472
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
whom you are to organize an army! Why, sir, they are men who have never, perhaps, shouldered a gun, or even made a mimic war with a cornstalk in a company muster-field, and who would cut an indifferent figure even at that. They are men who have never bestrode a horse in their lives, and who know nothing about horses. These are the men that you are to convert into cavalry; men taken from cities, who never fed a horse, or bridled a horse, or saddled a horse, or rode a·horse; and they are to form your dragoon corps! These are the men to pursue wild Indians that could ride a buffalo, if necessary, in a chase? I have heard something of their drilling. They are drilled on the frontier of Texas; and I am told it is an elegant farce to see it done. Sometimes they are so awkward that, really, they have to be tied on the horses in order that they may not fall off. After some experience in that way they are untied, not knowing how to brace themselves, or make taut the rein, or apply the spur, or handle the sword; and a stand is made of bars, for the purpose of practicing leaping, and in jumping three feet high on a horse. They either, in alighting, go heels over head, or, at the first rising to leap, they go head over tail. [Laughter.] These are the men who constitute your cavalry! These are the men that are to pursue Indians! These are the men that are to take care of their horses! They know nothing about it. On the frontier it requires an accomplished equestrian, a man who is qualified to take care of his animal; who understands his disposition, knows how to regard him, and continue his usefulness, or make him more useful. These men do not know how to take care of their horses. What is the consequence? The cavalry stock of the United States must die off; a new supply must be bought; fine animals pur- chased. One of these men cannot hobble his horse, that he may graze for food, or stake him out to the end of his tether, where he may range and be refreshed in the morning. He has knowl- edge enough to induce him to tie him up to a tree at night, that he may be safe in the morning, and if he can luxuriate on the bark of the tree, very good; if not, he may starve. These are the men whom you enlist for cavalry; who know nothing about the exercise or disposition of the animal, or about his duty. Such men have to learn everything. It is a new existence to them. They enter on a new theater. After having habituated himself to a different life, such a man is to be transformed into a new animal himself. This mode of producing an army will never do. Who are they generally that would enlist now? Are they men of enterprise?
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