A Is Necessary to an Understanding of How Texans Evolved Their System of Frontier Protection in 1861-1865

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A Is Necessary to an Understanding of How Texans Evolved Their System of Frontier Protection in 1861-1865 3~79 AI " ' FRONTIER DEFENSE IN TEXAS: 1861-1865 DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By David Paul Smith, B.S., M.Ed., M.A. Denton, Texas December, 1987 HA Smith, David Paul, Frontier Defense in Texas, 1861- 1865. Doctor of Philosophy (American History), December, 1987, 419 pp., 7 illustrations, bibliography, 228 titles. The Texas Ranger tradition of over twenty-five years of frontier defense influenced the methods by which Texans provided for frontier defense, 1861-1865. The elements that guarded the Texas frontier during the war combined organizational policies that characterized previous Texas military experience and held the frontier together in marked contrast to its rapid collapse at the Confederacy's end. The first attempt to guard the Indian frontier during the Civil War was by the Texas Mounted Rifles, a regiment patterned after the Rangers, who replaced the United States troops forced out of the state by the Confederates. By the spring of 1862 the Frontier Regiment, a unit funded at state expense, replaced the Texas Mounted Rifles and assumed responsibility for frontier defense during 1862 and 1863. By mid-1863 the question of frontier defense for Texas was not so clearly defined as in the war's early days. Then, the Indian threat was the only responsibility, but the magnitude of Civil War widened the scope of frontier protection. From late 1863 until the war's end, frontier defense went hand in hand with protecting frontier Texans &.J. from a foe as deadly as Indians—themselves. The massed bands of deserters, Union sympathizers, and criminals that accumulated on the frontier came to dominate the activities of the ensuing organizations of frontier defense. Any treatment of frontier protection in Texas during the Civil War depends largely on the wealth of source material found in the Texas State Library. Of particular value is the extensive Adjutant General's Records, includ- ing the muster rolls for numerous companies organized for frontier defense. The Barker Texas History Center contains a number of valuable collections, particularly the Barry Papers and the Burleson Papers. The author found two collections to be most revealing on aspects of frontier defense, 1863-1865: the William Quayle Papers, University of Alabama, and the Bourland Papers, Library of Congress. As always, the Official Records is indispensible for any military analysis of the American Civil War. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS iv Chapter I. PRELUDE TO CIVIL WAR 1 II. FRONTIER PROTECTION: 1861 47 III. THE FRONTIER REGIMENT, 1862-1863 . 93 IV. CREATION OF THE NORTHERN SUB-DISTRICT . 1 28 V. THE NORTHERN SUB-DISTRICT AND FRONTIER DEFENSE: AUGUST, 1863-JANUARY, 1864 . 1 62 VI. TRANSFER OF THE FRONTIER REGIMENT AND CREATION OF THE FRONTIER DISTRICTS . 21 6 VII. CONSCRIPTION, DESERTION, AND DISAFFECTION IN THE FRONTIER DISTRICTS, 1864-1865 . 269 VIII. THE INDIAN FRONTIER: 1864-1865 351 IX. FRONTIER DEFENSE IN RETROSPECT 41 2 APPENDIX 423 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 431 1X1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Principal Outposts of the First Regiment, Texas Mounted Rifles, 1861-1862 82 2. Posts of the Frontier Regiment, 1862-1863 . 105 3. Population by County, 1860 221 4. Boundaries of the Frontier Organization . 234 5. Command Organization, January- September, 1864 292 6. Command Organization, September, 1864- May, 1865 335 7. Outposts of the Border Regiment, 1864-1865 347 IV CHAPTER I PRELUDE TO CIVIL WAR As early as 1823 the term "Ranger" applied to those men who volunteered to help defend the Indian frontier of Texas. The force did not receive legal status until 1835 when a "permanent council" of Texans met in consultation at San Felipe de Austin to direct the affairs of the Mexican- Texas conflict. 1 On 1 November 1 835 the permanent council authorized a body of Rangers to protect the Indian frontier and eight days later commissioned the raising of twenty men for this new service.2 During the period of the Republic, 1836-1845, the Rangers, in the absence of a permanent army, became the best solution to defend the Indian frontier and to oppose Mexican incursions.3 At the end of the Mexican War the federal government assumed responsibility to protect the Texas frontier and theoretically put the Texas Rangers out of business. The relatively peaceful frontier of 1846-1848 changed 1 Walter Prescott Webb, The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense, reprint (Austin, 1965), pp. 20-22. 2Ibid., p. 23; H. P. N. Gammel, compiler, Laws of Texas, 1822-1897, 10 vols. (Austin, 1898), 1:513, 526-527. ^Webb, The Texas Rangers, pp. 48-49; 67. 