Col. Almarine Alexander raised the 2nd Partisan Rangers, Texas State Troops at Sherman,Texas in the winter of 1861-1862 with recruits from Parker County to the west, to Lamar County to the east. In the spring of 1862, Alexander's 2nd Partisan Rangers moved north on the Texas Road to Tahlequah, I.T. and joined Col. Douglas Cooper and his Indian regiments where the 2nd Partisan Rangers was accepted into Confederate service as the 34th Texas Cavalry Regiment.

Col.Douglas Cooper's Brigade then moved northeast into southern Missouri where the brigade joined Col. John T. Coffee's 6th Missouri Cavalry, Stevens 22nd Texas Cavalry, and Hawpes 31st Texas Cavalry at Camp Coffee, six miles south of Newtonia Missouri. In late September, 1862, Union forces advanced on Newtonia and were met by vicious Confederate fire and fled back to the north in disarray. After the battle of Newtonia the 22nd and 34th Texas Cavalry were dismounted due to their unsuitable cavalry mounts. The 34th Texas Dismounted Cavalry marched south into Arkansas and joined Col.Thomas Coke Bass's 20th Texas Cavalry. On Dec. 7, 1862, the the 20th and 34th Texas Cavalry fought at Prairie Grove Arkansas and stopped the Union advance before they had to retire from the field after their ammunition was exhausted. In January 1863, the 34th Texas Dismounted Cavalry joined the 15th Texas Infantry and marched through deep snow to Texas, leaving the 20th Texas Cavalry in Indian Territory.

In the spring of 1863, the Col.Joseph Warren Speight's 15th Texas Infantry and the 34th Dismounted Cavalry was moved back to Louisiana where the 34th Texas Dismounted Cavalry was retrained as infantry. In the summer of 1863, the regiments engaged the Union forces at Stirling's Plantation and Bayou Bourbeau. In the fall of 1863, the 34th Texas Dismounted Cavalry joined Brig.Gen.Camille de Polgnac's Brigade and skimished at Vidalia and Harrisonburg Louisiana. In early 1864, Polignac's Brigade fought at Mansfield and Yellow Bayou.

A good book to get on the inter-library loan system is: "The Plow-Horse Cavalry: The Caney Creek Boys of the 34th Texas" by Robert S. Weddle. The Caney Creek Boys were from the northwest Fannin County, just northeast of the present community of Savoy, Texas. In the spring of 1863, after servind in the Texas State Troops, my great grandfather Joshua Coffee enlisted in Capt. John Henry Damron's Company (Co.C), 1st Texas Cavalry Regiment, Col. Peter C. Hardeman's Arizona Brigade at the Warren Supply Depot. The depot was located in the same area as Caney Creek, four miles north of the present community of Savoy in Fannin County Texas.