Company K: "Alamo Guards"
Garland's 6th Texas Infantry
The 6th Texas Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment from Texas that served in the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. The regiment fought in the Battles of Arkansas Post, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. In September 1861, Major Alexander M. Haskell selected a site four miles north of Victoria, Texas, called "Nuner's Mott" as the location of a new camp of instruction and named it Camp Henry E. McCulloch in honor of the interim commander of the Department of Texas. The Confederate Government appointed Robert R. Garland to take command of the newly created Sixth Texas Infantry Regiment. Garland was a native Virginian who entered the regular army on December 30, 1847, as a second lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry Regiment. By the time Virginia seceded in 1861, he had risen to the rank of Captain and was stationed at Fort Fillmore, New Mexico. Garland was confirmed Colonel on December 12, 1861. Company K, from San Antonio, Bexar County, was mustered in on March 31, 1862.
Captain Sam W. McCallister, who had been given a commission to raise an infantry company for Confederate service to rendezvous at Camp McCulloch, wrote a letter to General Hebert on November 11, 1861, outlining his difficulty in obtaining Texans to go into infantry companies. "They say they will go mounted, but no other way; that is, a majority say so." He went on to request permission to enlist Federal prisoners that were then at Camp Verde, provided they could get certificates authorizing the Confederate States to pay what is due them by the old Government. "They would nearly all to a man, join the Southern Army, and there are about 350 of them." General Hebert passed on the request to the Commanding General, who refused to comply with it, stating "no appropriation had been made for such purpose, and they could not be paid." They could, however, enlist without back pay (A). This never occurred because Captain McAllister ultimately managed to recruit the majority of his company in San Antonio during the month of March 1862. This company was mustered in as Company K.