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No. 135 LETTER FROM E. M. PEASE TO JEFFERSON DAVIS, SECRETARY OF WAR
Executive Office Austin Texas 23 September 1854
Sir I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, this day, of your letter of the 29th of August, in which you stated that "it has been deemed proper to apprise him (Genl Smith) that the Department disapproves the conditional requisition which he made for troops" in his letter to me of the 29th July last. In my reply to the letter of Genl Smith containing that con- ditional requisition, I stated that I believed an addition to the troops now in service in this state was necessary to produce a feeling of security, with the inhabitants residing on and near the frontier, and that this belief was based upon a knowledge of the many murders and outrages that had been committed by the In- dians within the last six months. Knowing that actual hostilities had existed for that period of time, and I might have added, with propriety, a fact notorious here, that there was "imminent dan- ger" of actual hostilities and incursions being renewed, every day, for the Northern Comanches and several other tribes are and have been at open war with the citizens of this state for many years, and scarcely a month passes without their making incursions into this state. Upon the receipt of this letter by Genl Smith, he sent me, on the 20th of August, an unconditional requisition for six com- panies of mounted men, from the militia of this state, to be mus- tered into the service of the United States, on the first day of November next, for twelve months, unless sooner discharged. Under this requisition I have made a call for volunteers, and the companies are now being raised and will be ready to be mustered into the service of the United States at the time designated. I trust that this last requisition of Genl Smith will be ap- proved by you, for I feel certain, that without this addition to the troops now in service in this state, the lives and property of our frontier citizens are in imminent danger of being sacrificed. We have a frontier of many hundred miles, extending from Red River to the lower Rio Grande, which is constantly exposed to the depredations of hostile Indian tribes, who make frequent
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