Col. O. M. Roberts, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 11.1, Texas
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

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[251] and talented officer by death. General Holmes announced this event as follows: ‘I have the painful duty to perform of reporting the death of Brigadier-General Nelson, who commanded a division. He is an irreparable loss to me.’

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Brigadier-General Horace Randal

Brigadier-General Horace Randal was born in Tennessee in 183. He entered the United States military academy in 1849, was graduated in 1854 as brevet second lieutenant of infantry, and in the following year was promoted to second lieutenant, First dragoons. His service in the United States army was mainly on frontier duty, in the course of which he engaged in combats with the Indians; against the Apaches, near Fort Bliss, in 1855, and near the Almagre mountains, New Mexico, in April, 1856, and again near the Gila river, November 30th of the same year. He resigned February 27, 1861, and in the war between the North and South bore a conspicuous part as leader of Texas troops. In 1862 he had command of a brigade of Texas cavalry, McCulloch's division, and was on duty in the district of Arkansas. He proved himself a very efficient officer and, like many others, was in command of a brigade long before he received a commission as brigadier-general. At the battle of Milliken's Bend, during the siege of Vicksburg, Randal commanded this brigade, serving as infantry. He exhibited on this occasion, and on others, such personal courage and efficiency as a commander that, on November 8, 1863, Gen. E. Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi department, wrote to the war department at Richmond, asking the promotion of Col. Horace Randal to the rank of brigadier-general. At the battle of Mansfield, April 8, 1864, Randal fought under the eye of Gen. Richard Taylor, who said of him: ‘In vigor, energy and daring, Randal surpassed my expectations, high as they were of him and his fine brigade.’ This high opinion was strengthened by Randal's conduct on the 9th, at Pleasant Hill