Riding With the 19th Texas Cavalry in the War West of the Mississippi 1862-1865

About the Book

Riding With the 19th Texas Cavalry in the War West of the Mississippi 1862-1865 is the story of William Hardy Bennett’s Confederate military service as a Private in Co. B of the 19th Texas Cavalry Regiment during the War for Southern Independence and his experiences during Reconstruction that followed the war. He enlisted with the Mesquite Light Horse Militia in Dallas County, Texas on 8 January 1861 some one and a half months before the citizens of Texas ratified the State’s Ordinance of Secession. Some fourteen months later on 21 March 1862, he enlisted with Captain Allen Beard’s Company, Burford’s Texas Cavalry in Dallas, Texas to defend his family, Dallas County, and the State of Texas against a Yankee army determined to invade and destroy the State. Beard’s Company became Co. B of the 19th Texas Cavalry Regiment and was an important part of Colonel William Henry Parsons’ Texas Brigade that fought with distinction in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Hardy fought in some fifty engagements and was often in harm’s way, but he survived and returned to Dallas County, Texas after the war and prospered despite the economic and political problems that plagued the county during Reconstruction.

About the Author

Gary C. Cole is an eleventh-generation American born in Dallas, Texas in 1943 and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas Christian University in 1965. He is a direct lineal descendent of two citizens of the Republic of Texas and is a great-great grandson of three Confederate Veterans - William Hardy Bennett, a Private in Co. B of the 19th Texas Cavalry Regiment, Richard Wesley Cole, a Private in Co. C, 5th Regiment Mississippi Calvary, and Davis Greene Chapman, a Private in the 18th Texas Cavalry Regiment. He is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and has authored three books about the War for Southern Independence - 12 APRIL, Three Hundred and Sixty-Six Days at Fort Delaware, and Riding With the 19th Texas Cavalry in the War West of the Mississippi 1862-1865. He is a retired insurance company executive and served as past Chairman of the Texas Health Insurance Pool, past Chairman of the Texas Association of Life & Health Insurers, and a past member of the Board of Directors of Regions Bank-Tyler. He is an ordained Baptist Deacon and lives with his wife Betty on a small farm outside Bullard, Texas where they raise Registered Texas Longhorns.