PARSONS, William Henry (1826-1907), received a commission as a colonel from Texas Governor Edward Clark with authorization to raise a regiment for state service. First known as the Fourth Regiment Texas Volunteer Cavalry, when the unit mustered into the Confederate army on October 28, 1861, it became the Twelfth Texas Cavalry. In 1862 Parsons had command of a brigade consisting of his own Twelfth Texas, Nathaniel M. Burford's Nineteenth Texas Cavalry, George W. Carter's Twenty-First Texas Cavalry, and Joseph H. Pratt's Tenth Texas Field Battery."SPEECH OF SENATOR W.H. PARSONS, ON THE LOGICAL RESULTS OF THE WAR, AND THE OBJECTS, AIMS AND CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE MILITIA ACT, DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF TEXAS, JUNE 21, 1870," 32,pp., light scattered foxing, spot along top inner margin of all leaves, trimmed closely costing 2-3 letters per line. Institutional rubber-stamp at head of caption title. Parsons' speech urges Southern acceptance of the results of the War and the changes it has wrought, particularly the enactment of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, which render the freedmen citizens, the equals of whites, and entitled to vote. These (amendments) have "terminated the debate of over half a century."