Many courthouses in North Texas feature Confederate memorial statues installed in the early 20th century. These statues generally look similar and do not depict any specific soldiers or units. Ellis County’s statue, however, was installed during the 50th anniversary year of a pivotal Civil War engagement fought by men from Ellis County, whose children and grandchildren thought them fit to be remembered.
In early 1861, several Southern, slave-holding states had declared independence from the Federal Union, citing as their primary grievance the attempt by Northern states to geographically confine slave property to the South so as to gain a Northern majority in Congress – not to mention the constant meddling of abolitionists with the delicate social structure of the South. With a growing secessionist sentiment in Texas, a special legislative convention of representatives from every county was called in Austin, and Ellis County sent two delegates – Amzi Bradshaw and T.C. Kneel – to vote in favor of secession. The President of the Convention was none other than Texas Supreme Court Justice Oran Milo Roberts, the former District Attorney and District Judge for Ellis County. The convention passed an ordinance of secession on February 1st, which was shortly approved in referendum by 68% of voters across Texas. 16 years after voluntarily joining the Union, Texans believed they had a right to unilaterally withdraw from it, and on March 2nd, 1861, Texas was subsequently admitted into the Confederate States of America. Little more than one month later, on April 12th, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Federal-occupied Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The Federals, viewing the Confederacy as an armed rebellion, rather than an independent nation, began rallying the North for a full-scale invasion of the South. The Civil War had begun, and Ellis County, Texas was soon tasked with contributing to the war effort.
In those days, armies were built upon a quasi-militia system in which every county was required to enroll all men eligible for service and administratively divide them into companies. These companies would then be recruited into regiments and brigades by officers commissioned by the Governor and would then elect their own captains and lieutenants. Colonel William Henry Parsons, a newspaper editor and legislator from Waco, recruited three companies from Ellis County – the Ellis County Grays, Company E; the Ellis & Johnson County Rangers, Company F; and the Ellis County Blues, Company H – into the 4th Texas Dragoons (“dragoon” being another word for “cavalry”). W.H. Getzendaner, the first Mayor of Waxahachie, was chosen as a lieutenant for Company E, and Emory W. Rogers, the aforementioned first settler and founder of Waxahachie, was elected as Major of the whole regiment. The 4th Texas Dragoons first mustered in September of 1861 at Rockett Springs near Red Oak – the site of a present-day wedding venue.
In the early years of the Civil War, Confederate commanders sought to aggregate as much infantry as possible, and many units that had originally formed as cavalry were instead ordered to dismount and fight as foot-soldiers. Naturally, the men of Texas resented the idea of being forced to abandon their horses; Texans had learned from Comanche and Apache warriors how to become some of the best horsemen in the world, and they were eager to yield their prowess on horseback against the Yankees. Accordingly, Colonel Parsons managed to have the 4th Texas Dragoons remain exclusively under Texas State service as long as possible before it could be guaranteed that they would enter Confederate Army service as cavalry, rather than infantry. The unit traveled to Houston for drill, and after impressing commanders with its performance, the 4th Texas Dragoons was allowed to enter national service as cavalry. The unit changed its name to the 12th Texas Cavalry Regiment, and after Parsons was promoted to Brigade Commander, the 12th Texas joined together with the 19th & 21st Texas Cavalry, as well as Morgan’s Battalion and Pratt’s Artillery Battery, to form Parsons’ Texas Cavalry Brigade, one of the famed units of the Civil War.
In the first months of 1862, Union Commander Samuel Curtis had defeated Confederates at the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas with his army of 17,000 Dutch immigrants from Missouri, who the Southerners derisively referred to as “Hessian mercenaries.” With the Unionists closing in on Little Rock, Arkansas Governor Henry Rector ordered the evacuation of the Capitol. It was at this time that Parsons’ Brigade, now known colloquially as “the Rangers,” were diverted from their March to Memphis by Confederate General John Roane and instead ordered to defend Little Rock. The Texans set up camp outside the city and began conducting reconnaissance patrols.
On May 19th, 1862, Major Rogers was leading a patrol of approximately 150 Rangers and local volunteer militia when his scouts spotted a foraging party of about seven companies of Unionists seeking to commandeer crops, lumber, food, and other supplies from the farms along Whitney’s Lane. Rogers sent for reinforcements but soon realized that they would not arrive before the Unionists could set up defensive positions. What followed was one of the most famous moments of the Western Theater of the Civil War: Major Rogers, despite being heavily outnumbered, stood up and said, “I have no choice but to fight.” He then ordered a charge. The main group of Rogers’ forces surged down Whitney’s Lane and decimated the entire rear guard of the Unionists, chasing the Yankees into the bushes and cutting them down to the last man. Simultaneously, a second group of Texans flanked to the north and began to attack the Unionists near the farms. The Unionists returned a volley of fire, and Rogers had his horse shot out from underneath him. Even so, the Major stood up and was heard to yell, “Give ‘em hell, boys! Give ‘em hell!” The six remaining companies of Unionists fell back and formed firing lines, and Rogers knew that inevitably, additional Union reinforcements would soon arrive to drive the Texans from the field. Rogers ordered his men to withdraw and return to camp. The Confederates had suffered only a relative handful of casualties, including McDonald Brown, a young lawyer from Waxahachie, and a few of the Arkansas volunteers. Meanwhile, the Confederates had inflicted approximately 30 casualties against the Unionists.
Although the Texans did not take the field during the Skirmish at Whitney’s Lane, they still recognized the engagement as a strategic victory. News of the skirmish reached General Curtis himself, who mistakenly believed that if the Texans had acted so boldly, then surely that meant that Little Rock had been reinforced. In reality, Parson’s Brigade was the only meaningful Confederate Army presence in the entire State of Arkansas at that moment. Even so, Curtis formally abandoned his plans to March on Little Rock and instead shifted his focus eastward for more than a year. Because of his one fateful decision to make that charge, Major Emory W. Rogers – the first settler & founder of a small town in Ellis County, Texas – critically delayed not only the conquering of Arkansas in 1862, but also the inevitable invasion of Texas thereafter.
Parson’s Brigade continued to serve with distinction through the rest of the war, including during the Vicksburg campaign. For Major Rogers, though, the war was over. Because his eldest sons had also entered Confederate Army service, Rogers decided to resign his officer’s commission and return to his wife Nancy so that she would not be left without a man in the home. Upon his return to Waxahachie, Rogers was lauded as a hero. He continued to hold various political offices until his death in 1874, including as the Ellis County Clerk, a state representative, a donor & trustee of Marvin College, and the Chairman of the Ellis County Democratic Party, but regardless of the position he held, Emory W. Rogers, the patriarch of Waxahachie, would thereafter always be referred to as simply, “The Major.”