It Is Best To Go in Strong-Handed Army Occupation of Texas, 1865-1866

Journal of the Southwest
"It Is Best to Go in Strong-Handed": Army Occupation of Texas, 1865-1866 Author(s): William L. Richter Reviewed work(s): Source: Arizona and the West, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1985), pp. 113-142 Published by: Journal of the Southwest Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40169408 . Accessed: 04/02/2013 13:55
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"ITISBESTTOGOIN
ARMY OCCUPATION
STRONG- HAND ED"

OF TEXAS, 1865-1866
by WILLIAM L. R1CHTER* At the end of the Civil War, the victorious Union government sent large numbers of troops to reassert control in the seceeded states. The greatest number went to Texas, the largest of the former Confederate states. Here they faced an unenviable task. The army was ordered to protect the frontier from marauding Indians, secure the border with Mexico, safeguard the civil rights of the newly freed slaves and recently returned white refugees, and restore the state to its proper place in the Union. In attempting these herculean tasks, Union commanders came face to face with an unexpected problemthe demands of volunteers to be sent home. Violence and disorder flared first among disgruntled volunteers, then later when the regulars took station in the Lone Star State. The situation in Texas during 1865 -66 not only mirrored the confusion in exacting military rule, but also the nature of the troops assigned to occupation duty. On May 26, 1865, Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith, commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department, surrendered the last organized army of the Confederate States of America to Union Brevet Major General Edward R. S. Canby at New Orleans. During the next three weeks, Texas drifted in complete chaos. Disorganized mobs of former Confederate soldiers broke into arsenals and took arms and ammunition before going home, and rumors flew that 15,000 men were organizing at Marshall in East Texas to continue
*A resident of Tucson, Arizona, the author holds a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. He has recently completed a book-length manuscript on the military in Reconstruction Texas.
[113]
1 14
ARIZONA andthe WEST
the war. Confederate Brigadier General Joseph Shelby violated the surrender terms by leading a mounted column of 3,000 men to Mexico. Shelby exacted tribute from each Texas town he passed l through along the way. In early June, Major General Philip H. Sheridan arrived in New Orleans to command the Union forces ordered to occupy Texas. Sheridan was outraged at conditions in the Lone Star State. He regarded Kirby Smith's capitulation as a "swindle" which "bore upon its face double dealing on the part of the rebel commander, or his agents." Sheridan was especially angered by Texans' boasts that "they were not conquered and that they would renew the fight at some future date." An article in the San Antonio News expressed the attitudes of diehard Confederates. No "sane man," the newspaper proclaimed, could even consider surrendering to the Yankee invasion force without endorsing the outcome of the war. The rabid Confederate sheet concluded that "death was far preferable" to capitulation.2 This defiant no-surrender stance amazed Thomas North, a Yankee dry goods dealer who lived a harried life in Texas during the war. "Texas was never whipped in spirit," North thought, "only nominally whipped, in being surrendered by the official act of General E. Kirby Smith." He marvelled at how "the proposition was
Charles W. Ramsdell, Reconstruction in Texas (New York, 1910),27 -40. William L. Richter, The Army in Texas during Reconstruction, 1865-1867" (Ph.D. dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1970). The surrender negotiations are in War of the Rebellion:A Compilationof the Official Records Armies[OR] ( 128 vols. , Washington, DC. , 1880 - 1901),Series of the Unionand Confederate I, Volume XLVIII, part 2, 600-602, 604, 606, 692. Unless otherwise noted, all citations are to Series I. See also Official Records Navies in the Warof the Rebellion(26 of the Union and Confederate vols., Washington, D.C., 1894-1922), Series I, Volume XXII, 196-99, 202, 206. Some Confederate officers tried to control their men, but failed. Others, in their haste to reach Mexico, abandoned their commandsor were abandonedby them. See Thomas Affleck to John Andrews, May 23, 1865, Thomas Affleck Papers, Department of Archives and Manuscripts, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. 2Philip H. Sheridan to U. S. Grant, June 28, 1865, Ulysses S. Grant Papers, Libraryof Congress [LC]. Sheridan to John A. Rawlins, November 14, 1866, OR, XLVIII, pt. 1, 297-98; and June 4, 1865, ibid., pt. 2, 767. San Antonio News, May 26, 1865. Unless otherwise noted, all citations are to Texas newspapers.
OCCUPATION of TEXAS
1 15
seriously made and entertained"in the spring of 1865 "that Texas could carry on the war by herself, and win what the whole South had failed to achieve together." "Consideredin the light of a necessary evil, as a terrible educator, or rough civilizer for the barbarian element in Texas," North suggested, "it might be a good thing" to make a "Sherman'sMarch"across the state to prove who had really won the war.3 Sheridan, in the meantime, had arrivedat the same conclusion, and preparedto occupy Texas with a veteran army of 50,000 men. "This may seem like the employmentof a large force to you," he informedGeneral-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, "but it is best to go in strong-handed."Sheridan was taking no chances. The time had come for Texans to bow to the conqueror'swill. If the ex-rebels them.4 wanted a fight to the finish, he would gladlyaccommodate Sheridan selected Brevet Major General Gordon Granger and XIII the Corps to spearhead the occupation. These veteran troops had fought at Vicksburg, performedgarrisonduty in Louisianaand the Rio Grande Valley in 1864, and participated in the siege of Mobile. For the occupation of Texas, the corps was divided into three divisions under Brevet Major Generals Joseph Mower, Frederick Steele, and Francis Herron. On June 3 Canby ordered Granger at Mobile to begin moving his troops to New Orleans. A week later, Granger placed 1,800 men on board a steamer at the Crescent City enroute for Galveston. "There is not a very wholesome state of affairs in Texas," Sheridan warned. "The Governor, all the soldiers, and the people generallyare disposed to be ugly, and the soonerGalvestoncan be occupied the better."5
3Thomas North, Five Yearsin Texas:or, WhatYou Did Not HearDuringthe WarfrontJanuary1861to January1866 (Cincinnati, Ohio: Elm Street Publishing Company, 1871), 102-104. 4Sheridan to Rawlins, June 4, 1865, OR, XLVIII, pt. 2, 767. [Philip H. Sheridan], Personal (2 vols., New York, 1888), II, 210-11. MemoirsofP. H. Sheridan 5Sheridan to Rawlins, November 14, 1866, OR, XLVIII, pt. 1, 297-98. P. Joseph Osterhaus to Gordon Granger, May 9, 1865; E[dward] R. S. Canby to Rawlins, May 16, 1865; General Orders [GO] 150, Army and Division of West Mississippi, June 3, 1865; Sheridan to Granger, June 10, 1865, ibid., pt. 2, 361-62, 456, 745, 841, respectively.
1 16
ARIZONA andthe WEST
Granger landed at Galveston with Mower's division on June 19, and assumed command of all federal troops in the state, which Granger designated the Department of Texas. Following orders from Sheridan, he issued two proclamations. General Orders No. 3 declared that "all slaves are free/' The decree guaranteed "an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between masters and slaves," and went on to explain that "the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor." Granger, however, cautioned the freedmen to stay at home, continue working, and keep clear of army posts. General Orders No. 4 nullified all acts passed by Texas authorities during the rebellion. Former Confederate civil and military personnel were to report to Houston, Galveston, Bonham, San Antonio, Marshall, or Brownsville to turn over public property and receive paroles. Those failing to comply would be arrested and held as prisoners of war. Persons who committed homicide or theft, Granger branded as "outlaws and enemies of the human race/' and vowed to deal with them accordingly.6 On June 20 two federal regiments occupied Houston, the rail center for East Texas. From Houston, detachments fanned out to Harrisburg, Liberty, Brenham, Hempstead, and Millican. Patrols regularly visited smaller towns to promote "the cause of loyalty, safety, and industry." The soldiers also searched residences and businesses for "rebels"or for stolen property.7 While Granger and. Mower occupied Galveston and the surrounding area, Herron's division moved from Baton Rouge up the Red River to Shreveport, Louisiana. The local townspeople were glad to be rid of looting Texans, who fled westward, and welcomed the federal
6Sheridan to Granger, June 13, 1865, ibid., pt. 2, 866-67. GO 3 and GO 4, June 19, 1865, District of Texas [DT], both in Records of the Adjutant General's Office [RAGO], Record Group [RG] 94, National Archives [NA]. At this time Sheridan had no idea of what Reconstruction policy to follow, hence he innovated. Sheridan, PersonalMemoirs,II, 229. 7F[rederic] W. Emery to Frederick] W. Moore, June 19, 1865; to John H. Kelly, June 28, 1865; to [Ransom] Kennicott, July 11, 1865; C[hristopher] C. Andrews to Emery, July 11, 1865, all in OR, XLVIII, pt. 2, 931, 1017-18, 1072, and 1078, respectively.