2 dramatically in the latter year when Indian raids increased on a large scale.4 For the next ten years the Rangers would be called upon in varying degrees by the governors of Texas in times of emergency, or when dissatisfied settlers no longer felt the United States Army could effectively offer protection. During this ten-year period, until their decisive use in 1858, the Rangers conducted no extensive military campaigns, yet state authorities continually called them out with increasing frequency over the decade to meet a growing Indian threat.5 The study of the interaction between the Texas Rangers, the United States Army, and local militia is necessary to an understanding of how Texans evolved their system of frontier protection in 1861-1865. The Civil War experience drew upon the tradition of both the Army and the Rangers in an attempt to achieve the proper tactics and strategy necessary to protect the frontier. The mistakes and successes of the 1860s in the face of the added complexity of Civil War had its roots in the means by which both Rangers and Army went about their business during the 1848-1860 period. ^Averam B. Bender, The March of Empire: Frontier Defense in the Southwest, 1848-1860 (Lawrence, Kansas, 1952), pp. 130-131. ^Webb, The Texas Rangers, p. 140. 3 In 1848 the United States War Department established the Eighth Military Department, later renamed the Depart- ment of Texas. Major General George Mercer Brooke assumed command in.1849 and proceeded to establish a chain of forts slightly in advance of the frontier.6 Included were Fort Worth on the Trinity River, Fort Graham on the Brazos fourteen miles west of present-day Hillsboro, Fort Gates on the Leon a few miles east of present Gatesville, Fort Croghan on Hamilton Creek in Burnet County at the present town of Burnet, and Fort Martin Scott on the Guadalupe northwest of San Antonio at Fredericksburg."' The presence of twenty-two companies of the United States Army failed to stem the rising tide of Indian raiding parties, largely because sixteen of the companies consisted of infantrymen ^Between 1848 and 1854, under the provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States was bound to keep Indian raiders out of Mexico. Robert M. Utley, Fron- tiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1*848-1865 (New York, 1 967), p. 71. George Mercer Brooke, a native Virginian and veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, assumed command of the Eighth Military Depart- ment in June of 1849. He served as commander of the department until his death in 1851. Walter Prescott Webb, ed., The Handbook of Texas, 2 volumes (Austin, 1952), 1:220. 7Martin L. Crimmins, "The First Line.of Army Posts Established in West Texas in 1849," West Texas Historical Association Year Book, 19 (October, 1943): 121-127; Arrie Barrett, "Western Frontier Forts of Texas, 1845-1861," West Texas Historical Association Year Book, 7 (June, 1931): 115-121; Walter Prescott Webb, ed., The Handbook of Texas, 2 vols. (Austin, 1952,), 1:623-624, 626. These forts con- stituted what later came to be called the inner line of defense. 4 who lacked knowledge about tracking Indians or the ter- rain. 8 Widespread public dissatisfaction with the Array's efforts still did nothing to discourage an increasing wave of new settlers to the Texas frontier. In 1850 just over 4,000 people lived along the frontier line and for the next decade the yearly advance of the frontier averaged ten miles and the population increased nearly 5,000 per year.9 A revision of the entire system of defense began in 1851 upon the death of General Brooke. His successor, Major General Persifor F. Smith, began the process of extending a line of forts about 150 miles in advance of the old one.10 ^Bender, The March of Empire, p. 132. ^William Curry Holden, "Frontier Movements and Problems in West Texas, 1846-1900," unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of History, University of Texas, Austin, 1928, p. 43. 10lbid., pp. 42-43. The fifty-three-year-old Smith, a native of Pennsylvania, began a law career in 1815. When he moved to New Orleans four years to practice law he also commanded a battalion of militia. He later served in the United States Army with distinction in the Seminole War campaigns of 1836 and 1838, but he gained national atten- tion by his gallant conduct during the Mexican War for which he was brevetted Major General, then served later as military governor of Mexico City. His five year command of the Department of Texas ended in 1856 upon his accession to command the Western Department, headquarters; at St. Louis. His death on 17 May 1858 came soon after his appointment to command the Department of Utah, scene of a federal con- frontation with the Mormons. Allen Johnson and others, eds., reprint, 20 volumes and 7 supplements in 16 books, Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1957-1981), 9:331-332.
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