166 portion of them to Laredo and such other points on the Rio Grande as will enable them to give protection to the lives and property of the Citizens of that section of the State. I have the honor to be Very respectfully Your obt servt EM PEASE
Copy of letter to Gen P F Smith 24 March 1954 Recorded
[Endorsed:]
No. 124 LETTER FROM E. M. PEASE TO JEFFERSON DAVIS Executive Office
Austin Texas 24 March 1854
Hon Jefferson Davis Secretary of War Sir
I beg leave to call your attention to the robberies and murders that have lately been committed by the Indians on the frontier of this state the enclosed copy of the proceedings of a public meeting held at the town of Laredo on the Rio Grande on the 11th inst shows that within the last two months seven citizens of that county have been murdered by the Indians, and that a large amount of property has been stolen and destroyed by them. Their depredations have been committed in the immediate vicinity of Fort McIntosh [torn] I learn is garrisoned by several companies of US. Infantry, and yet the perpetrations of them have in every instance escaped with impunity. This fact is not mentioned for the purpose of creating any reflection upon the character of the troops stationed at that point, but to show that infantry are entirely inadequate to restrain the Indians and to give protection to the portion of this State. The Indians them- selves know this and presume upon it, and they will never be kept in check except by a force that has the means of promptly pur- suing and chastizing them in every instance. In addition to the depredations detailed by this mutiny, a large number of horses have been recently stolen from the vicin- ity of Eagle Pass above Laredo. Several persons have also been killed and property stolen on the road leading from the Nueces to Brownsville and in the neighborhood of Fort Merrill. Indeed al-
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