The army was of immense importance in the life of the Republic of Texas. Such lawmakers as Mirabeau B. Lamar, who favored a strong defense establishment, were a powerful element in the Texas government, and the great expense of the army was perhaps the major factor in the republic's chronic financial difficulties. The army's drain on the treasury, however, was at least equalled by its demands on the nation's manpower. Although the land claims of the new republic were vast, including all of present-day Texas and parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming, its Anglo-American population probably did not exceed 30,000. Texas Mexicans, Indians, and Blacks-almost all of whom were either hostile or of doubtful loyalty-numbered approximately 22,000. As late as 1848 the number of Anglo-Texans had risen to only a little more than 100,000. Yet during the revolution Texas maintained an army that at one time constituted nearly one-tenth of its Anglo population, and in every year of its existence the republic recruited thousands of volunteers to fight Indians or Mexicans. President Lamar's most moderate plan for staffing the regular army required a force of 840 men, an astonishing one soldier for every fifty civilians.
The Army of the Republic of Texas was the direct lineal descendant of the revolutionary army improvised during the war for independence from Mexico. Though the urgency of military necessity during the revolution never allowed the formation of a regular Texas army, the provisional government was able to keep the "Volunteer Army of the People"-spontaneously organized during the first stages of the revolution-in the field and to make efforts to augment and improve its efficiency. These included the formation, at least on paper, of a regular army. The Consultation of November 1835 urged the formation of a force of regulars with an organizational and command structure patterned after that of the United States Army, and less than two weeks later the provisional government authorized the formation of a permanent regular army. Under the terms of this law the army was to consist of one brigade, numbering 1,120 men. The brigade was to consist of one regiment of infantry and one of artillery, each commanded by a colonel. Each regiment was composed of two battalions divided into five fifty-six-man companies. A lieutenant colonel commanded one battalion and a major the other. The infantry companies were commanded by a captain, with a first lieutenant, a second lieutenant, four sergeants, and four corporals as subalterns. The artillery companies were identically structured except that each was allowed a third lieutenant as well. Although no cavalry force was provided for in the law of November 1835, the following month a "Legion of Cavalry" was authorized. Smaller than regimental size, the legion was composed of 384 officers and men commanded by a lieutenant colonel and seconded by a major. The legion, divided into two squadrons of three companies of sixty privates each, was otherwise identical in organization to the infantry.
Army of One online free
This regular force was to be supplemented by a corps of "auxiliary volunteers," an "army of reserve" that it hoped to raise in the United States, and a militia force, patterned after the state militias of the United States. Finally, it undertook the formation of a number of irregular ranging companies for duty on the Indian frontier. These four basic military organizations formed during the revolution-the regular army, the volunteer army, the militia, and the ranger corps-evolved into the Army of the Republic of Texas. Financial problems and the almost constant threat of Mexican invasion and Indian depredation beset the republic's ten years of independence. Experimentation and improvisation therefore characterized the Texas government's approach to military problems until the annexation of Texas to the United States in 1845.
No sooner had the guns of San Jacinto fallen silent than Texas leaders undertook to replace the sometimes unruly and always inefficient volunteers who had won the nation's independence. Although the Texas revolutionary army never came close to recruiting its paper strength and never had more than one hundred regulars in its ranks, David G. Burnet's ad interim government, during the six months during which it managed the affairs of Texas, maintained the army laws passed by the Consultation. Sam Houston, the first constitutional president of the republic, largely reorganized the military forces, however, increasing the regular army to slightly more than 3,600 men in December 1836. This new army was to be commanded by a major general and two brigadier generals. The artillery and cavalry organizations and strengths remained much as they had been under Burnet, but the infantry arm was reinforced from one to four regiments. Also, for the first time, division, brigade, and regimental staffs were authorized. Although a large number of staff positions had been established by the general military ordinances adopted in November and December 1835, this largely improvised administrative corps evolved as need became apparent. No plan for a general staff had been formulated. As a consequence, haphazard and shoddy staff work became a major problem in the army. With Houston's reorganization of December 1836, these deficiencies were partially rectified, and administrative officers were authorized for several departments. During Lamar's administration the high-water mark of the Republic of Texas army, West Point-trained Hugh McLeod served as adjutant general, keeping the army's records and dealing with general administrative matters. Paymaster general Jacob Snively directed the financial bureau. Quartermaster general William Gordon Cooke, commissary general of subsistence William L. Cazneau, and a commissary of purchase managed the services of supply. William R. Smith headed the medical department as surgeon general, while inspection duties fell to Peter Hansbrough Bell as inspector general. An engineer and an ordnance bureau were also created and were commanded by colonels. Each brigade was also authorized to have a provost martial and chief of staff to oversee the regimental staff officers. At regimental level the staff consisted of an adjutant, an assistant quartermaster, an assistant commissary of subsistence, and a surgeon. Curiously, no judge advocate general was authorized by the December 1836 law. This basic staff structure remained in effect until 1840, when the poverty of the republic compelled a reduction in the number of staff officers and departments.