OCCUPATION of TEXAS
1 17
troops enthusiastically. Herron found the population quiet. His greatest problem was the wandering freedmen who gathered about the military camps. By June 18 the Eighth Illinois Infantry had crossed the Texas line and entered Marshall. Ten days later federal forces, including two black regiments, occupied the area around Tyler.8 Meanwhile, Steele landed with the third element of the XIII Corps at the mouth of the Rio Grande. The lower Rio Grande had been occupied by federal troops late in 1863, but lack of manpower prevented the Union from securing a good hold on the region. Confederate forces wrested Brownsville from Union hands in July of 1864, and prevented its recapture in the last battle of the Civil War, at Palmetto Ranch, on May 13, 1865. Two weeks later, on May 31, Steele entered Brownsville and advanced up the river as far as Roma on June 20. To seal off the Mexican border to refugees and bandits, the federal commander contemplated a movement on Ringgold fearracks, Fort Mclntosh, and Eagle Pass farther up the Rio Grande. Lack of troops and transportation, however, delayed the occupation of Ringgold Barracks until August 1. In the meantime, Granger expanded Steele's jurisdiction eastward to Indianola and Corpus Christi on the Texas Gulf Coast.9 To close off the Rio Grande, Steele awaited the arrival of Brevet Major General Godfrey Weitzel's XXV (Colored) Corps from Virginia. Composed of some 20,000 veteran soldiers, the corps had taken part in the Petersburg siege, was bloodied at the battle of the Crater, and was the first unit to enter Richmond in 1865. The XXV Corps had the greatest distance to travel of any troops sent to Texas. To economize on shipping, Weitzel packed only one-half of his wagons and one-fourth of his mules for the voyage to the Southwest. He also
8N[athaniel] P. Banks to C[hristian] T. Christensen, May 30, 1865; F[rancis] J. Herron to Christensen, June 16, 18, 1865, ibid., pt. 2, 677-78, 903, and 918, respectively. Max S. Lale, "Military Occupation of Marshall, Texas, by the Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, U.S.A.," MilitaryHistory of Texas and the Southwest[MHTS], XIII, (No. 3, 1976), 39-47. Flake'sDaily Bulletin (Galveston), June 28, 1865. 9See variouscommunications between Grant, Sheridan, Granger, and Steele, in OR, XLVIII, pt. 2, 601 -602, 716- 17, 927 -28, 930-31.
1 18
ARIZONA andthe WEST
took along a "fair quantity of entrenching tools/' After drawing forty days' rations, 9,210 men of the XXV Corps embarked for Texas from 10 City Point, Virginia, on May 25. Leaving behind his second in command to forward the cavalry, artillery, and the rest of the infantry, Weitzel departed for Mobile, where he expected to report to Steele. As Steele had already left for Brownsville, Sheridan instructed Weitzel to place one of his divisions at Indianola, a brigade at Corpus Christi, and the balance of the troops at Brazos Santiago above the mouth of the Rio Grande. Once the entire XXV Corps had arrived at New Orleans on June 15, its orders were changed. At Granger's request, Sheridan dispatched a single brigade to Indianola and another to Corpus Christi. The rest of the corps would disembark at Brazos Santiago and form a "moveable column" to reinforce Steele.11 Weitzel left New Orleans on June 26, confused by the constant changes in orders. He landed five regiments at Indianola, two at Corpus Christi, and the bulk of the XXV Corps at Brazos Santiago. Advance elements pushed forward to Brownsville. On July 10 a disgusted Sheridan reported to his superiors that the movement had not been 'Veil-managed." One month later, the entire XXV Corps occupied a line between Brazos Santiago, White's Ranch, and Brownsville.12 Adding to the confusion along the South Texas coast was the later arrival of Brevet Major General David S. Stanley and the IV Corps from Tennessee. Stanley had delayed his departure until the paymaster arrived to pay off the volunteers. Then Washington held up the movement in order to withdraw the Kentucky regiments,
10Rawlins to Henry W. Halleck, May 18, 1865; Grant to Godfrey Weitzel, May 21, 28, 1865; Weitzel to Rawlins, May 27, 1865, OR, XLVI, pt. 3, 1168, 1193, 1230, and 1225, respectively. 11Sheridan to Weitzel, June 2, 1865, Philip H. Sheridan Papers, LC. Granger to R[ichard] H. Jackson, June 8, 1865, OR, XLVIII, pt. 2, 819; C[harles] G. Sawtelle to Montgomery] C. Meigs, December 13, 1865, ibid., LIII, pt. 2, 607. 12Charles S. Russell toT[heodore] S. Bowers, June 25, 1865, OR, XLVI, pt. 3, 1295. Special Field Orders 2, July 4, 1865, DT; Jackson to Dfaniel] D. Wheeler, July 31, 1865, both in ibid., XLVIII, pt. 2, 1047, 1140-41, respectively. 13Rawlins to George H. Thomas, June 22, 1865, OR, XLIX, pt. 2, 1023; Sawtelle to Meigs, December 13, 1865, ibid., LIII, pt. 2, 607 -608.
(above) Major General Philip H. Sheridan commanded the Union occupation of Texas after the Civil War. (below) At Galveston, Brevet Major General Gordon Granger (left) and his successor, Brevet Major General Horatio G. Wright, wrestled with unruly federal troops. - Ezra J. Warner, Generalsin Blue (1964), 438, 181, and 575, respectively.
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OCCUPATION of TEXAS
1 19
which the government considered unreliable on the Southern question. Finally, the IV Corps reached New Orleans on June 24. Once again, however, the troops waited until shipping could be diverted from other expeditions on the Red River and along the Texas coast. 13 Sheridan, meanwhile, began to doubt the need to send more troops to Texas. The 32,000 men there seemed more than adequate. As yet there had been few incidents involving either Texans or the French then occupying Mexico. On June 20 Sheridan left New Orleans on the first of many trips to analyze firsthand the situation in Texas. He returned eight days later, angrier than ever. His ire focused on the many former Confederates who had gone home armed and unrepentant before U.S. authorities could parole them. Sheridan also feared French complicity in encouraging thousands of ex-rebels to flee to Mexico, along with quantities of "heavy equipment/' A number of state leaders, as well as Shelby's Missouri Brigade, had crossed the Rio Grande and joined the French under Maximilian.14 Sheridan, therefore, went ahead with plans to send the IV Corps to Texas, and on July 5 Stanley left with the first division for Indianola. He was instructed to station at least one regiment each at Goliad, Clinton, and Helena, and at any other points he might deem necessary to stop the "plundering and jayhawking" in south-central Texas. Posted along a line from Victoria to San Antonio, the new arrivals also would be in position to support either Steele along the Rio Grande or Granger to the east. 15 At the same time, Sheridan assembled some 9,000 cavalry in the Red River Valley of Louisiana for an overland march to Texas. He divided the mounted force into two columns under the overall command of Brevet Major General Wesley Merritt. Merritt would ride with one column from Shreveport, via Marshall and Austin, to San Antonio. From Alexandria, Louisiana, Brevet Major General George
"Grant to Sheridan, May 31, 1865; Sheridan to Rawlins, June 13, 1865, Grant Papers, LC. Sheridan to Grant, June 28, 1865, Letters Received, Records of the Headquartersof the Army, RG 108, NA. 15Special Orders [SO] 20, July 13, 1865, Military Division of the Southwest [MDSW], RAGO.
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ARIZONAandthe WEST
A. Custer would follow a parallel course one hundred miles to the southeast, and wind up in Houston. The movement was intended to provide mounted support for the infantry along the Rio Grande, give mobility to Union forces in East Texas, and counter rebel sentiment in northeast Texas by a show of force. As Custer s wife, Elizabeth, explained: "All I knew was, that Texas . . . was unhappily unaware that the war was over, and continued a career of bushwhacking and lawlessness that. . . must now cease."16 Collecting eleven regiments of horsemen was a complicated and frustrating task. Even though Sheridan had a blank check to commandeer cavalry units, his subordinates were hard put to corral the scattered regiments he requested from Tennessee. In mid-June General Grant made Sheridan's task more difficult, when he ordered the muster out of all Union cavalry in the South, declaring it an unnecessary expense. He also prohibited the purchase of horses in Texas, and ordered the sale of animals from units quitting the state. Sheridan accused Grant of reducing his mounted force to nothing. Grant, however, emphasized the need to economize, and explained that the discharge of the cavalry in the South would release remounts for the Texas column. Explosions and groundings of steamboats on the Mississippi further slowed Sheridan's preparations, and it was July 12 before the cavalry reached Shreveport and Alexandria. To kill time on the trip, the troopers tested their carbines on alligators bask17 ing along the riverbanks.
