Throughout 1864 the Texans were active in the fighting that took place in northwestern Georgia and in the defenses of Atlanta. That fall, the men of the Lone Star State were present when John Bell Hood assumed command of the Army of Tennessee and instituted his winter push back into Tennessee. At Franklin, Granbury’s men were all but wiped out in a series of unsuccessful assaults against Union positions on November 30, Granbury being one of the killed. The next morning not a single captain in the brigade was capable of performing duty. The remnants of the shattered Texas regiments were almost captured at Nashville when Union Major General George Thomas’ pressure caused a break in the Southerners’ left and center. As a rout-like withdrawal commenced, the Texans on the extreme right were not given the word to fall back. When they discovered that the rest of the army was retreating, the Texans fell back and were again assigned the serious task of guarding the rear of the main force.[116]
After Hood’s failure in Tennessee, command of the army was returned to General Joseph Johnston in January, 1865. For the rest of the war the Texans in Johnston’s army fought in vain to arrest Sherman’s advance from Savannah into the Carolinas. At the time of the surrender there were only about six hundred men in the eight regiments that composed Granbury’s old brigade. In one company of the Eighteenth Texas Cavalry there were but five men left.[117]
Elsewhere, earlier in the war, Ross’ Cavalry Brigade had engaged in extensive raiding operations in the Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee area. Ross’ command was composed of the Third Texas Cavalry, the Sixth Texas Cavalry, The Ninth Texas Cavalry, and Twenty-Seventh Texas Cavalry. After patrolling to the south of Vicksburg, the brigade spent much of the remainder of 1864 harassing a large Union force that shifted from the Mississippi Valley to the east, and in defending Atlanta. While striving to delay United States advances against Atlanta, the brigade averaged a fight a day for over three months. Late that fall, Ross was ordered to support Hood’s re-entry into Tennessee. In raids of late November and December, Ross lost over one hundred men; yet he captured over five times that number of prisoners, he seized nine Federal colors, he relieved the enemy of a great amount of equipment, he destroyed two fully loaded United States railway supply trains, and he captured almost fifty supply wagons. Ross’ Brigade ended the war again conducting patrol actions in Mississippi.[118]