The University Op Oklahoma Graduate College Garrison
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THE UNIVERSITY OP OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE GARRISON LIFE AT FRONTIER MILITARY POSTS, I83O-I86O A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY RICHARD DALZELL GAMBLE Norman, Oklahoma 1956 GARRISON LIFE AT FRONTIER MILITARY POSTS, I83O-I86O APPROVED BY THESIS COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ! I This thesis was written in connection with a course j !of graduate study at the University of Oklahoma. The generaf topic, concerning the social life at western military posts before the Civil War, was suggested by my Thesis Committee Chairman, Dr. W. E. Hollon. His constant encouragement and seasoned criticism have been invaluable in completing the jresearch and writing. Credit and thanks is also due to the iother members of the committee. Professor A.K. Christian, I {Professor S.R. Tomkins, Assistant Professor D.J. Berthrong of the Department of History, and Associate Professor V. E. jElconin of the Department of English, who have contributed Itheir individual and collective ranges of experience and in terest in the project. Many other members of the Department iof History, likewise, have given their moral support from [time to time, especially Professor Alfred B. Sears, who made possible a concurrent program of graduate study and teaph^ng experience through a number of graduate assistant- ships. I Secretaries and directors of the major historical Isocieties throughout the Mississippi Valley were helpful in iii I their acknowledgments to inquiries concerning materials available for research. Especially considerate and coopera tive were Mr. Donald Danker, archivist at the Nebraska State I Historical Society Library and Mr. Norman McNairn, librarian at the Presbyterian Historical Society. Special praise is due to Dr. Richard G. Wood, director of the Array Section, Iwar Records Division, National Archives, where most of the primary source material was found. Dr. Wood and his staff iwere exceedingly cooperative in their careful appraisal of I the topic and in their diligent search for useful materials. ■Mr. Don G. Rickey, former curator of the Phillips Collection ! lat the University of Oklahoma Library, gave freely of his time to sift useful material in his bailiwick. Librarians |at the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the Boston Public Library; the Massachusetts Historical Society; the University Iof Oklahoma Library; the Oklahoma Historical Society Library {and the Division of Manuscripts of the Library of Congress ■also deserve mention for their willing aid beyond their routine duties. Finally, my thanks to a devoted wife, Carolyn C. Gamble, who has shared in the work as much as anyone in lhaving lived and eaten with "Garrison Life" for several [years. The value of her encouragement and faith is inestima I able. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. FRONTIER MILITARY, POLICY, I83O-I8 6 0............ 1 II. THE MILITARY CAREER............................ 35 III. THE PHYSICAL PLANT............................. 76 IV. THE POST GARDEN................................ IO8 V. CIVILIAN PERSONNEL AND GARRISON LIFE.......... l4l VI. LEISURE TIME ACTIVITIES....................... 182 1 i VII. RELIGION AND EDUCATION........................ 229 1 I VIII. HEALTH.......................................... 280 IBIBLIOGRAPHY............................................. 343 GARRISON LIFE AT FRONTIER MILITARY POSTS, I83O-I96O CHAPTER I FRONTIER MILITARY POLICY, I83O-I86O A survey of the general attitudes of the United States government toward its military establishment must necessarily preface a consideration of frontier military policy between I83O and i860. There were few statesmen and i military leaders of this period who did not hold or express 1 a definite view of some sort on military affairs. Few could ■ be judged as unbiased, however. The views of Sir Richard ; ■ : : Burton, on the other hand, represent a more objective ap- ; proach than might have been expressed by an American. ' Burton visited the United States in i860 as a climax to an | I ; extensive tour throughout the British Empire and to many j ' . I I European countries during previous years. In comparing Anglo-American and French military philosophies, he wrote; ' The English and Anglo-Americans, essentially a commercial and naval people, dislike the red coat; they look upon, and from the first have looked upon, a standing army as a necessary nuisance; they ever listen open-eared to projects for cutting and curtail ing army expenditures; and when they have weakened theijc forces by a manner of atrophy, they expect them to do 1 more than their duty, and if they cannot command sue- | ces^, -abuse- tJhem.