16SO 249, May 22, 1865, Adjutant General's Office [AGO], OR, XLVI, pt. 3, 1195. GO 4, June 4, 1865, MDSW, RAGO. Cite in Elizabeth B. Custer, Tenting on the Plains, or General Custer in Kansasand Texas (New York, 1887), 31. Sheridan assembled the cavalry in northern Louisiana because the lower part of the state was too swampy. Sheridan to Grant, June 5, 1865, Grant Papers, LC. Steele especially wanted cavalry to patrol the Texas-Louisiana border to intercept retreating Confederates. Frederick Steele to Sheridan, July 8, 1865, Sheridan Papers, ibid. 17Rawlins to Thomas, June 9, 15, 1865; SO 96, June 14, 1865, Cavalry Division, District of West Tennessee, OR, XLIX, pt. 2, 972-73, 997, respectively. Sheridan to Rawlins, June 8, 10, 1865; Grant to Sheridan, June 18 and 21, August 12, 1865, Grant Papers, LC. Thomas S. Cogley, History of the SeventhIndianaCavalryVolunteers (Laporte, Indiana: Herald Company, Printers, 1876), 159-63; Charles H. Lothrop, A History of the First Regiment Iowa Cavalry Veteran Volunteers. . . . (Lyons, Iowa: Beers & Eaton, Printers, 1890), 216-17. See also Sheridan to Rawlins, July 10, 1865, Sheridan Papers, LC.
OCCUPATION of TEXAS
12 1
Because of unsettled conditions along the Rio Grande, Sheridan ordered Merritt to move into Texas as soon as he had completed the organization of his column. On July 9 "boots and saddles" sounded and 5,500 horsemen rode out of Shreveport on a 600-mile journey through Texas. Sheridan proudly described Merritt's division as "the finest which has marched during the war/1 Temperatures soared, especially along the 100-mile stretch east of Austin, and the troopers suffered from the heat, which one described as "the blast from a furnace." Merritt allowed no straggling, sending provost marshals to the rear to keep the ranks intact. Thirty days later the column reached San Antonio. It had been a model march for the long line of horse soldiers that stretched for miles in the hot summer sun. 18 While Merritt sweated his way to San Antonio, Custer faced problems organizing his five regiments at Alexandria. Whereas the general hoped to reap laurels in campaigns in Texas or Mexico, his men expressed "outspoken dissatisfaction" at the assignment. Soldiers in the Seventh Indiana Cavalry believed that Custer was interested only in his own vanity and gaudy uniforms. "He had no sympathy in common with the private soldier," the regimental historian recorded, "but regarded them simply as machines created for obeying his imperial will. Everything about him indicated the fop and dandy." The troopers of the First Iowa Cavalry agreed. Many who had served with the regiment since 1861 later remembered the Texas episode as "an ordeal which never fell to the lot of any other body of men during the rebellion." Their historian described it as a time of "abuse, wanton neglect, base slander, and atrocious outrages by one invested with 'brief but misplaced authority'."19
18Sheridan to Wesley Merritt, July 5, 1865, Sheridan Papers, LC. Sheridan to Granger, June 29, 1865, OR, XLVIII, pt. 2, 1026. Samuel H. Fletcher, The Historyof CompanyA, Second Illinois Cavalry(Chicago:n.p., 1912), 165 -66. Flake'sBulletin, July 13, 15, 31, 1865; Dallas Herald,August 5, 1865; GalvestonDaily News, August 11, 1865. Merritt was about ten days behind his anticipated schedule. See A. R. Roessler to A[ndrew] J. Hamilton, June 21, 1865, Governor's Papers: A. J. Hamilton, Texas State Library[TSL], Austin. in with Custer 's MichiganCavalryBrigade of a Cavalryman 19[James]H. Kidd, PersonalRecollections Iowa the Civil War(Ionia, Michigan: Sentinel, 1908), 129-32; Lothrop,Historyof the First Regiment Cavalry,216-17; Cogley, Historyof the SeventhIndianaCavalry, 164-65; Jay Monaghan, Custer:The Custer(Boston, 1959), 251-52. Armstrong Lifeof George
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ARIZONAandthe WEST
Custer' s appointment was also a bitter pill for Brevet Major General Benjamin H. Grierson, whom Canby had assigned initially to command the Alexandria column. Famous for the 1863 raid that bore his name, Grierson took his removal by Sheridan as a personal affront. Referring to the general's reputation as a heavy drinker- a common army malady in those days- the straitlaced Grierson later " fumed that Sherry-dan" had replaced him merely to create positions for "two of his toadies-Custer and Merritt."20 Men in the ranks shared Grierson's sentiments. Part of the problem concerned the presence of Mrs. Custer with the column. Although Libby Custer professed to enjoy "roughing it" in the field, the general detailed plenty of soldier help to ensure his wife's comfort. Discipline was another source of contention. Custer had served with the snappy Army of the Potomac, while the officers and men of his new command had fought in the forgotten fields of the Gulf South. Trouble erupted when the general attempted to straighten out his sloppy crew. Many of the volunteers had three years of service behind them; they were not about to change ingrained habits during their few remaining months in the service. When Custer threatened to shave the heads of foragers and apply twenty-five lashes, "well laid on," the troopers protested vehemently that flogging had been outlawed in the army in 1861.21 Finally, a member of the First Iowa Cavalry accused Custer of punishing his men by withholding rations, and requested an investigation. The adjutant general approved the request, and instructed Sheridan to relieve Custer of command if the reports proved true. Sheridan rose to the defense of his favorite, and blamed the entire mess on the desire of the undisciplined troops to be mustered out.
20BenjaminH. Grierson to Alice Grierson, June 21, 1875, BenjaminH. Grierson Papers, Fort Davis National Historic Site, Texas. For Grierson'sCivil War career, see Bruce J. Dinges, "The Making of a Cavalryman: Benjamin H. Grierson and the Civil War Along the Mississippi, 1861-1865" (Ph.D. dissertation, Rice University, 1978). 21Custer, Tenting on the Plains, 74, 93-107; Lothrop, Historyof the First RegimentIowa Cavalry, 218, 222-23, 229-33, 243-93; Cogley, Historyof the SeventhIndianaCavalry, 165-67, 176-77; Frederic F. Van de Water, Glory Hunter:The Life of General Custer (Indianapolis: The BobbsMerrill Company, 1934), 130.
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"Insubordinate" letters from home, he suggested, often exacerbated the unruly behavior of the volunteers. Libby Custer may have been closer to the truth when she admitted that her husband's impetuous nature made things more difficult than they needed to be.22 Custer and his dissatisfied troopers left Alexandria on August 8, crossed the Sabine River, and entered Newton County, Texas. The same heat and dust that had plagued Merritt played havoc with Custer s column. At night, rattlesnakes and swarms of mosquitos made sleep difficult. Near Houston, Granger diverted Custer to Hempstead, where there was adequate grass and forage for the animals. Finally, on August 25, the weary troopers dismounted. Custer remained at Hempstead until the end of October, when the cavalry division was moved west to Austin.23 Many of the soldiers stationed in Texas shared the sullen and disappointed outlook of Custer's men. Most were three-year veterans who believed that they had served their time and deserved to go home with the rest of the Union armies. Troopers of the Second Illinois Cavalry pronounced the trip to Texas a pure waste of time, while another disconsolate veteran failed to understand why his regiment was being sent to Galveston or Brownsville. "I know of no need for us there," he explained. Like many volunteers, a Connecticut officer with the XXV Corps felt that he had served his country during the war, and now wanted "to take up my duty to my dear ones." Especially depressing was the shocking contrast "between our camp on the banks of the James River in Virginia, and the camp in this far off, God-for-saken town of Brownsville, Texas/' A fellow officer treated his troops so badly that the Connecticut man thought he belonged in the Confederate Army. An enlisted man, meanwhile,
22Custer, Tentingon the Plains, 98, 110;Monaghan, Custer, 257-58; Van de Water, GloryHunter, A. 133; Marguerite Merington (ed.), The CusterStory:The Lifeand IntimateLetters of GeneralGeorge Custerand His Wife Elizabeth(New York, 1950), 172 -73. of the SeventhIndianaCavalry, 167-74, 182; Lothrop, Historyof the First Regiment 23Cogley, History Iowa Cavalry,220-22, 239. For more on Custer in Texas, see Robert W. Shook, "Custer's Texas " Command, MHTS, IX (No. 1, 1971),49-54; William L. Richter, "A Better Time Is in Store for Us': An Analysis of the Reconstruction Attitudes of George ArmstrongCuster," ibid., XI (No. 1, Narrative(New 1973), 31-50; and John M. Carroll (comp. & ed.), Custerin Texas: An Interrupted York:Sol Lewis & Liveright, 1975), passim.
