WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
469
that they had always accompanied the settlements. That gentle- man, I must say with great deference to his general intelligence in this peculiar branch of knowledge, has been unfortunate; for you will find that some eleven stations in Texas, which have been occupied by the regular Army, where over three thousand men are stationed, have been advanced to very great distances beyond the settlements. You will find Fort Duncan advanced one hundred and twenty miles beyond the settlements when it was established; Fort Clark not less than forty-five miles; Fort Davis, three hundred miles; Fort Mason, fifty miles; Fort McKavitt, seventy- five miles; Fort Terrett, seventy-five miles; Fort Chadbourn, one hundred and fifty miles; Fort Graham, thirty miles; Fort Lin- coln, sixty-five miles; Fort Inge, eighty-five miles; Fort Belknap, one hundred and sixty miles; making the mean distance beyond the frontier seventy-nine miles at which these forts have been established. The expense of furnishing supplies at these various forts is at least equal to the amount that would support a regiment of rangers on the frontiers of Texas. The expense is immense. The pro- visions, and, if cavalry is stationed there, the forage for the animals, costs an immense sum. So, these troops may be with- drawn without detriment to Texas, and with benefit to the general necessities of the regular Army of the United States, if you leave Texas with eight hundred or a thousand rangers, who will give more protection than all the regular Army of the United States. They would be men who can ride on horses, who understand thoroughly the disposition of the Indians, who know their inclina- tion, their points of foray and attack, and who can pursue them to their fastnesses, or track them as the beagle would the deer. When, however, you take men such as constitute the regular Army, who are unaccustomed to frontier life, to whom Indian habits are unknown, who are utterly incompetent for these duties, they are useless on our frontier. For this reason I will cheerfully vote to give Texas such a force; and I would, if I were capable of doing so, advocate to a successful achievement the application for a regiment of rangers to protect her frontier. It is necessary; it is indispensable; and without it no efficient protection can be given. The force which has been there heretofore, though well designed, has been placed there under a misapprehension, and has not accomplished the purpose fo1· which it was intended; and therefore it is compara- tively useless. There is a plan by which protection can be given to that country. If a regiment of a thousand rangers be placed
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