----------------------- j 2 On the other hand. Burton viewed France as a "purely military nation" which pampered its army to raise it to peak 1 performance, whether it succeeded or not. Military policy, then, was not lacking, but was rather negative in practice. A small standing army was maintained as a "necessary nuisance" throughout the period of 1830 to i860 and was increased only when a war was actually in progress, viz. the Black Hawk War, the Seminole campaigns, and the War with Mexico. The regular army was increased only slightly in these instances, but was complemented when state militia units were pressed into federal service for short terms of active duty. The militia system, the back bone of American military policy, was singularly defective on account of the closely guarded individuality of states' ; rights. While the President was authorized to call upon 1 state militia units to augment federal forces, the training! and supplying of state units were the responsibilities of the respective states. As in Colonial and Revolutionary War times, the effectiveness and efficiency of militia units usually depended upon the geographical proximity of real or supposed threats to local security. Between I830 ' and i860 those states adjacent to Canada, the Mississippi River, and Florida periodically experienced or sensed such i 1 Richard Burton, The City of Saints (New York, i860), 44. dangers. Other states rested upon the security of distance 2 in order to economize on military appropriations. After the hysteria of I812 -I815 had abated, the regular army was reduced by 1821 from about 12,600 to 6,100 ' 3 officers and men. No important structural changes occurred until 1833 when a dragoon regiment was authorized, thus in creasing the army's strength to approximately 7,000 officers and men. The formal inclusion of a cavalry unit resulted from the dispersing of troops during the Black Hawk War, when a volunteer mounted ranger battalion was used with some success in pursuing hostile Indian forces. Moreover, the First Regiment of Dragoons was spawned by a tight-fisted Congress which reckoned that the cost of operating a regular army mounted regiment would be one half the cost formerly 4 expended on a volunteer mounted unit. After 1833 the size < of the regular army increased by fits and starts as after maths of the Seminole and Mexican Wars. The army entered I the former affair in I836 with a strength of 7,100, but j emerged in l84l with an authorized strength of 12,$40 5 officers and men. At the outbreak of war with Mexico in -------- 5------------------------------------------------------- 1 Richard L. Watson Jr., "Congressional Attitudes 1 Toward Military Preparedness, l829-lo35," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXXIV (March, 1948), 6llf. i --------- 3---------- Emery Upton, The Military Policy of the United States (Washington, 1912), 15I. 4 I Ibid., 160 f. i 5 - ^i^3 . , - zT......—., — _——.. — —^—... — .._—.... —..... — ,...... — ... .z 1845, the army was increased to 31 ,000, but by late 1848 was; 8 reduced to 10,320 officers and men. By i860 the regular army had been increased to 18,000, of which only some 15,000 7 were fit and available for duty. The basic function of the regular army during the early nineteenth century was to defend the coasts and inter-i national borders from external attack. On the western frontier, however, the army had the additional task of maintaining order among the various Indian tribes and of protecting advancing pioneers from Indian depredations. Coastal and border posts were usually garrisoned by artillery regiments, whereas western military positions were manned by infantry and mounted units. The complexion of the east-| ern defense system varied little from decade to decade, but ! in the West the burdens of the frontier soldier increased | at an alarming rate. As the Indian frontier was gradually i I rolled back and new territory was added, western garrisons had a greater area to patrol and more people to protect. The army acted not only as policeman and trailblazer, but also as "tavern keeper" and guide for the thousands of im migrants who traveled the Oregon and Santa Fe trails prior 8 to the Civil War. Between I830 and i860 about half of the aggregate strength of the army was distributed among the twelve major -------- ------------------------Y-------------------------------1 Ibid., 2 2 3 . Ibid., 225. g William A. Ganoe, The History of the United Statesj Army (New York, 1942), 158f. 5 posts west of or near the Mississippi River. For example, i in 1830, of the 5#951 officers and men, 2,2 0 8 were garrisoned in numbers of 100 to 5OO at Forts Brady, Mackinac, Howard, Snelling, Crawford, Winnebago in Michigan Territory, Armstrong Illinois, Leavenworth, Missouri, Gibson, Cherokee Nation, 9 Jesup, Louisiana, and Jefferson Barracks Missouri. Thirty years later 9,689 of the l8,ll4 authorized officers and men were distributed among the western posts. The number of posts had increased from twelve to forty-three, each with 10 an average of 200 or more men. During the same period i the population of the United States had spiraled from ap- | proximately fourteen millions to more than thirty-five millions. Likewise, the land area of the United States had I grown to its present size of nearly three million square | I i miles, the result of a more complete exploitation of the j Louisiana Territory, by acquisition of lands from Mexico i : I ! by conquest and purchase, and by peaceful settlement of the 11 Northeast and Northwest boundaries with Great Britain.