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claimed to have met an officer who had been on extended duty in Texas, and "had not seen a white man besides his own company for two years/'24 For the XXV Corps the trip to Texas was a nightmare of cramped ship holds and constant seasickness, while others braved the dangers of steamboat travel down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. River vessels were notoriously unsafe, and one Illinois cavalryman reported that his boat had caught fire three times between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. He and his companions suffered from so many accidents during the trip that they suspected some diabolical plot by former Confederates or the Knights of the Golden Circle, a fabled secessionist organization. Another transport struck a naval gunboat near Cairo, Illinois, in the middle of the night and sank "in minutes/' A soldier passenger considered himself lucky to survive. His regiment lost all of its horses, equipment, and baggage in the mishap.25 At New Orleans, the soldiers found that their troubles had just begun. Rough seas on the voyage to Galveston produced a phenomenal amount of seasickness. When the ocean-going vessels reached their destinations, the men had to wait on board for days until lighters could carry them over the shallow bars at the entrances to the Texas ports. Often officers restricted their men to the ships to prevent the rowdy and ill-tempered volunteers from getting out of hand among the civilian populace.26
24J. R. Cressinger to his father [D. B. Cressinger], June 22, 1865, J. R. Cressinger Letters, Barker Texas History Center [BTHC], University of Texas, Austin [UTA]. Robert L. Kimberly and Ohio VeteranVolunteerInfantryin the War of the Rebellion, Ephraim S. Holloway, The Forty-first 1861-1865 (Cleveland, Ohio: W. R. Smellie, 1897), 110; Fletcher, Historyof CompanyA, Second Illinois Cavalry, 166-67; Charles T. Clark, OpdyckeTigers, 125th O.V.I (Columbus, Ohio: An Autobiography and Sketchof Spahr & Glenn, 1895), 393; Alexander H. Newton, Out of the Briars: the Twenty-ninth Regiment,ConnecticutVolunteers (Philadelphia: The A.M.E. Book Concern, 1910), 81-92; Oliver Willcox Norton, ArmyLetters,1861-1865 (Chicago: O. L. Deming, 1903), 269. Army and NavyJournal,August 20, 1865, 10. 25Fletcher, Historyof CompanyA, SecondIllinois Cavalry, 163, 169-70. Cressinger to his father, June 22, 1865, Cressinger Letters, BTHC, UTA. 26William C. Holbrook, A Narrativeof the Servicesof the Officersand Enlisted Men of the Seventh VermontVolunteers (Veterans), from 1862 to 1866 (New York:American Bank Note Company, 1882), 204; Norton, ArmyLetters, 262 -64. The Twenty-fourth Indiana Infantry had trouble getting into Galveston, usually the easiest of the Texas ports to navigate. Richard J. Fulfer, A Historyof the Trials and Hardships IndianaVolunteerInfantry of the Twenty-fourth (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Print Company, 1913), 130.
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Once ashore the troops suffered from a lack of fresh food and drinking water. Local citizens took advantage of the situation, and sold water at prices ranging from ten cents to one dollar per canteen. The Twenty-ninth Illinois Infantry forcibly seized one well to avoid paying exorbitant prices. To discourage such incidents, soldiers on the march were ordered to cook rations ahead of time, and were prohibited from foraging for supplies. As an additional safeguard, arms were stacked at night and ammunition issued only to men on guard duty. Units that committed repeated depredations were sent to the bleak and sandy coast, where there was nothing to destroy.27 One such forlorn area was Indianola at the entrance to Lavaca Bay. Soldiers described the town as "deserted and desolate/' Only two streets ran through the village, and both were overgrown with grass. Troops who were transferred to nearby Green Lake marched at night to escape the incredible heat of the sun. Conditions worsened as the appeal of the warm, dry climate and fascination with strange creatures like the horned toad gave way to stifling boredom. Sergeant J. R. Cressinger of the Forty-first Ohio Infantry sarcastically informed his father that the regiment obviously was lost and that the government had offered a $100,000 reward for its apprehension. The homesick sergeant grimly concluded that he might be stuck in Texas for at least three years. When a "Dear John" letter arrived from his fiancee, Cressinger was too tired to care.28 Soldiers elsewhere in Texas experienced similar disillusionment. The 125th Ohio Infantry organized a marble tournament at Galveston to arouse enthusiasm. The Seventh United States Colored Infantry held a few dances, but attracted only a handful of local belles who were willing to associate with white officers of Negro troops.
27Unnumbered orders, July 4, 1865, Third Division, IV Corps; Andrew Steward to [T. J. Wood], Tigers, 393August 6, 1865, OR, XLVIII, pt. 2, 1047-48, 1169-70, respectively. Clark, Opdycke 95; Newton, Out of the Briars, 78-79; Norton, Army Letters, 262-64. Armyand Navy Journal, August 20, 1865, 10. Sheridan believed that dissatisfaction with slow muster-out prompted many volunteers to vandalize their equipment. Sheridan to Grant, October 7, 1865, Grant Papers, LC. 28Cressinger to his father, June 22, July 13 and 26, August 16, September 6, 1865, Cressinger Letters, BTHC, UTA. Norton, ArmyLetters,277-79. Unlike most soldiers, Norton enjoyed himself even in a hellhole like RinggoldBarracks,and signed his letters to his sister, "Don Olivero."
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Most volunteers passed the time watching for their numbers to appearon the muster-outlists, all the while growingmore and more homesick. Guardduty affordedoccasionalexcitement, and some soldiers hired out as day laborersfor local citizens. The diaryof William Macy revealsthe lack of activityin campof the Ninety-fourthIllinois Infantry. An avid recorderof events during the war, Macy made his last regularentry at Mobile on May 16, 1865. Thereafter, he mentioned nothing until the muster out in Texas of his own and a neighboringregimentin mid-July.29 Inactivityproducedmuch sickness. Like many of his comrades, Sergeant Cressinger fell victim to "chill fever/' but mysteriously improvedwhen his regiment received its dischargenotice. For hunarrivedtoo late dreds of other Union soldiers, the proper"medicine" to save them fromthe grave.30 Bored and cut off socially from the local citizens, the Yankee soldiers looked to letters from home for solace. Even this outlet, however, was soon closed, as the inadequatemail servicebrokedown completely. Large numbers of soldiers deserted, rather than endure what they considered an unjust situation. Most quickly discovered that there was a lot of countrysidebetween Texas and home, and usually returnedto their units after severalweeks. Regimentsheld as many as five roll calls daily to prevent absences, but desertion remained"rife"amongthe Union troops.Accordingto travellerBen-
29Clark, OpdyckeTigers, 400, 407; Holbrook, Seventh VermontVolunteers,205 -207. Asbury L. . . . (Dayton: Ohio: W. J. Shuey, Kerwood, Annalsof the Forty-seventh RegimentIndiana Volunteers. A, SecondIllinois Cavalry, 166. "The Civil War Diary 1868), 317-18; Fletcher, Historyof Company of William Madison Macy," IndianaMagazineof History, XXX (June 1934), 197. Joseph M. Califf, Records 1863, to November of the Servicesof the SeventhRegimentU. S. ColoredTroops, from September 1866.. . . (Providence, Rhode Island: E. L. Freeman and Company, Printers, 1878), 75 -76. It was not until Januaryof 1866 that Califf s regiment sponsored a dance with "fair"success. The homeward trip was happier, but it was also marred by shipwrecks, heavy seas, and Southern belles who refused to associate with "nigger officers."" Robert G. Dill, "The Soldiers' Homeward Voyage, a of AmericanHistory, XI (May Thrilling Experience af the Close of the Late Civil War," Magazine 1884), 445-53. 30Cressinger to his father, October 5, November 19, 1865, Cressinger Letters, BTHC, UTA. The
dead are listed in Roll of Honor, Names of Soldiers who Died in Defense of the American Union Interred
in... Texas (Washington, D.C., 1866), 1-35.
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jamin Truman, volunteer officers "officially encouraged" the practice, and often joined, or led, their men in escapes.31 Sheridan, in the meantime, turned his attention to problems that had been plaguing him since his arrival in the Southwest. The first of these "anomalies"- as Sheridan called anything he found distasteful - was his relationship to General Canby. As commander of the Department of the Gulf, Canby exercised military control over the Gulf States from the Florida Keys north and west to the Sabine River on the Louisiana-Texas border. At the same time, Sheridan's Military Division of the Southwest commenced on the west bank of the Mississippi River and included all the territory south of the Arkansas River to the Mexican border. Under this awkward arrangement, Sheridan and Canby shared jurisdiction over Louisiana west of the Mississippi River. Sheridan especially resented having to "request" cooperation from Canby, who was his junior in rank.32 Grant responded by offering Sheridan a new "division" which would include Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, the Indian Territory, and Texas. Still not satisfied, Sheridan complained that the jurisdiction was too big. Problems in either Louisiana or Texas, alone, were enough to tax the resources of a single commander. Grant agreed in part, and on July 17 created the Military Division of the Gulf. The new command embraced the Departments of Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana and Texas. Sheridan designated Louisiana and Texas each a separate district, and then divided the department into five subdistricts: two for Louisiana under Canby, who became Sheridan's subordinate in the new system; and three in Texas.33
