865. One of the most active Texas Confederate units, the 11th Texas Cavalry served with distinction throughout the Civil War, continuing until the last major Confederate offensive had ended. (2003)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized at Camp Reeves near Sherman in May 1861, this frontier regiment drew nearly 900 men from across northeast Texas and first fought in Indian Territory to secure it for the Confederacy. Mustered in as the 11th Texas Cavalry, it saw hard service from Pea Ridge and Murfreesboro to Chickamauga, the Atlanta Campaign, and finally Bentonville. Across more than a hundred engagements, a handful of its troopers were still in the field at the war's end in North Carolina.
Why it matters
The regiment's long, far-ranging service illustrates how Texas units fought well beyond their home state across nearly every major Western and Deep South campaign of the Civil War.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the spring of 1861, the United States was coming apart. Southern states had begun to secede, Fort Sumter had been fired upon, and both North and South rushed to raise armies from communities that, only months before, had been at peace. Texas, newly joined to the Confederacy, called on its counties to send men.
North Texas in 1861 was still frontier country. The line of settlement pressed up against Indian Territory to the north, and the counties around Sherman — Cooke, Grayson, Fannin, Collin, and their neighbors — were places where farming, ranching, and the hazards of the borderland shaped daily life. When the call for volunteers came, it drew on exactly these communities of frontier families.
What began as a local frontier unit, mustered at Camp Reeves near Sherman, would soon be swept into a war far larger than anyone gathered there could have imagined — one that would carry these men a thousand miles from home before it was through.
People & events
The regiment organized in May 1861, gathering nearly 900 men and officers from eight North Texas counties. Its first commander was the noted Colonel William Cocke Young, and its first fighting came close to home, in Indian Territory — the land that is now Oklahoma — where it worked to secure the region for the Confederacy.
That October the unit was formally inducted into Confederate service as the 11th Texas Cavalry and sent east into Arkansas. In March 1862 it fought at the Battle of Pea Ridge, also called Elkhorn Tavern, a major clash for control of the trans-Mississippi West. Afterward the regiment was dismounted and turned into infantry — though it kept the cavalry name — and spent the rest of that year campaigning through Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
From there its path only lengthened. It fought at Murfreesboro in early 1863, was remounted as cavalry, and then ranged across Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas through more than a hundred battles and skirmishes — Chickamauga, Knoxville, the long fighting retreat of the Atlanta Campaign at Dalton, Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain and Atlanta itself, and on to Savannah and finally Bentonville in North Carolina. A small number of its troopers were still in the field at the Confederate surrender at Durham Station in April 1865.
Its place in the American story
The 11th Texas Cavalry's long march is a window onto how the Civil War was actually fought — not as a series of isolated set-piece battles, but as years of grinding, far-flung campaigning that carried ordinary soldiers immense distances from the places they had enlisted. Men who joined to defend a stretch of North Texas frontier ended their service in the Carolinas, having crossed much of the Confederacy in between.
Its trajectory also traces the war's major Western and Deep South campaigns almost like a map: the struggle for the trans-Mississippi at Pea Ridge, the bloody Western battles at Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, the fighting withdrawal toward Atlanta, and the final, desperate Confederate stand at Bentonville. Following one regiment through all of it shows how interconnected those distant theaters really were.
And it is a reminder that the Civil War reached into communities far from the famous Eastern battlefields. Texas sent tens of thousands of men to the war, many of whom fought and died hundreds of miles from home. A frontier county's contribution to that vast conflict is exactly the kind of story a roadside marker exists to keep from being forgotten.
If you visit
This memorial stands in Sherman, in the North Texas county that helped raise the regiment. Part of what makes it worth a stop is the gap between the quiet county-seat surroundings and the enormous geography of the story told here — a unit that started at a nearby camp and ended its war in North Carolina.
As you read, let the roll of place names do its work: Pea Ridge, Chickamauga, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Bentonville. Each is a chapter of the wider war, and seeing them gathered on a single marker gives you a vivid sense of how much ground these men covered and how long they stayed in the field.
A marker like this fits naturally into a road trip built around Civil War history, but it rewards a different kind of attention than a famous battlefield does. Here there is no dramatic terrain to walk — only the memory of the local men who left from this very region. It's a good place to pause and think about the ordinary communities that armies were drawn from, and the distances the war asked of them.
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
- · William Cocke Young
Related events
- · Battle of Pea Ridge
- · Battle of Chickamauga
- · Atlanta Campaign
- · Battle of Bentonville
Themes & tags
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