The Texas army had emerged from the revolution scattered around the new republic in a state of almost total inactivity. After San Jacinto, Sam Houston left the army to seek treatment in New Orleans for a wounded ankle, leaving Thomas Jefferson Rusk in command. Rusk continued in this capacity until Houston's inauguration as first president of the republic, but then reluctantly accepted the post of secretary of war in Houston's cabinet. Command of the 2,000-man army then devolved upon Felix Huston, a Mississippi planter of volatile temper and decidedly aggressive intentions toward Mexico. Huston's headquarters and the bulk of the army were located at Camp Johnson on the Lavaca River, and a small mounted detachment under Lt. Col. Juan N. Seguín reoccupied San Antonio. Galveston and Velasco also quartered small garrisons, and a line of crude forts on the Indian frontier was manned by small groups of mounted volunteers. Additionally, a small detachment under Capt. Andrew Neill guarded the crossing of the Colorado River between army headquarters and the capital at Columbia in order to intercept deserters. The veterans of San Jacinto and fresh volunteers from the United States were disappointed that no campaign against Mexico was forthcoming, while other soldiers were dissatisfied with short rations and meager clothing. Beans, flour, coffee, and sugar were in chronically short supply, and only beef cattle, driven up from the Nueces, seemed to offer an alternative to starvation. The adverse effect on morale and discipline was severe, and not surprisingly the army went into a serious decline as men were mustered out of service while others deserted.
In December 1836 a new senior brigadier general, Albert Sidney Johnston, was named to succeed Huston in command of the army. This appointment resulted in a near fatal duel when Huston's honor compelled him to call out the new commander and shoot him through the right hip (see DUELING IN THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS). Once recovered from his wound, Johnston attempted to apply the lessons that he had learned as a West Point graduate and a professional soldier of the United States Army to the Army of the Republic of Texas. Under Huston, the camps of the army had become the resting place for idlers and brawlers, and Johnston sought to curtail the sale of whiskey in the army and to impose military routine. Within two months, however, stricter discipline and a worsening supply situation produced serious discipline problems. In late March 1837 the garrison at Velasco under Capt. Martin K. Snell became unruly and disobedient. A Lieutenant Sprowl sided with the mutineers and left the post without permission. When Snell and a squad of soldiers followed him to a billiard room to apprehend him, he resisted arrest, and the two officers traded blows. Sprowl reached for his sword but Snell drew his pistol first and killed the renegade. Although this incident seems to have quieted the situation at Velasco, the mutinous spirit reached the main army at Camp Preston soon thereafter. Johnston's unpopularity grew with each day of military routine and monotonous rations, and on the night of April 3 six soldiers and a civilian were arrested smuggling whiskey into camp. The soldiers were placed under guard and the civilian was placed in irons. When one of the soldiers was later put in irons for refusing to work, the camp was outraged, and about fifty men rushed the guardhouse that night and released the prisoners. Rioting continued until midnight. Order was at last restored by the camp guard, and the prisoners were rearrested the following day. General Johnston relaxed his pressure on the men and ordered suspension of all drills until regular supply issues could be made. 2ff7e9595c
Comments