31Cressinger to his father, July 26, August 16 and 19, September 6, October 5, 1865, Cressinger Letters, BTHC, UTA. Clark, Opdycke Tigers, 402, 405. Not only did letters fail to arrive, but there also was a shortage of postage stamps in Texas. "Message of the President of the United States, communicating. . . a Report from Benjamin C. Truman Relative to the Condition of the Southern People and the States in which the Rebellion Existed," Senate Executive Document[SED] 43, 39 Congress, 1 Session (Serial 1238), 14. 32GO 95, May 17, 1865, AGO, RAGO. Sheridan to Rawlins, July 3, 7, 1865; to Grant, July 4, 1865; Grant to Sheridan, July 6, 1865, Grant Papers, LC. 33GO 1 and 4, July 17 and 20, 1865, MDSW, RAGO.
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Sheridan also had problems with General Granger at Galveston, and he looked for a replacement for the Texas commander. Granger appeared to be too friendly with former Confederate officials, and he had violated Sheridan's orders by allowing Texans to organize citizen police units. Instead of upholding Negro rights, he had assisted former slaveholders in enforcing labor contracts. Finally, Granger had refrained from helping the new provisional state government, unless the dispute directly involved the United States. Sheridan unfairly blamed Canby for appointing Granger and requested the Texas commander be recalled to Washington. When the puzzled Granger asked why he was being relieved, Sheridan feigned ignorance and pointed to the consolidation of the XIII Corps as "probably the principle reason/'34 Brevet Major General Horatio G. Wright succeeded Granger at Galveston. A former officer of engineers, Wright had led the VI Corps during Sheridan's 1864 Valley Campaign in Virginia. As the new commander of the District of Texas, his major task would be to replace the Civil War volunteers with regulars who had enlisted in the peacetime army. The inefficient system of mustering out the volunteers complicated Wright's job. In an effort to be fair, the high command discharged first those veterans who had served the longest, and then often shipped the remaining short-termers to Texas. To keep companies at full strength, the reduced regiments were combined, reorganized as battalions, or filled with new recruits. The loss of unit designations caused severe morale problems, especially when one-half of a regiment was allowed to go home and the remainder forced to serve out their enlistments with strangers.35 The staggered method of mustering out the volunteers caused a mutiny in the Forty-eighth Ohio Battalion. The battalion (formerly a
34Grangerto Andrew Johnson, May 29, 1865, Andrew Johnson Papers, LC. Sheridan to Grant, July 3, 7, 15, 1865;Grant to Sheridan, July 6, 1865, Grant Papers, ibid. GO 5, June 30, 1865, MDSW; Sheridan to Grant, July 15, 1865; GeorgeA. Forsyth to Granger,July 19, 1865; SO 2, July 15, 1865, MSDW; Stewart to [Wood], August 6, 1865, OR, XLVIII, pt. 2, 1031-32, 1081, 1093, 1169-70, respectively. 35SO 25, July 18, 1865, AGO, RAGO. Examples of partial muster-outs are in Fletcher, Historyof
Company A, Second Illinois Cavalry, 163; Kerwood, Annals of the Forty-seventh Regiment Indiana Volunteers, 316; Clark, Opdyche Tigers, 389, 391.
OCCUPATION of TEXAS
129
full regiment) had been reconstituted from elements of the old Fortyeighth, Eighty-third, and 114th Ohio regiments. While on guard duty at Houston and Galveston, the Ohioans watched as regiment after regiment left for home. Resentment exploded in January of 1866, when the Forty-eighth Ohio was called in to restore order after a riot by black prisoners in the Galveston city jail. Evidently, the Ohioans blamed the freedmen for their retention in the service so far from home. They charged the jail with fixed bayonets, killing one Negro and wounding two others. The angry white soldiers then rampaged through the cells, beating every black prisoner they could find. With great difficulty, the sheriff "interposed his authority" and finally stopped the melee.36 Feelings among the Forty-eighth Ohio grew increasingly sullen. To keep the soldiers occupied, in February General Wright ordered them to drill at least once a day in soldier, company, and battalion exercises. Officers attended leadership classes, and performed daily recitations. The Articles of War were read to the battalion once a week, and dress parades were held each day, unless prevented by "a severe storm/' The Ohioans followed orders for a month until March 20, when they stacked their arms and refused to serve. Wright immediately arrested the battalion commander, and charged him with insubordination. Two days later, Flake's Daily Bulletin (the Galveston Unionist sheet) reported that the problem had been solved and the Forty-eighth Ohio "thoroughly reconstructed." Before proceedings could be instituted against the mutineers, however, General Grant intervened and released the colonel from arrest. The Ohio troops were given honorable discharges and sent home.37
36Flake'sBulletin,January 12, 1866. The battalion's record is in Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the Warof the Rebellion(3 vols., New York, 1959), III, 15-19. 37Assistant Adjutant General to CommandingOfficer, Galveston, February26, 1866, Letters Sent, Central District of Texas, Records of United States Army Continental Commands, 1821-1920, RG 393, NA. Grant to Sheridan, April 10, 1866, Grant Papers; Sheridan to Horatio G. Wright, April 10, 1866, Sheridan Papers, both in LC. Flake'sBulletin, March 20, 22, 1866. This incident is not J865 -1877 (Louisiana mentioned in James E. Sefton, The United States Armyand Reconstruction, State U. Press, 1967).
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In spite of soldier attitudes, military-civilian relations were cordial. Even the anti-Union Galveston Daily News noted that the city was "remarkablyquiet/' Bars had been closed and the usual loungers were off the streets. Troops regularly patrolled the city (especially at night), but the News observed favorably that "the soldiers go about in a quiet home-like manner, mix unobtrusively with the citizens, and indulge in no spread eagle excentricities." The Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry had behaved "in such an orderly and in every way creditable manner" that the newspaper hoped the regiment would remain at Galveston "so long as it may be deemed necessary." The News then went on to congratulate Colonel G. W. Clark, "the present popular commander of the Post," on his promotion to brigadier general of volunteers. "If we are to live under military rule," the article concluded, "at least let it be under those we can respect."38 Unlike Galveston, Houston was plagued by violence. Dead soldiers often turned up in the streets in the mornings, their faces covered with handkerchiefs to keep off the flies. Part of the trouble arose from the presence in the city of First Texas (Union) Cavalry. According to one account, the regiment was composed of "deserters from the Confederate army, Mexicans, negroes, thugs, and a generally undesirable element of society." Although the makeup of the unit was not quite that exotic, most citizens viewed the men of the First Texas as traitors to the Lost Cause and regarded their assignment to Houston as an insult.39 Equally objectionable to most Texans were former slaves in blue uniforms. Like their white counterparts, Negro soldiers were not enthusiastic about being assigned to Texas. The cavalry brigade of the XXV Corps mutinied when it learned that it had been ordered to the Gulf Coast. Prompt action by the brigade's white officers - aided by Pennsylvania artillery- prevented the rebellion from spreading.40
38Galveston News, June 20, July 15, 1865; January 12, 1866; March 12, 1867. Flake's Tri-Weekly Bulletin, June 20, 1865. For army-Texan relations see William L. Richter, "Spread Eagle Eccentricities: Military-CivilianRelations in Reconstruction Texas," Texana, VIII (No. 4, 1970), 311-27. 39Samuel O. Young, True Storiesof Old Houstonand Houstonians(Galveston, Texas: O. Springer, 19B),45. 40 and NavyJournal, June 17, 1865, 673; and ibid., June 24, 1865, 689. Army
OCC l/PATION of TEXAS
13 1
Most black soldiers in Texas served in the Rio Grande Valley, along the coast, or in the area around Jefferson in the northeastern corner of the state. But whites looked askance at Negro soldiers, no matter where they were stationed. Even if their discipline were admirable, "the idea of a gallant and highminded people being ordered and pushed about by an inferior, ignorant race," one newspaper commented, "is shocking to the senses." Some Texans accused the black soldiers of inciting local freedmen to acts of violence. The Galveston News fairly shuddered when it received a report of Negro troops at Corpus Christi with "nothing to do."41 Whenever a Negro regiment entered an area, the local population invariably traced the majority of all thefts and vandalism to it. Black soldiers were accused of sacking a farm near Indianola and threatening the owner's life. At Victoria, two black infantrymen allegedly murdered a hired man. In other instances, citizens did not wait for the Negro soldiers to start trouble, but instead created their own incidents. The Jefferson marshal, for example, shot and killed two uniformed Negroes for no apparent reason.42 Because Negro soldiers operated under the double liability of the blue uniform and their race, they sometimes reacted harshly to insults and sided with freedmen in asserting their civil rights. At Clarksville, a crowd of black citizens surrounded policemen as they attempted to arrest a freedman. Shouting that "no d- d white man should arrest colored people any more," the mob forced the officers to flee into a nearby store. Black soldiers were sent in to restore order, but instead attacked the white lawmen. A policeman and a Negro soldier were wounded in the ensuing gunfight. Later, the black troops defied their white officers and returned to town, where they patrolled
