205
WRITINGS OF SA!\'[ HOUSTON, 1860
Rangers to be accepted into the United States service. To be compelled longer to bear the burthen of her own defence is a hardship well calculated to wound the feelings of the people of Texas, and to make them feel that the Federal Government is unmindful of their interests. In urging the necessity of calling Texas Rangers into the field, I do not disparage the service of the regular troops now in Texas. So far as in their power, they have doubtless rendered protection; but it is impossible for infantry, or even ordinary cavalry, to overtake and punish the Comanches and other wild Tribes that depredate upon us. It requires men accustomed to the service,. and mounted on horses used to subsisting on grass alone. This character of aid is at hand, and I trust that the Federal Govern- ment will recognize the necessity of putting it in the Field. May I hope to receive an immediate reply from the War De- partment? Sam Houston. 1 Govenio1·s Letters; also Executive Records, 1859-1861, pp. 260-261, Texas State Library. 2 Nicholas William Battle was born in Warren County, Georgia, January 1, 1820. His father was a Methodist preacher of considerable eminence. In 1842, he was graduated from William and Mary College in Virginia. At this school, in addition to his regular academic course, young Battle studied law, and after his return to Georgia, he continued this study under the celebrated jurist, A. M. Spae. He was admitted to the bar at Macon, Georgia, in 1844, and ·set up his law office at Forsyth. But the prospects for rapid advancement in his profession offered by Texas, induced him to remove to Waco, Texas, in 1850. In 1854, he was elected district attorney, and was reelected in 1856. In 1858, he was elected judge of the district, a position he resigned in 1862 to enter the Confederate Army as a Lieu- tenant Colonel of the Thirtieth Regiment of Texas Cavalry. He served in the field during the remainder of the war. At the close of the war he returned to his law practice at Waco. In 1874, Governor Coke appointed him judge of the criminal district composing Waco, Marlin, and Calvert, but this position expired upon the adoption of the Constitution of 1876. In 1846, Judge Battle married Mary Ann Cabaniss, daughter of E. G. Cabaniss, an emin~nt jurist of Georgia. See Lynch, Bench and Bar of Texas, 606-509; Biog1·aphical Encyclopedia of Texas (1880), 239-242; Bentley and Pilgrim, The Texas Legal Directory, 1876-1877, 49. aFor Franklin L. Denison, see Houston to F. L. Denison, November 7, 1860, in this volume. 4 For Lawrence Sullivan Ross, see Houston to Ross, September 11, 1860.
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