WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
47
Should you find any of the men belonging to the Detachment useless and inefficient, you will order the Lieutenant to discharge them, and if it should be actually necessary to the protection of the inhabitants, to fill such vacancies by substitution. You will call upon the Chief Justice of Coryell and inquire if he has taken possession of the State arms in the hands of Messrs. Fore and Costley. You will also inquire about government arms all along your route, and enter and report the same. You will use every possible dispatch in the duty confided to your care, and report, at large, to the Exec_utive Department at this place, making communications to this Department as often as possible, stating where you will be at different points ah~ad. Should you find it necessary to muster out any of the Minute Detachments, you will require the Lieutenant to state upon oath the exact number of days of service of each man in the pursuit of Indians and in the service of the State, separate and apart from the days employed in hunting stock or occupied in other engagements. Sam Houston. 1 Executive Recorcls, 1859-1861, p. 151, Texas State Library. :?The list of counties appended to this document is as follows: Burnet, Bosque, San Saba, Lampasas, Eastland, Erath, Comanche, Hamilton, Palo Pinto, Jack, Young, Coryell. To F. B. GENTRY 1 Executive Department, Austin, May 7, 1860. Lieutenant F. B. Gentry, Commander Hamilton County, Minute Detachment Sir: Your letter of April 23rd respecting your official authority is just to hand. Replying, I shall state that you will drop from your roll all such men as you describe, as though they had never been in the service. Such men should never have been mustered into your Detachment, and you will dismiss them without honor- able discharge by erasing their names from the roll. Any man refusing to submit to discipline or to obey orders, you will not hesitate to dismiss. Those who have deserted or who have absented themselves without leave will be regarded as deserters, and will have for- feited all claims for compensation. No claims of those who have deserted or refused to obey the orders of their officers will be recognized by the State.
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