[256] General Jones, to command of the brigade, but modestly declined that honor, and General Phifer was subsequently assigned. Colonel Ross took part in the battle of Corinth, Miss., October, 1862, and when, on the retreat, Moore's brigade, in advance, was met, beyond the Hatchie bridge by a fresh Federal force, Ross, in command of Phifer's brigade, went into the fight as a forlorn hope, and maintained it against great odds until the army could be withdrawn by another route. The war department at Richmond requested General Maury to give the name of the officer in charge of this brilliant action, which he did. Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, without the knowledge of Ross, wrote to the secretary of war and had him appointed brigadier-general, the commission bearing date December 21, 1863. On different occasions he was commended for gallant conduct by Generals J. E. Johnston, Hardee, Forrest, S. D. Lee, Maury, W. H. Jackson and Van Dorn. He participated in numerous engagements, and had five horses shot under him. At the close of the war he settled in Texas. In 1873 he was sheriff of his county, and in 1875 a member of the constitutional convention. In 1881 he was elected to the State senate, where he served as chairman of the finance committee. He was elected governor of Texas in 1886, and was re-elected in 1888, by a majority of 150,000. As president of the State Agricultural and Mechanical college he rendered valuable service. Ex-Governor Ross died January 4, 1898, at his home at College Station, Tex.
Brigadier-General W. R. Scurry
Brigadier-General W. R. Scurry entered the Confederate army in 1861 and was commissioned lieutenantcol-onel of the Fourth Texas mounted volunteers. Early in 1862 this regiment was in the brigade of Gen. Henry H. Sibley that set out for the conquest of New Mexico. This expedition was one of the most trying of any of the campaigns of the war. The hardships endured in marching through a rocky, sterile country, in many places destitute
