Voy Ernst Althaus

The U. S. First Texas Cavalry in the Civil War, a Novel Voy Ernst Althaus

"The U. S. First Texas Cavalry in the Civil War" is a historical novel about the Germans of the central Texas hill country and other Texans who chose to fight for the North in the Civil War. The central Texas Germans organized several companies of infantry and started for Mexico. They were intercepted by a Texas cavalry unit near the Rio Grande River where a fight occurred. A small number of the Germans who survived the battle crossed into Mexico. These men were sent to New Orleans, which had recently fallen to the North, and joined the U. S. First Texas Cavalry, which was being created from Texans at that time. This novel tells this story by placing two young men in this situation. It has them hide from the Confederate conscription, flee to Mexico with the surviving German infantry, make the voyage to New Orleans, join the U. S. First Texas Cavalry, and then fight with that unit for the remaining three years of the Civil War.