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WR:TINCS OF SAM HOUSTON, 186'1
Under this order minute companies of fifteen men each were mustered into service in the following counties: Lieut. Scanland, Montague; Lieut. Isbell, Wise; Lieut. Cochran, Young; Lieut. Jones, Palo Pinto; Lieut. Stevens, Eastland; Lieut. Lowe, Erath; Lieut. Price, Comanche; Lieut. Nelson, Bosque; Lieut. Gentry, Hamilton; Lieut. Font le Roy, Coryell; Lieut. Cowan, Llano; Lieut. Wood, San Saba; Lieut. Hughes, Lampasas; Lieut. Lewis, Mason; Lieut. O'Hair, Burnett; Lieut. Franzelin, Gillespie; Lieut. Balentyne, Bandera; Lieut. McFadden, Kerr; Lieut. Ken- nedy, Uvalde; Lieut. Patton, Blanco; Lieut. Brown, Bexar; Lieut. Watkins, Medina; Lieut. Ragsdale, Frio. In addition to putting this force of minute men in the field, the Executive, in order to enable the frontier citizens to more successfully defend themselves, purchased and distributed through the frontier counties one hundred Colt's revolvers, which, with a number of revolvers, rifles, and muskets, were sent forward. Ammunition was also supplied to the minute companies. To pro- vide for the defense of the settlement beyond San Antonio, an order was issued on the 5th of March, to Capt. Peter Tomlin- son, of Atascosa County, to raise fortp'-eight men, to whom were assigned the range between the Frio and the Rio Grande. Captain Tomlinson was mustered into service on the 20th of March. It will thus be seen up to this period the Executive had called into service a ranging force of 720 men, which might be in- creased upon ari. emergency to 950. The greater part of this force was then in active service, and as a result the Indians dis- appeared from the settlements. The monthly reports of the officers commanding the minute men now on file in the Execu- tive office attest this fact. The minute companies of fifteen men were kept in service until the 18th of May, when, there being no longer a pressing·necessity for their presence in the field, they were disbanded, subject to be called out at any moment by order of the Chief Justice of their county. Before, however, these forces could be brought to bear on the settlements many murders had been committed, and a la',:ge number of horses stolen. With a view of avenging these out- rages, and the recovery of the property of . our citizens, the Executive determined to send against the Indians a force suffi- cient to discover their hiding-places, and accomplish these objects. It had long been the opinion of the Executive that the horses stolen from us are herded at some central point between our
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