Thomas Green ( general ) Thomas Green ( June 8 , 1814 – April 12 , 1864 ) was a lawyer , politician , soldier and officer of the Republic of Texas , and rose to the rank of Brigadier General of the Confederacy during the American Civil War . Tom Green County , Texas was named after him . Early life and career . Green was born in Amelia County in Virginia to Nathan and Mary ( Field ) Green . The family moved to Tennessee in 1817 . He attended Jackson College in Tennessee and Princeton College in Kentucky before he received a degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1834 . He then studied law with his father , a prominent judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court . When the Texas Revolution began , Green left Tennessee to join the rebel volunteers . He arrived in Nacogdoches in December 1835 , and enlisted in Isaac N . Moreland ' s company on January 14 , 1836 . During the April 21 Battle of San Jacinto , Green helped operate the famed " Twin Sisters " cannon s , the only artillery present in Sam Houston ' s army . A few days after the decisive victory , Houston rewarded Green with a commission as a lieutenant . In early May , he was promoted to major and assigned as the aide - de - camp to General Thomas J . Rusk . With hostilities over , Green resigned on May 30 and returned to Tennessee to resume studying law . In 1837 , the legislature of the new Republic of Texas granted large tracts of land to leading veterans of the Revolution , including Thomas Green . After relocating to Fayette County , Green became a county surveyor at La Grange . That same year , fellow San Jacinto veteran William W . Gant nominated Green for the position of engrossing clerk for the Texas House of Representatives . He was subsequently elected and held the office until 1839 , when he represented Fayette County in the House of Representatives in the Fourth Texas Congress . After a single term , he chose not to run again , and resumed his clerkship . During the Sixth and Eighth Texas Congresses , he served as secretary of the Senate . From 1841 to 1861 , he was clerk of the Texas Supreme Court , in both the republic and the subsequent U . S . state . Between legislative and court sessions , Green served in military campaigns against the Indians and Mexico . In the fall of 1840 , he joined John H . Moore in a foray up the Colorado River against the Comanches . After Rafael Vásquez ' s invasion of San Antonio in March 1842 , Green recruited and served as captain of the Travis County Volunteers , a unit that did not see battle . That fall , he served as inspector general for the Somervell expedition after Adrián Woll ' s foray into San Antonio . When the United States went to war with Mexico , Green recruited and commanded a company of Texas Rangers in La Grange as part of the First Texas Regiment of Mounted Riflemen , led by John Coffee Hays . The Texans helped Zachary Taylor capture Monterrey , Nuevo León , in September 1846 . After returning home from the Mexican - American War , Green married Mary Wallace Chalmers , daughter of John G . Chalmers , on January 31 , 1847 . Five daughters and one son were born to them . Civil War . After Texas seceded in early 1861 , Green was elected colonel of the 5th Texas Cavalry , which , as part of a brigade led by Brig . Gen . Henry H . Sibley , joined the invasion of New Mexico Territory in 1862 . There , Green led the Confederate victory at the Battle of Valverde in February . After a difficult retreat into Texas , he led his men , aboard the river steamer " Bayou City " , to assist in the recapture of Galveston on January 1 , 1863 . He was also involved in the seizure of the Union steamer " Harriet Lane " that same day . Bayou Teche Campaign . In the spring of 1863 , Green commanded the First Cavalry Brigade in Richard Taylor ' s division in the fighting along Bayou Teche in Louisiana . he became a brigadier general . In June , he captured a Union garrison at Brashear City , but failed to seize Fort Butler on the Mississippi River . Green ' s cavalry routed advancing Union troops under Godfrey Weitzel and Cuvier Grover at Koch ' s ( Cox ' s ) Plantation on July 13 . In September , the First Cavalry Brigade captured another Union detachment at Stirling ' s Plantation . A similar success followed in November at the Battle of Bayou Bourbeux . In four victories , Green ' s men inflicted about 3 , 000 casualties and suffered only 600 losses . Green was subsequently assigned command of the cavalry division of the Trans - Mississippi Department . Red River Campaign . During the Red River Campaign , Green led his division of cavalry from Texas to reinforce Taylor in Louisiana to stop the advance of Maj . Gen . Nathaniel P . Banks toward Shreveport . Green participated in the Battle of Mansfield and the Battle of Pleasant Hill . A few days later , on April 12 , 1864 , Green was mortally wounded by a shell from a Federal gunboat while leading an attack on the gunboats patrolling the Red River at Blair ' s Landing . He soon died on Blair ' s Plantation . Upon his death , Admiral David Dixon Porter paid tribute to the fallen Confederate cavalryman in saying that Green was " one in whom the rebels place more confidence than anyone else . He led his men to the very edge of the bank , they shouting and yelling like madmen — losing General Green has paralyzed them ; he was worth 5 , 000 men to them . " He is buried in the family plot at Oakwood Cemetery in Austin , Texas . Historian John D . Winters in " The Civil War in Louisiana " ( 1963 ) quotes a Texas soldier who fought under Green : " He was a man who , when out of whiskey , was a mild mannered gentleman , but when in good supply of old burst - head was all fight . " Winters continues : " Well fortified with Louisiana rum , Green with a yell told [ his men ] that he was going to show them how to fight . The charge against the gunboats was made on horseback . Green was killed well in advance , a cannon shot taking off the top of his head . . . . Drunk or sober , foolish or not in waging the attack , Green was a valuable man , and General Taylor lamented him . "