Philip Alexander Work

"After receiving a good education, Philip Work was admitted to the bar in Woodville [TX] in 1853. He enlisted and served with the rank of first sergeant for four months in Capt. John George Walker's Company B, Mounted Battalion of Texas Volunteers, when Governor Elisha Marshall Pease in the fall of 1854 issued a call for volunteers to protect the Texas frontier from Indian depredations; the volunteers were then mustered into the regular United States Army, and Work later received a federal pension for this service."

He formed and led the 'Woodville Rifles', later Company F, 1st Texas Infantry Regiment, in 1861. He was appointed Lt Colonel of the Regiment when Col Rainey was put in command in January 1862. He assumed command when Col Rainey was wounded at Gaines Mill (June 1862). Thereafter, Work commanded the First Texas Infantry in the battles of Malvern Hill, Freeman's Ford, Thoroughfare Gap, Second Manassas, Boonesboro Gap, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg.

LCol Work led his regiment in the ferocious counter-charge of Hood's Division against Federal General Hooker's First Corps, through the Cornfield the morning of September 17th. His Regiment suffered casualties reported higher than 85% in that action, but drove the Federal units all the way back to their artillery support before being stopped.

He resigned from the service September 1863, due to illness, and likely [see discussion] in part in frustration that the Colonel's billet in the 1st Texas Regiment was not declared vacant, even though Col Rainey was never able to return to service.

"Work returned to Texas and, after recovering his health, raised and commanded a company in Col. David Smith Terry's Texas Cavalry regiment from the fall of 1864 to the end of the war. "

"Work resumed his law practice in Woodville, but in October 1865 he moved to New Orleans, where he practiced law and was in the steamboat business. After 1874 he resided in Hardin County, Texas, where he attained eminence as a land lawyer. He also was the owner of the steamboat Tom Parker, which navigated the Neches River."

Source: an excellent biographical sketch online from U Texas - several quotes used above. Photo above from Voices1 from the original at the Confederate Resource Center, Hillsboro, Texas.

Interesting note: His father, Dr. John Work, was assistant surgeon of the First Texas Infantry from October 1862 to July 1864.

2/17/1832; Cloverport, KY

3/17/1911; in TX; burial in Hardin Cemetery near Kountze, TX