Walker's Texas Division was organized at Camp Nelson, near Austin, Arkansas, in October 1862. The only division in Confederate service composed of troops from one state. The division got its name from Maj.General John George Walker, who took command from its organizer, Brig.General Henry Eustace McCulloch, on January 1, 1863. During its existence it was called the "Greyhound Division" or "Walker's Greyhounds", in tribute to its special capability to make long, forced marches from one threatened point to another in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Some of the division tried to relieve the siege of Vicksburg by attacking the federal troops at Millken's Bend in June and took part in the battle of Bayou Boubeau in Louisiana,  November 1863. The high point of its service was during the early months of 1864, when it opposed federal Maj. Nathaniel Bank's invasion of Louisiana by way of the Red River valley.

On April 8-9, 1864, it joined other Confederate forces in the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, stopping Bank's advance on Shreveport and Marshall. On April 10, 1864, with Thomas J. Churchill's and William H. Parson's division, they marched north to intercept federal Maj. General Frederick Steele, who was moving from Little Rock to Camden, Arkansas, in cooperation with Bank's invasion from the south. Stelle reached Camden on April 15, then evacuated it on the 27th. On the 30th he was overtaken by Confederate forces, including Walker's Division, at Jenkin's Ferry on the Saline River, fifty-five miles north of Camden. The ensuing fighting was desperate, costing the lives of two of the three brigade commanders of the division, Brig. Gen. William Read Scurry and Brig. Gen. Horace Randal. Steele completed his withdrawal to Little Rock, ending the last real threat to western Louisiana and Texas during the war. In June 1864, Walker was directed to assume command ot the District of West Louisiana, and Maj.Gen. John Horace Forney took command of the division. During March and April 1865 the division marched to Hempstead, Texas where the men disbanded themselves in May 1865.

Initially, the division was made up of four brigades

The original regiments of the Fourth Brigade were detached from the division shortly after its organization, and these were captured intact at Arkansas Post on January 11, 1863. Later in the war another Fourth Brigade was reconstituted which included the Sixteenth and Eithteenth Texas infantry and the Twenty-eighth and Thirty-fourth Texas Cavalry regiments (dismounted). At the same time the Twenty-ninth Texas Cavalry (dismounted) was added to the First Brigade and the Second Regiment of Texas Partisan Rangers (dismounted) to the Third Brigade. For a brief period, during the Jenkin's Ferry phase of the Red River Campaign , the Third Texas Infantry was assigned to the Third Brigade, but this regiment was ordered to return to Texas shortly thereafter.

Second Brigade:
General Horace Randal
General Robert P. Maclay

Third Brigade:
Colonel George M. Flournoy
General Henry E. McCulloch
General William R. Scurry
General Richard Waterhouse

Fourth Brigade:
General James Deshler