|Vol. IV, No. 4, Spring 1991 / Vol. V, No. 1, Summer 1991| by
Robert L. Hawkins, III Robert L. Hawkins, III is an attorney
practicing in Jefferson City, Missouri. He is Commander of the
Missouri Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans and editor of
the Missouri Partisan. In the morning of July 4, 1865, a
formidable body of lean and sunburned men approached the Rio
Grande at its northern shore at Piedras Negras, having camped
the previous evening on the low hills overlooking the river. The
heavily armed and well-disciplined battalion of between 400 and
500 men paused only for a brief ceremony in which their battle
flag, together with the black plume from their commanding
officer's hat, was consigned to the waters of the river. The
band pressed on into Mexico without a backward glance. They were
the last unsurrendered Confederate battalion, being the remnants
of Missourians of General J.O. Shelby's "Iron Brigade," together
with Missouri governor Thomas C. Reynolds, former govemor
Trusten Polk, General M.M. Par