Jerry,

Van Dorn was certainly a "character" and seemingly better suited as a cavalry commander than with infantry. I am familiar with the various commands that he had during the war, and in particular, the Army of the West.

When he took this particular army across the Mississippi River, he arrived too late for Shiloh, only to later wreck his army at the battle of Corinth.

For the journey from Arkansas across the river, Van Dorn determined to dismount much of his cavalry and convert them to infantry service, including such units as the 10th and 14th Texas Cavalry regiments.

When his Army of the West crossed the river, he was still waiting for additional units belatedly marching from Texas, such as Johnson's brigade of the 14-14-16-17-18th Texas cavalry regiments to catch up with, and reinforce the main body of the army now already in Mississippi.[It should be noted that in some sources, the 18th Texas cavalry is not included in this brigade.]

During the transfer of the army from Arkansas to Mississippi, Van Dorn, on April 13, 1862, ordered units including Col Locke's 10th Texas cavalry to report to Gen Price at Memphis [after dismounting], and as soon as it could cross the Miss. River. In the days previous, other regiments and brigades of the army had already crossed the river arriving at Memphis from Des Arc.

On April 29th, Van Dorn published orders in Memphis announcing the organization of the Army of the West. The organization of this particular date included the new brigade to be commanded by Gen Hogg. This brigade [on that particular date] included McCray's Ark battalion [later became the 31st Ark infantry regiment], the 10th and 11th Texas Dismounted cavalry regiments, and Crump's Texas cavalry [later the 15th aka 32nd Texas Cavalry]. There were several revisions to this organization in the weeks and months ahead.

Subsequently, Hogg died on May 16, and was replaced by Cabell in brigade command. Col Locke was then discharged in orders of June 13.

By the June 30, 1862, table of organization, the 14th Texas dismounted cavalry regiment was also included in Cabell’s brigade along with the 10th Texas Dismounted Cavalry. Of course, after this date, the 10th and 14th Texas were assigned to Ector’s brigade and detached from the Army of the West for the Perryville campaign, and Cabell was given an Arkansas brigade for the battle of Corinth..

The particular mystery I am trying to resolve is just when and how it was determined to separate the 14th Texas Cavalry from Johnston’s brigade and send it across the river to join the Army of the West, while the other units of that brigade were retained in Arkansas.

For that reason, I was intrigued by your comments regarding the 10th Texas cavalry being consolidated with the 14th Texas cavalry. I was hoping that perhaps you had more details about the timing and location of that consolidation to help me resolve the specific movements of the 14th Texas cavalry.