4lBellville Countryman, August 18, 1865;Galveston News, September 18, 1865. to Sheridan, November 8, 1866, Governor'sPapers:J. W. ThrockmorThrockmorton W. 42J[ames] ton, TSL. Sheridan to Rawlins, October 1, 1866;A. V. Lowell to Frank A. Ham, September 3, 1866, both in 'Removalof Hon. E. M. Stanton and Others," House Executive Document [HED] 57, 40 Cong., 2 Sess. (Serial 1330), 32, 126, respectively. Truman Report,"SED43, 39 Cong., 1, Sess., 14. Jesse Beryl Boozer, "The History of Indianola, Texas" (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, Austin, 1942), 88-89.
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the streets, threatened white residents, and proclaimed that the day of white rule had ended. The Clarksville affair, and other racial incidents, caused Sheridan to question whether blacks should be allowed to purchase their weapons when mustered out of the service, as was the case with white volunteers. 'The purchase," he informed General Grant, "will create some uneasiness in this section of the country/'43 By the close of 1865, the proportion of Negro soldiers in Texas was at the highest point of the postwar period. On January 7, 1866, Sheridan reported to Grant that three times as many black soldiers as whites were present for duty in the District of Texas. In part, this was due to the army's policy of demobilizing black regiments last. But another cause was Sheridan's conviction that blacks preferred military service to civilian life. He dismissed requests by black regiments to go home as expressing the sentiments of the white officers, and not the black enlisted men. To encourage blacks to remain in the service, Sheridan recommended that any Negro volunteer who transferred to the regulars be given a thirty-day furlough, with pay and privileges. Grant finally ordered Sheridan to demobilize the last of the Negro volunteers in January of 1867. Until then, blacks provided most of the federal manpower on the Rio Grande and along the Texas coast.44 Because Galveston was headquarters for the army in Texas until September of 1867, most volunteers - black and white - were mustered out there. Negro soldiers generally were pulled out of the Rio Grande Valley in a step-by-step process, through Brownsville, to Corpus Christi, Indianola, Galveston, and then home. Galveston proved to be one of the roughest duty assignments for Negro regiments, as unprovoked murders and race riots were common on the city streets. In one case, a citizen shot a black soldier in a downtown store. The public became annoyed when military authorities arrested and tried the perpetrator, but refused to report his sentence to the press. They
43San Antonio Express,May 24, 1866. Sheridan to Rawlins, October 29, 1865, Grant Papers, LC. ^Sheridan to Grant, January 7, 1866; Grant to Sheridan, January 2, 1866, Grant Papers, LC. Sheridan to Rawlins, June 21, 1866; to E. D. Townsend, August 24, 1866, Sheridan Papers, ibid.
OCCUPATION of TEXAS
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grew even angrier when the army secretly tried a Negro soldier accused of murder, and again refused to release the outcome.45 As in other areas of Texas, Negro troops at Galveston became the scapegoats for numerous crimes. The most provocative concerned white women. One woman reported that a black soldier had followed her home, but disappeared as she entered her house to report the incident to her husband. Another seized a pistol and drove off a Negro infantryman who tried to break into her house at night. Trespassing complaints also were common. The usual excuse given by both white and black soldiers was that they had "orders" to pass. When G. A. Jones found a Negro soldier "loitering'near his home, he ordered him to move on. The black refused, and Jones threatened him with his cane. The soldier then reached for his gun, whereupon Jones beat a hasty retreat into his house to get a revolver. In the meantime, a friend joined the soldier and the two demanded that Jones come outside. Jones asked for the name of their commanding officer, but was told that it was none of his "d- d business." Jones later claimed that one of the blacks pointed a gun at him, forcing Jones to fire first and drop the soldier with a single shot.46 Eventually, each volunteer regiment, white or black, arrived at its release date and was sent home. The overall muster-out of the Union army had begun soon after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, when Secretary of War Edwin M. Stan ton halted recruiting and curtailed the purchase of war supplies. At the end of April in 1865, a schedule of troop reduction was devised, and by November of 1866 all but 11,000 volunteers had been discharged. There were several exceptions to the schedule, however. The largest special case involved the troops detailed to Texas.47
4sFlake's Bulletin, March 3, 13, 22, 20, May 4, July 5, 1866; Galveston News, March 29, June 9, 1866. 46Flake'sBulletin, February25, July 29, 1866; Houston Telegraph,April 30, May 9, 1866. 47Texas-bound troops were specifically exempted from all muster-out orders. See GO 96, June 25, of the Secretary of War, 1865 (2 vols. , Washington, 1865, Department of the Gulf, RAGO;and Report D.C., 1866) I, 1, 19, 21-28. The demobilizationschedule is in AmericanAnnual Cyclopaedia,1865 (New York, 1872), 78-79. See also Ida M. Tarbell, "How the Union Army was Disbanded," Civil War Times Illustrated,VI (December 1967), 4-9, 44-47. The general pattern of demobilization was: artillery before cavalry, and cavalry before infantry; troops in the East before troops in the West; whites before Negroes; Northern and BorderState Negro troopsbefore blacks from the Deep South.
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and theWEST ARIZONA
Prior to August i, 1865, volunteer regiments in Texas were demobilized only upon special orders from Washington, D.C. Thereafter, Sheridan was authorized to muster out any white troops that he did not need. Earlier, he had halted the transfer of the remainder of the XIII Corps to Texas as a waste of transportation, since their enlistments would soon expire. In September, Grant ordered him to demobilize as many men "as the service will bear/' Sheridan immediately sent home seven regiments. He would have dispatched even more, if not for the border problems with Maximilian in Mexico. By October of 1865, all but three regiments of the IV Corps had been mustered out, and in late December, Sheridan received authorization to reduce his command to 10,000 white and 10,000 black volunteers. The following week, he reported on hand 6,500 white and 19,768 black troops.48 Demobilization of the volunteer regiments, late arrival of the regulars, and troubles in Mexico created a shortage of troops in Texas. Only two inland towns were consistently occupied throughout 1865 and 1866 - Austin (Ouster's division) and San Antonio (Merritt's division). Otherwise, military influence was limited to the area around Marshall, Tyler, and Jefferson in the northeast; a line from Indianola through Victoria to San Antonio; outposts on the rail lines emanating from Houston out to Brenham and Millican; the coastal areas around Sabine Pass, Galveston, and Corpus Christi; and the Rio Grande Valley from Brazos Santiago to Ringgold Barracks. Patrols extended the sphere of Union control, but in reality there was little federal presence in the interior of Texas. Poor communications aggravated the problem, as the telegraph linking Galveston with Austin and San Antonio was not completed until November of 1865.49 Sheridan pestered Grant for as much regular cavalry as he could spare to establish control over the Texas interior. He held up the tantalizing picture of saving large sums of money by shipping the regulars to Texas and allowing them to take over the horses and
48Circular 39, August 2, 1865, AGO, RAGO. Grant to Sheridan, September 6, October 28, December 30, 1865; Sheridan to Grant, September 20, and January3, 7, 1866; to Rawlins, October 19, 30, 1865, all in Grant Papers, LC. Sheridan to Rawlins, July 10, 1865, Sheridan Papers, ibid. 49Sheridan to Rawlins, November 15, 1865, Grant Papers, LC.
(above) Mrs. Farnham Lyon and Brevet Major General George A. Custer at Hempstead, Texas, October 18, 1865. (below)Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, ca. 1865. The state capitol is in the background.-John M. Carroll, Custer in Texas (1975), 107 and 145, respectively.
(above) The Strand (business district) of Galveston in the 1860s. -Carroll, Custerin Texas, 189. (below) Union troops in Indianola, Texas. - Brownson Malsch, Indianola (1977), opposite 173.
