After the march from Camp Tally in Upshur County Texas to Camp Nelson near Little Rock Arkansas, Col.M.F.Locke's 10th Texas Cavalry lost a third of the regiment to a measles and typhoid epidemic. Col. Locke resigned and Col. James M. Barton took command of the regiment. The 10th Texas Dismounted Cavalry was consolidated with Col. Mathew D. Ector's 14th Texas Dismounted Cavalry and were sent east of the Mississippi River and saw action at Richmond Kentucky. Col. Ector was promoted to brigidier general and was given command of a brigade which included the 10th and 14th Dismounted Cavalry.

The 10th Texas Dismounted Cavalry nearly lost it's identity as a separate regiment after it was consolidated with the 14th Texas Dismounted Cavalry. Those two regiments were the nucleus of Ector's Brigade.