WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
140
rank and file with three Lieutenants, four Sergeants and four Corporals for service in the neighborhood of Belknap. You will select as soon as it possibly can be done, twenty con- fidential men who will compose a portion of your command and order them forward to Belknap with all dispatch, to take charge of the rations stored there and to hold them until your entire command reaches that point. Upon the arrival of the company at Belknap you will hold an election for officers and forward the muster rolls with your certificates of the election to this Department. Should you deem it advisable you will divide your command and make two stations and if necessary to the comfort of your · men or the protection of your supplies, you will erect such build- ings as you may deem suitable and also such fencing as may be actually necessary for the protection of your horses. You will make your Posts or stations twenty miles from Belknap, selecting such positions as you may deem most advantageous for the protection of the lives and property of the people of that vicinity, and in the execution of this order, you will guard the passes leading into the country, and should Indians get into the settle- ments, you will attack and if possible destroy them, and you will hold yourself ready at all times to sustain the civil authorities in cases of outbreaks or resistance to the laws. You will use every economy in the distribution of your rations of which you will receive of Mr. Swindells or Mr. Luckett, or any person or persons in whose charge the supplies at Belknap may be left. Four months complete rations of such kind and quantity as may be best preserved by you for the use of the com- mand. As to the minor details of your orders you are referred to the enclosed printed orders to all Texians commanding in the Military service. The command is called out upon the same terms and under the same conditions as the Regiment under Colonel Johnson. You will be subject to the orders of the Executive alone, and will report only to this Department and as often as possible. You will take charge of all the supplies at Belknap and upon the return of Colonel Johnson's command you will distribute to them sufficient rations to take them home, the remainder you will be careful to have placed in a condition not to waste. Sam Houston.
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