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equipment of the discharged volunteers. Grant agreed to send the Fourth Cavalry from Georgia and the Sixth Cavalry from Virginia to replace the volunteer divisions at Austin and San Antonio. But when Sheridan requested still more cavalry, the commanding general responded that none was available. Sheridan should turn over the surplus horses left behind by the departing volunteers to the quartermaster's department for disposal.50 The Fourth and the Sixth Cavalry arrived at New Orleans in November of 1865. The men of the Fourth especially remembered the trip, because they crossed the Gulf in a river steamboat. Even though the regiments were short of manpower, Sheridan immediately sent them on to Galveston, where they established a base camp on Pelican Island. From Galveston, General Wright dispatched the Fourth Cavalry by ship to Indianola and then by rail to Victoria. The locomotive was so small that the troopers had to jump out of the cars and push it up each hill. At San Antonio, the regiment was issued horses from Merritt's departing volunteers, and sent through the city at "advance carbine/' On the far edge of town, the mystified troopers learned the reason for the unusual show of force, as they were called upon to crush a mutiny among volunteers who had been left behind for further duty.51 In the meantime, the Sixth Cavalry replaced Custer's division at Austin. The volunteers liked Austin, and had made many friends among the population. A large parade of citizens escorted them out of town, and the Yankee troopers marched off waving their hats in response to the cheers of the crowd. Some of the departing volunteers apparently had planned to ambush Custer as he left town. But Ciister somehow got wind of the plot, and escaped the night before using a relay of horses.52
50Sheridanto Rawlins, August 21, October 26, November 14, 1865;Grant to Sheridan, October 13, December 22, 1865, Grant Papers, ibid. 51James Larson, "Memoirs," 217-19, manuscript, BTHC, UTA. Fletcher, Historyof CompanyA, SecondIllinois Cavalry, 168. 52Lothrop, Historyof the First RegimentIowa Cavalry, 294-97. One company of the Sixth Cavalry to Santiagowith was sent to Sheridan's headquartersat New Orleans. W. H. Carter, FromYorktown the Sixth U.S. Cavalry(Baltimore, Maryland:The Friedenwald Company, 1900), 36.
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Sheridan did his best to fill the ranks of the regular cavalry, and ship the volunteers happily homeward with their "buzzard," as the eagle-adorned discharge slip was commonly called. Volunteers who reenlisted in the cavalry received a sixty-day furlough. Most new recruits, however, came from the cavalry depot at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and were about equally divided between Irish and German immigrants and "Americans." Their moral characters varied widely. "It looked like all the worthless element of the mustered out volunteer service had been reenlisted," recalled one Civil War veteran. A new enlistee classed his fellow soldiers as "bounty jumpers, blackguards, and criminals of various degrees, or at any rate, men who had sought the army as an asylum from the punishments that the law would have justly meted out to them had they remained in civilian life." The disillusioned young recruit acknowledged that a few good men had enlisted (himself included), "but the vast majority of those who joined the service . . . had some urgent if not good reason for doing so."53 It made little difference to which regiment a recruit was assigned. When replacements reached Pelican Island, they counted off by twos to determine if they went to the Fourth or the Sixth Cavalry. Like the veterans before them, they marched on foot to their duty stations, where they were issued mounts. Guards accompanied the enlistees to prevent desertions and depredations on civilian property. Frequently, the army made the most of racial antagonisms; if the recruits were white, the guards were black, and vice versa. Despite such precautions, the passing of a column of replacements was likened to that of a mob. The march "formed an era in the lives of the good people along the road," as the recruits slaughtered cattle with impunity. If they were caught in the act, the officer in charge simply issued a voucher (sometimes signed with a fictitious name) promising to reimburse the owner for his loss. "It is fair to presume," a soldier concluded, "that the expenses of the army for fresh beef was not materially increased."54
53Larson, "Memoirs," 219-20, BTHC, UTA. H. H. McConnell, Five Yearsa Cavalryman.... (Jacksboro,Texas: J. N. Rogersand Company,printers, 1889), 13, 17. 54Assistant Adjutant General to Sheridan, December 16, 1865, Sheridan Papers, LC. McConnell, Five Yearsa Cavalryman,26, 30-43, 106, 120. For hostility between white and black soldiers, see "Truman Report,"SED43, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., 14.
OCCUPATION of TEXAS
I 37
Invariably, the recruits found camp life "exceedingly monotonous." To relieve the boredom, they indulged in drinking and gambling. When payday rolled around- once every two months (if they were lucky) - most soldiers went berserk in town, gorging themselves on non-ration food and alcoholic beverages, fighting, whoring, gambling and, in the words of a participant, "making up for lost time with a vengeance."55 While the cavalry replacements marched inland, the volunteer infantry regiments along the coast were being replaced by regulars of the Seventeenth Infantry. Commanded by Brevet Major General Samuel P. Heintzelman, it was one of nine new regiments authorized by President Lincoln in the spring of 1861, when the regular army was expanded to meet wartime needs. Composed of twenty-four companies (instead of the usual ten), these so-called "Lincoln regiments" were the equivalent of two and one-half normal sized regiments, and were organized into three battalions of eight companies each.56 The Seventeenth Infantry had sustained heavy losses fighting with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, and by 1865 the regiment was reduced to a mere skeleton. New recruits were scarce, and those who did enlist often represented the scum of society. "The army was in a bad way," one officer admitted, "with only the riff-raff of the war left among the enlisted men, and the officers quarrelling among themselves" over rank and privileges. To attract good men, the army offered a thirty-day furlough with full pay and allowances to honorably discharged volunteers who joined the regulars within ten days of their muster out. Nevertheless, when Grant ordered the Seventeenth Infantry to Texas eight of its companies were still shorthanded. Three others had been detached to Detroit to stop Irish nationalists from raiding into British Canada. Sheridan protested to Washington that the detailing of less than one-half of the regiment to Texas
a Cavalryman, 54, 89-91, 118, 156. 55McConnell, Five Years 56C. St. Chubb, "The Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry," in Theodore F. Rodenbough and William L. Haskin (eds.), The Armyof the United States(New York, 1896), 637; Aubrey A. Wilson, "A Soldier of the Texas Frontier: Brevet Major Robert Patterson Wilson, United States Army," West Texas HistoricalAssociationYearBook, XXXIV(1958), 86.
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"embarrasses me to some extent," but he went ahead with the muster-out of the volunteers anyway.57 The first 1,000 men of the Seventeenth Infantry reached New Orleans on April 18, 1866, and Sheridan forwarded them to Galveston a few days later. After days on board cramped ships in the harbor, a detail finally landed in the city on April 24. The soldiers made the most of their liberty by getting "rousing drunk" and starting numerous fights, one of which blossomed into a full-fledged race riot. Flakes Bulletin recommended that the army restrict the sale of liquor to soldiers, except through ordinary quartermaster channels, and hoped that "regular discipline" would soon be effected.58 The newspaper's hopes were in vain. On the following day a sober soldier from the Seventeenth accosted a Negro on the street, and asked him to pay a dollar "for services rendered" in his emancipation. When the freedman refused, the soldier angrily announced that he had not fought the war for "niggers" anyway. Only the intervention of bystanders prevented another fight. That same day, in another section of town, intoxicated white regulars threatened a black man with a bayonet, for no apparent reason. The editor of Flake's Bulletin commented that if officers could not keep their drunken soldiers off the streets, they could at least disarm them. Enlisted men on Pelican Island in the bay responded by using the city as a backstop for target practice.59 On April 27 Flake's Bulletin recorded another complaint against the infamous Seventeenth. Some of the regulars had sharpened their expertise in street fighting by cutting up a sergeant from the departing Thirty-seventh Illinois, while others had instigated a half-dozen fights with home-going Negro soldiers. Another race riot ensued, and General Wright declared Galveston's liquor establishments off limits. Thirsty soldiers nevertheless, broke into stores and saloons at gunpoint and ordered drinks for all present. "We have never had a garrison," editor Flake commented, "that so disgraced itself, and violated
