February 26, 1865---". . . Some of the best troops in the army . . ."

FEBRUARY 26, 1865:        

Although the attention of most Americans --- North and South --- is focused intently on developments in Virginia and the Carolinas, the Civil War continues to rage in forgotten corners of the continent. A skirmish erupts today in Pine Bluff, Arkansas between two squads of troops, Union and Confederate, of about sixty men each. After a half hour firefight that takes eight Confederate lives but no Union ones, the Rebels withdraw from Pine Bluff. 

Afar off, Union troops make an amphibious landing in force at Cedar Key, in Florida.  

In Austin, Governor Pendleton Murrah of Texas receives an answer to his request to have the Texas Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia returned home. Robert E. Lee, (through Jefferson Davis) advises Murrah that, “small as the Texas Brigade is, it cannot be spared now. It contains some of the best troops in the army and its loss would be severely felt.”