Infantry, Dragoons, Cavalry, Robert E. Lee, and Secession
An 1860's-era cavalry officer and sergeant portrayed by western artist and historian Randy Steffen.
It should be remembered that when the Texas forts were being established, early on then-Captain William Chase Whiting recommended they be garrisoned by mounted troops capable of pursuing bands of marauding Indian warriors; it may also be recalled that in describing their creation, almost invariably it was done by infantry. The reason for this discrepancy between the recommended and the real was simply that there were very few mounted units in the U. S. establishment in the 1840's and 1850's: only two regiments of Dragoons and one of Mounted Rifles compared with eight infantry and four artillery regiments. Other than arms, there was little difference between the two; the Rifles carried
M.1841 "Mississippi" rifles in addition to
M.1840 sabers and
M.1836 or
M.1842 single-shot "horse" pistols, whereas the Dragoons had Hall Carbines, sabers, and pistols. Theoretically, both dismounted to fight.
Although there were usually twelve
companies - they weren't designated as
troops until after the Civil War - in mounted regiments instead of the usual ten in infantry regiments, that still only made a paltry thirty-six to patrol the entire continental United States! What with the migration on the Oregon Trail and trails to the California Gold Rush receiving most attention, it was there the bulk of the mounted units were sent to guard the emigrant wagon trains, leaving mainly infantry for Texas. The reason for this was simple economy, it being far cheaper for the government to raise and equip an infantry regiment that a mounted one, including as it must so many horses in addition to men, wagons, etc. In the West, army units almost never served together as complete regiments, instead being broken into their component companies or battalions made up of companies. As we have seen, it was usually individual companies or small battalions that made up the garrison of frontier forts.
Right to left: Col. Albert Sidney Johnston of the 2nd Cavalry, later Brig. Gen.; Maj.George H. Thomas, who commanded at Camp Cooper after Lee; Lt. John Bell Hood, who was badly wounded in the hand by an Indian arrow in a Texas fight; and Maj. William J. Hardee, who around this time wrote
Hardee's Tactics. (Thomas and Hood are both seen later as generals during the Civil War.)
In the 1850's however, following unsuccessful efforts at sending out patrols of mounted infantrymen from the forts, the government under the leadership of the Secretary for War, Mississippian Jefferson Davis, added two additional mounted regiments to the roster of U. S. troops, the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Regiments. At this time,
cavalry differed little from either the earlier regiments of dragoons or mounted rifles other than in the
yellow trim on their uniform jackets. (Dragoon trim was
orange; the Mounted Rifles used
green.) The new 2nd Cavalry was sent to Texas, marching from Kansas through Indian Territory and fording the Red River into Texas at Preston Crossing, then angling south-southwest to Fort Belknap. They were led by their Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, a personal friend of Davis from the Mexican War. Among his officers were Majors George H. Thomas and William J. Hardee, as well as many company officers who would soon become commanders on both sides of the Civil War like John B. Hood and Fitz Lee pictured here. As they marched south, battalions and individual companies were left at the various posts to begin their duties as garrisons, replacing or supplementing the infantry already there.
The best-known officer of the 2nd Cavalry to serve in Texas missed its initial deployment, however; Lieutenant Colonel Robert Edward Lee had been left behind and instead arrived by ship at Galveston on the Texas coast, from where he made his way inland. Unfortunately, the posts most associated with Lee in Texas no longer exist: Fort Mason had been built in 1851 somewhat between Martin Scott at Fredericksburg and McKavett; as its name implies, Camp Cooper, lying approximately between Belknap and Phantom Hill was never intended as a permanent post. Following the Civil War when other forts were even temporarily reactivated, because the frontier had largely passed them neither Mason nor Cooper were. Lee had been known mainly as an officer of the Corps of Engineers, but even though he served for a time in that capacity as Superintendent of West Point, he felt that service with a combat arm was the only sure path to further promotion.
Left to right: Col. Robert E. Lee, ca. 1859; his nephew Lieutenant Fitzhugh Lee, pictured with his dog; and Brigadier General David Twiggs.
Lee's various duties on the frontier brought him to many of the other forts, however. Like Sidney Johnston he also served for a time as a paymaster traveling between them; he led expeditions against hostile Indians, generally unsuccessfully; he was commandant of both Mason and Cooper; and for about a year he commanded the Department of Texas in place of Brig. Gen. David Twiggs, nicknamed
The Horse. From here he returned to Virginia to settle the tangled affairs of his deceased father-in-law, George Washington Parke Custis, which took over a year, during which time he was detailed to suppress the "raid" of John Brown at Harpers Ferry.
Returning to Texas, Lee assumed command of the Department, attempting vainly to quell the across-the-border incursions of Mexican
bandito Juan Cortina; most of his time, however, was spent on endless rounds of courts-martial cases at forts along the Rio Grande Valley. The return of Twiggs coincided with Secession ferment, resulting in the secession of the state and surrender of all its forts and storehouses by Georgian Twiggs, who went on to a career as a Confederate General. (It was lucky for him he died before the end of the war - his actions surely could easily have resulted in a trial for treason!) Along with other U. S. military personnel, Lee made his way via San Antonio - where he was treated with great discourtesy by Texas secessionists who possibly even threatened his life - to the coast and thence by ship to Washington, D. C., and his own particular
date with destiny.
Although this uniform plate by artist-historian Fritz Kredel is titled
7th Cavalry - 1876 - which other than briefly in the Panhandle did not serve in Texas - it depicts the campaign uniform on the trooper at left and full-dress on the corporal at right for any of the regiments of U. S. Cavalry following the uniform changes of 1872 during the heyday of the Texas forts. It should be noted that in warm weather campaign dress would probably see the five-button fatigue or sack coat rolled up on the pommel of the trooper's saddle, and more and more the
M.1860 saber was strapped to the left side of the saddle or omitted altogether as a useless encumbrance. Contrary to Hollywood, neckerchiefs were worn in all colors while on campaign, but were never an "official" item of uniform. The full-dress 1872 uniforms reflect the "Germanic" influence in military fashion following their victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
This brings us to the watershed in the story of forts on the Texas frontier. During the war Texas State Troops used some of them for varying periods, mostly unsuccessfully due to shortages of men, horses, and equipment. Hostile tribes like the Comanche, Apache, and Kiowa were encouraged by the removal of the Regulars and resumed their raids, forcing back the line of settlement to where it had been a decade earlier. Following the war the Federal troops returned, reoccupying some forts and often establishing new ones in place of others. Now the story of the frontier forts of Texas entered its final phase, as a more modern and "professional" army guided by veteran commanders like William T. Sherman and Phillip Sheridan took the field under leaders like Ranald Mackenzie, Benjamin Grierson, and Wesley Merritt.
Next: Fort Richardson