George Wythe Baylor

George Wythe Baylor (August 24, 1832 – March 24, 1916) was a Confederate cavalryman, a Texas lawman, and a representative of the Texas State Government. He rose to the rank of colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He afterwards commanded Texas rangers in hunting Indians in Texas and across the border into Mexico, often in pursuit of the Apache chief Victorio and his band.

Baylor in uniform, 1861–1865

Quotes

• It was our misfortune that we were not prepared for war. We began behind a little and could never catch up. If the Louisiana forces had been equipped as well as the Virginia troops we would have sent all of Ben Butler's fleet to the bottom of the Mississippi River, and this lacked only a few days of being completed. And if Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston had not been killed at Shiloh we would have captured the Federal Army.
  • On the Red River campaign. Quoted in Yeary, Mamie, ed. (1912). Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, 1861–1865. Dallas: Smith & Lamar. p. 45.

• I would like to say here that I was not fighting for a thing which I believed to be right, but for one which I knew to be right, the defense of the Constitution as our forefathers left it to us—the right to hold our slaves, and the right of the States to govern their own internal affairs. We went down, but the day will come when the doctrine of States Rights will be as clear to the American people as it was to Dixie. We had the right, but not the power to secede. Massachusetts set the example by threatening to secede if any more slave territory was added. We are now united, and it is a matter of pride with me that Dixie put up a good fight and that the American has proved to be the best soldier on earth. They have conquered in every war in which they have been engaged, and never were whipped till they fought each other. God grant that we may ever remain one people.
  • On the Confederate Lost Cause. Quoted in Yeary, ed. (1912). p. 45.