Robert R. Garland was appointed by the Confederate Government 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.

Samuel J. Garland, age 21 Quartermaster Udolpho Wolfe, age 26 John E. Gare, Assistant Quartermaster 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.

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 pay what is due them by the old Government.

This apparently never occurred because Captain McAllister ultimately managed to recruit the majority of his company in San Antonio during the month of March 1862.

Captain Rupley's Company A was ordered by Col. Garland to take position at Saluria, to guard the ferry across the main bayou and to afford any other assistance as necessary.

(C) During their stay at Camp McCulloch, the soldiers were furnished with new uniforms made of light brown cloth manufactured at the state penitentiary.

May – September 1862 – On May 22, 1862, the regiment took up the line of march, passing through Hallettsville, and then halting for a week at Eagle Lake, where there were a depot and four or five houses.

At the Eagle Lake Depot, the soldiers boarded the railroad cars on June 6, and went through Richmond, Houston, and Navasota, the wagon train traveling by road.

The soldier was tried, convicted and drummed out of service, with his head half-shaved and astride a fence rail carried by blacks, as his former comrades lined the street and watched.

crossed the Sulphur River into Bowie County at Epperson's Ferry south of current day New Boston on July 12, 1862.

In mid July the regiment crossed the Red River at Fulton (2) where Texarkana now lies (C), passed through Washington and Antwine, and halted at a place near the old village of Rock Port, where Malvern now stands.

"[4] After a rest of ten days, the regiment marched to Benton, camped on the Saline River two miles from town for two weeks, and then started for Pine Bluff, leaving a number of men in the hospital there with measles.

The Sixth and Twenty-fourth marched together leisurely down the Arkansas River until they reached the Jourdan plantation eighteen miles above the Post.

(from One of Cleburne's Command, pg3) September 21, 1862 – The remainder of the sixth and twenty fourth regiments arrive at Arkansas Post.

The weather turned cold and frosty at dusk, and the Yankees commenced a three-hour bombardment on the fort and the entrenched Confederates.

(3,6) January 11, 1863 – Porter's ships commenced to shell the fort by noon and shortly thereafter, McClernard's Yankees sprang forward from the trees and bushes toward the entrenchments of the Sixth Texas.

The Texans repulsed every enemy ground assault, but by 3:00 pm all the guns but one were silenced in the fort by the relentless cannonading of the Yankee gunboats.

Garland honored the request by dispatching selected companies from the Brigade's three regiments, two coming from the Sixth Texas (3).

Colonel Garland and General Churchill reported that the white flags first appeared in the 24th Texas Cavalry Regiment.

The total number of casualties suffered by the Sixth Texas during the entire battle as reported by Col. Garland was 8 killed, 24 wounded and 21 missing or 10%.

(6) The prisoners were ordered to stack arms and then marched to the rear of the line to the bank of the river above the fort and guards placed around them.

On November 24–25, 1863 the regiment held the northern end of the ridge where they protected the Confederate flank from 20,000 advancing Union forces.