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William Read "Dirty Shirt" Scurry

the son of Thomas J. and Catherine (Bledsoe) Scurry, was born in Gallatin, Summer County, Tennessee on February 10, 1821. He studied law in his native state and then migrated into San Augustine, Texas in 1839.

Scurry served as a District Attorney of the Fifth Judicial District from February 5, 1841 to January 15, 1842. With the outbreak of the war with Mexico (The Mexican War) he enrolled as a private in Captain Otis M. Wheeler's Company in San Augustine on May 17, 1846. Scurry was promoted major of the regiment on July 4 and took part in the Battle of Monterey, after which he was mustered out of service on October 2, 1846.

He returned to Texas and settled in Brenham, Washington County, where he married Jennatte B. Satton on December 17, 1846. He practiced law, owned real estate valued at $500 and owned no slaves. Later he moved to Austin, but in February 1856 he left to live in Mission Valley, Victoria County. Records show that at this time he was owner of at least two mulatto slaves.

In 1858-59, Scurry was a commissioner for the State of Texas. During the fall term of the El Paso District Court, he kept legal practice by joining the district attorney in an unsuccessful prosecution. The Census of 1860 lists Scurry as a lawyer residing in Victoria, Victoria County with his wife and five children. Neither his personal nor real estate are noted, and he did not have slaves at this time. Shortly after the census was taken (June 17, 1860), Scurry moved to Clinton, De Witt County. He was elected one of four delegates from District #62 (Coulhoun, De Witt, Jackson, and Victoria Counties) to the Secession Convention, and he cast his vote in favor of his state's leaving the Union. On August 23, 1861 Confederate General Sibley appointed him Lieutenant Colonel of the 4th Regiment.

William "Dirty Shirt" Scurry, commanded the 4th regiment in New Mexico when he was forty years old throughout a campaign of the Civil War. He was promoted Colonel on February 21, 1862 for "gallant and meritorious conduct in the Battle of Valverde," with authority to raise a new regiment in Texas. He was a commander of the Confederate force in Glorieta, New Mexico.