Hello. I am puzzled by the following extract from Captain Woodruff's memoir (With the Light Guns in '61-'65, Little Rock 1903, reprinted w/o date). Please excuse me if the topic had already been discussed:
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After Elk Horn, General Van Dorn, in chief command, established headquarters at Van Buren. [...] Two days later [counting from Woodruff's interview with Van Dorn, omitted] [#1] I started alone on horse-back to overtake [my battery, under Lt. Blocher] by the direct route through Scullyville, and the San Bois country. While riding around a short bend in the road, just at Scullyville on the east side, I came plump upon a light battery of artillery, which I first thought was Blocher, but soon saw they were in full United States uniform, taking their nooning in the edge of the town. As I was among them before realizing it, for a moment I was dazed and took it for a Federal battery, part of a force in pursuit of General Pike, or endeavoring to get to Fort Smith from the west. Very soon I learned better. It was a regular battery that went over to the Confederates in southwest Texas, and enlisted as a whole, and had started to join General McCulloch. It was in command of Captain James Edgar who, a citizen of Texas, had been formerly an orderly sergeant, and was very influential with the men of the battery. After explanations, the officers were very much amused when I told of my fears. In a few minutes their bugle sounded and the battery and I moved on our respective routes. [pages 66-67]
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[#1] Van Dorn stayed at Van Buren from March 11 to March 22, 1862, according to William L. Shea & Earl J. Hess, Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West, Chapel Hill 1992, pages 262 & 287. So the above meeting occurred on any day from March 13 to March 24.
Puzzling fact 1:
"A regular battery that went over to the Confederates" is truly an interesting discovery! AFAIK in 1860 there were five light batteries in Texas (F, K, L, M/1st Rgt & M/2nd Rgt) and they all returned home without problems, although "A few weak men yielded to temptation and persuasions and deserted their flag for another service." (F. J. Porter's report, March 30, 1861 [ar109_129] [#2]). Here is a good description of the evacuation:
http://southfromthenorthwoods.blogspot.com/2017/11/getting-guns-out-part-2.html
[#2] I use the Guild Press OR CD-ROM indexing system, meaning Serial 109, page 129 (no idea what "ar" stands for). Of course, if I were to produce a formal piece, I would write "Series I, Volume LII/1, page 129".
Puzzling fact 2:
Captain Edgar's Texas battery (a.k.a. Alamo City Guards, a.k.a. Waul's Legion battery as per Sifakis Compendium) did exist, but at the time it was in Galveston, according to this source (which BTW states that Edgar became Captain in November 1860, long before the evacuation discussed above):
http://www.lamarcountytx.org/civilwar/1arthis.shtm
It remained in Galveston until early April, when it moved first to Camp Lubbock (near Houston) then to Camp Waul (near Brenham, Tex.) where it remained until fall 1862, as per source above.
Puzzling fact 3:
I could not identify that misterious blue-clad Texas battery going towards Fort Smith in March 1862. There is a slight possibility that it was James M. Daniel's battery (Lamar Artillery) that was originally ordered to report (from Lamar County, Tex?) to Fort Smith, but on March 29 ordered (by Sterling Price) to Little Rock instead, according to this source:
http://www.lamarcountytx.org/civilwar/chapt17.shtm
But, both Edgar's and Daniel's batteries were briefly part of Woodruff's artillery battalion (units and officers listed in Woodruff's memoirs, page 80) so reasonably well known to him. It seems very strange that he would have confused them.
What do you think about it?