The 10th Texas Field Battery was organized on March 1, 1861.  The unit was raised by Captain Benjamin H. Pratt, a Texas railroad builder.  When the battery was mustered into Confederate service in Jefferson, Texas, it contained 72 men drawn from Harrison, Marion, and Cass counties.  Arriving in Arkansas in May 1862, Pratt's battery was assigned to Colonel William Henry Parsons's brigade, which was split up across the Arkansas Delta, harassing Union forces along the White River.  At this time, the battery had eight cannons, but often operated in two- or four-gun sections.  It sometimes harassed Union shipping on the Mississippi River during mid-1862. The battery continued to operate with Parsons's brigade through late 1862, although it was often not under Parsons's direct command.  Late in 1862, Pratt's battery and Parsons's brigade were intended to be sent to Missouri to tie down Union troops in support of the movements leading up to the Battle of Prairie Grove, but this did not occur.  During the early part of 1863, the battery served along the Mississippi River and sometimes harassed Union Navy transports and gunboats; it was claimed to have caused one sinking and to have damaged another ship.  In the spring,the battery served under Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke during Marmaduke's Second Expedition into Missouri.