57GO 99, May 28, 1865, AGO, RAGO. Grant to Sheridan, March 19, April 20, 1866; Sheridan to Rawlins, April 18, 19, 1866; to Grant, April 22, 1866, Grant Papers, LC. ssFlake's Bulletin, April 25, 1866. 59GalvestonDaily Mews,April 26, 1866;Flake'sBulletin, April 26, 1866.
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the public peace." The pro-Union Bulletin did not wish to end military rule in Texas, but anything (even Negro troops) was preferable to occupation by the white marauders who were pillaging the town.60 Incidents continued, in spite of constant protests by the press and threats to write the Secretary of War. It must have been an unusually dry year, as enlisted men from the Seventeenth Infantry and the Thirty-seventh Illinois seemed never to get enough to drink. When one establishment ran out of whiskey, soldiers robbed the store of all its food. In a desperate attempt to save the volunteers for the trip home, an Illinois officer forbade the sale of liquor to his men, and strung up by the thumbs a whiskey dealer who ignored the order. A the same treatbystander protested the punishment, and received " ment. "Comment on such outrages is unnecessary, the News fumed. Although Flake's Bulletin did not condone thumb-tying, it conceded that the evils flowing from drink were far worse. Something had to be done to moderate the actions of enlisted men on leave in Galveston.61 The outrageous activities of the Seventeenth Infantry even caused Galvestonians to change their feelings toward the Tenth United States Colored Infantry, which also garrisoned the city. Heretofore, the Negro troops had been the most condemned of all the regiments stationed at Galveston. The hostility stemmed from the indiscriminate shootings of whites on city streets, after a white man had killed a black soldier in a downtown store. Only quick action by General Wright had prevented a race war. But compared to the white rowdies of the Seventeenth Infantry, the Negro soldiers seemed well disciplined. Galvestonians were pleasantly surprised when visits to the camp of the black regiment proved to be exhilarating for all concerned. When the Tenth was mustered out in mid-May of 1866, Flake's Bulletin commented that it "would be difficult for any of us to name a regiment that has conducted itself in a more praiseworthy manner. "62
60Flake'sBulletin, April 27, 1866. 61lbid., May 19, 1866;Galveston News, May 19, 1866. 62Flake'sBulletin, February 25, 27, 28, August 3, 17, 1866; Galveston News, March 29, May 17, 1866.
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If the pitiful conduct of the Seventeenth Infantry could make Galvestonians swallow their traditional hatred of the Negro soldier, then the situation was bad indeed. General Wright renewed his efforts to restore order by reinforcing the provost guard and instructing it to get tough. When two drunken soldiers began smashing windows in the business district, the guard bayoneted one of the unruly men in the leg. Wright's crackdown brought results. By June local authorities noted a change in discipline among the regulars. " Order was being "rigidly enforced, as offenders received long sentences at hard labor in the federal prison on the island of Dry Tortugas, off the Florida coast.63 Strict enforcement of regulations, however, caused many soldiers to seek a freer life outside the service. In the spring and summer of 1866, desertion among Union troops in Texas became more serious than at any other time during Reconstruction. General Wright was mystified and ordered local commanders to find out the causes. Some blamed the close association of the regulars with the less disciplined volunteers, while others pointed to the outbreak of Asiatic cholera at Galveston. Because most deserters were not considered criminals and needing to maintain full ranks- Wright issued a blanket amnesty in July. Absentees who returned to their commands would forfeit pay and would have to make up lost time, but they would not be tried for desertion. Those who had deserted because of personal difficulties with an officer or noncommissioned officer could apply for transfer to another regiment.64 By mid-summer of 1866, most of the companies of the Seventeenth Infantry were scattered about the Houston area. Two companies joined the Fourth Cavalry at San Antonio and two remained at Galveston. Also at Galveston were three skeleton companies awaiting reinforcement and reassignment. Because Wright had complained
63Flake's Bulletin, June 5, 22, 1866. For other incidents, see William L. Richter, "The Brenham Fire of 1866:A Texas Reconstruction Atrocity,"LouisianaStudies,XIV (Winter 1975), 287 -314. 64Circular 1, March 14, 1866, DT; GO 23, July 21, 1866, DT, both in RAGO. Truman Report," SED43, 39Cong.,lSess., 14.
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that only the Third Battalionhad a full complementof eighty-three men per company, the First and Second Battalionsarrivedin Texas in late summer. The three companiesnear Detroit rejoinedthe regiment in November.65 By that time, Congress had divided the army'soversized units into three ten-companyregiments, by adding two new companiesto each battalion. The First Battalionof the Seventeenth Infantry(still under Heintzelman) retained the regimental designation, and was assignedto Heintzelman'sSubdistrictof Eastern Texas. The Second Battalionwent to Austin, where it becamethe Twenty-sixth Infantry under the commandof Brevet Major General Joseph J. Reynolds. Reynolds, however, was placed on detached duty to head the Subdistrict of the Rio Grande, vice Steele, at Brownsville. The Third Battalion,at San Antonio, was redesignatedthe Thirty-fifth Infantry under Brevet Major General Charles Griffin, who also commanded the Subdistrictof Central Texas. All three officers revertedto their normal rank of colonel, and each would play a part in the future course of Texas Reconstruction.66 As early as June of 1865, Sheridanhad summarizedfor General Grant the accomplishmentsof the military in Texas. The former Confederate state had been successfully occupied by the victorious Union forces, home guard units had been disbanded,the slaves had been freed, Unionist refugees had been invited to return to their homes and reclaim their property,laws enacted by the Confederate
65H[oratio]G. Wright to George Lee, July 21, 1866, in "Conditionof Affairsin Texas," HED 61, 39 Cong., 2 Sess. (Serial 1292), 4. 66St. Chubb, "Seventeenth Regiment," in Rodenbough and Haskin (eds.), Army of the United States, 637; AmericanAnnual Cyclopaedia 1866 (New York, 1872), 30-33. Sheridan to Townsend, October 24, 1866, Sheridan Papers, LC. Sketches of each regiment are in Francis B. Heitman, and Dictionaryof the United StatesArmy(Reprint ed., 2 vols., U. of Illinois Press, HistoricalRegister 1965), I, 113-15, 125 -26, 133. Boundariesof the Texas districts and subdistricts are in GO 4, July 20, 1865, Department of Texas and Louisiana, OR, XLVIII, pt. 2, 1094-95. For Reynolds in Texas, see William L. Richter, "We Must Rubb [sic] Out and Begin Anew': The Army and the Republican Party in Texas," Civil War History, XIX (December 1973), 334-52. Griffin is in Richter, "Tyrant and Reformer: General Griffin Reconstructs Texas, 1866-1867," Prologue, X (Winter 1978), 225 -42. On Heintzelman's role, see Richter, "Texas Politics and the United States Army, 1866 -67," MHTS, X(No. 3, 1972), 171.
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authorities had been invalidated, and local citizens had been held responsible for the activities of jayhawkers and guerrillas.67 It seemed like an impressive start, but appearances were deceptive. Sheridan's Army of Occupation had been unable simultaneously to police the frontier, guard the international border, and guarantee the political and civil rights of freedmen and loyal whites in the vast Texas interior. A multiplicity of duties - many of an unfamiliar, unmilitary, and political nature - had stymied the ability of soldiers to win the peace. Moreover, the initial occupation of Texas revealed a great deal about the attitudes, makeup, and disposition of veteran troops retained on duty in a remote country after hostilities had ceased. Union commanders found Texans combative, but the volunteers provided more problems. War-weary and homesick, these citizen soldiers vented their frustrations on the local populace, blacks, and one another. The regulars who finally arrived to replace the volunteers were often mutinous and hard to handle, and offered similar headaches to their officers and to civilians. As such, the story of the military occupation of Texas sheds interesting light on the role of the army in postwar reunification.
67Sheridan to Grant, June 30, 1865, OR, XLVIII, pt. 2, 1031-32; Sheridan to Rawlins, November 14, 1866,itat., pt. 1,300-301.

It Is Best To Go in Strong-Handed Army Occupation of Texas, 1865-1866

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It Is Best To Go in Strong-Handed Army Occupation of Texas, 1865-1866

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Journal of the Southwest

STRONG- HAND ED"

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ARIZONA andthe WEST

ARIZONA andthe WEST

ARIZONA andthe WEST

ARIZONA andthe WEST

in... Texas (Washington, D.C., 1866), 1-35.

ARIZONA andthe WEST

OCC l/PATION of TEXAS

and theWEST ARIZONA

ARIZONA andthe WEST

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