CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: Daniel Robertson Caldwell - Smith County, TX *********************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net 6 June 2002 *********************************************************** TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson, pages 215-217 D. R. CALDWELL. Daniel Robertson Caldwell was born at Oak Bowery, Cham­bers county, Alabama, June 25, 1842, but was chiefly reared in Pike county, in the southeastern part of that state. He spent most of his youth, until his 18th year, at school. At that age he enlisted in the Montgomery In­dependent Rifles, which became Company E in the Sixth Alabama Infantry Regiment. This regi­ment had the unusual number of twelve companies, which aggre­gated, rank and file, 1800 men, the largest regiment ever mus­tered into the Confederate ser­vice. The regiment was sworn into the regular military service of the Confederacy at the fair grounds in Montgom­ery in the early spring of 1861, electing as regimental officers Jacob Seables, colonel; Ben Baker, lieutenant-colonel, and Jno. B. Gordon (afterwards major -general), major, the lat­ter bringing into the regiment his famous company of "Rac­coon Roughs," recruited in the mountains of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. The regiment went immediately to Lynchburg, Va., via Corinth, Miss., thence on to Manassas Junction, Va. making its first field encampment at Fairfax Station, near Mount Vernon, the old home of Washington. The regiment was placed in the brigade of Gen. Ewell, who commanded them in the first battle of Manassas. It was af­terwards successively in the brigades of Rhodes and Battle. The regiment was with its brigade in the expedition com­manded by Jubal Early, which penetrated as far north as Silver Springs, three miles distant from Washington, D. C. Being transferred with the army to Yorktown, the regiment was re-organized, Major Gordon being elected Colonel, Colo­nel Seables an old army officer, retiring. The army falling back under Gen, Joe Johnston from Yorktown, the battle of Seven Pines was fought. Johnston was wounded, and Robert E. Lee put in charge. In this battle Rhodes Brigade, including the 6th Alabama, was in the Division of Gen. D. H. Hill. The regiment entered this fight with 800 effective men and came out with 300 effectives, the heavy loss result­ing from exposure to an enfilading fire from the New York Excelsior Brigade. Mr. CaIdwell was wounded three times in this battle--one wound through the thigh, one shot breaking his right arm, and another taking a "clip" out of his left ear. He was sent to the hospital at Richmond and I thence was farloughed on account of wounds, for thirty days. He rejoined the army and was with his regiment in the battle of Fredericksburg, where the mortality was very great--was also in the battle of the Wilderness and Chan­cellorsvifle, and all other battles and incidents at arms up to and including Gettysburg, falling in the latter battle in the famous "wheat field" severely wounded in the right side and also in the right arm-almost exactly in the wound received at the battle of Seven Pines. He was again, on account of wounds, furloughed for thirty days. Again rejoining the army, he passed through all the closing scenes and conflicts of the war, and was surrendered with the remnants of Lee's army at Appomattox. The regiment at the surrender num­bered only 36 effective men out of an original total of 1800, thus showing the ghastly inroads which the casualties of war had made in that magnificent body of men. Returning to Alabama, he was married November 16th, 1865, to Miss Amanda Henderson, a member of one of the most important and wealthy families of Southeast Alabama, then and ever since a resident in the town of Troy. He became a farmer and in the fall of 1869 removed to Texas, living for the first year near McKinney in Collin county. He then moved to Henderson county, where he ran a large farm near Fincas­tie for 6 years. After which he moved to Noonday, where he reared and educated his children, and successfully con­ducted a farm, stock and dairy business. His home here was distinguished during many years for its abundance and refined and generous hospitality. Losing his wife in 1906, he sold his farm, and a few months later accepted service as Special Agent of the U. S. Agricultural Department, which he still holds and pushes with his usual vigor, with head­quarters, for the present, at Temple, Texas. Six children were born to himself and wife, two dying in infancy, the four remaining children are happily situated in Tyler, and well and favorably known here. The three sons, Oscar, W. H. and Gus married respectively, Misses Laura Bullard, Sackie Norton and Pink Patterson, daughters of prominent families in Smith county. His only daughter, Girlie, is the wife of Prof. W. R. Herring, principal of the Douglass school, Tyler, Texas. Mr. CaIdwell is a remarkably well preserved and active man for his years and is highly res­pected by all who know him for his sterling qualities and chivalric bearing.