Jeff Davis's Own: Cavalry, Comanches, and the Battle for the Texas Frontier - Hardcover

Arnold, James R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471333646 ISBN 13: 9780471333647

Publisher: Wiley, 2000

Synopsis

The men of the Second Cavalry went to Texas to fight Indians.

Then they returned home to fight each other. The creation of the Second Cavalry in 1855 was a watershed event in the history of the United States Army. Ordered to engage the Native American tribes whose persistent raids were slowing the settlement of the West, the officers of the Second were unwittingly preparing to fight each other. Established by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the Second and its officers were assigned-disregarding Army tradition-on the basis of merit and not seniority. Davis's innovation proved sound: Half of the full generals in Davis's Confederate army had served with the Second Cavalry prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.Texas's western frontier was their battleground, and the warriors of the Comanche tribe were their foes. Forsaking the infantry's rustic stockades that had merely served as detour signs for fleet raiding parties, the Second Cavalry developed innovative tactics to address a novel situation, thereby showing the army how to complete the conquest of the West. Led by men such as Robert E. Lee (in his first independent combat command), John Bell Hood, and George Thomas, the troopers of the Second Cavalry schooled themselves in the tactics and strategies of mobile desert warfare, tutored by a skilled and tireless adversary.Drawing upon a wealth of military documents, archival materials, period newspapers, and personal journals, Arnold adds a new and insightful chapter to the history of the U.S. Army and the men who shaped it.

About this title

About the Author

JAMES R. ARNOLD, a military historian, is the author of fifteen books, including Grant Wins the War (Wiley), Presidents Under Fire, and Marengo and Hohenlinden: Napoleon's Rise to Power.

From the Back Cover

The men of the Second Cavalry went to Texas to fight Indians.

Then they returned home to fight each other. The creation of the Second Cavalry in 1855 was a watershed event in the history of the United States Army. Ordered to engage the Native American tribes whose persistent raids were slowing the settlement of the West, the officers of the Second were unwittingly preparing to fight each other. Established by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the Second and its officers were assigned–disregarding Army tradition–on the basis of merit and not seniority. Davis’s innovation proved sound: Half of the full generals in Davis’s Confederate army had served with the Second Cavalry prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.Texas’s western frontier was their battleground, and the warriors of the Comanche tribe were their foes. Forsaking the infantry’s rustic stockades that had merely served as detour signs for fleet raiding parties, the Second Cavalry developed innovative tactics to address a novel situation, thereby showing the army how to complete the conquest of the West. Led by men such as Robert E. Lee (in his first independent combat command), John Bell Hood, and George Thomas, the troopers of the Second Cavalry schooled themselves in the tactics and strategies of mobile desert warfare, tutored by a skilled and tireless adversary.Drawing upon a wealth of military documents, archival materials, period newspapers, and personal journals, Arnold adds a new and insightful chapter to the history of the U.S. Army and the men who shaped it.

From the Inside Flap

In 1855, a unique crisis demanded a unique response. The government?s relocation of eastern Native American tribes and the increasing encroachment of settlers threatened the survival of the Great Plains tribes, most notably the Comanche. The "Lords of the Plains" reacted with furious raids against frontier settlements in Texas and Mexico.The government?s answer was the Second Cavalry, created by U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. Designed from its inception to fight a mobile war with innovative tactics, this select unit not only helped turn the tide of the battle for the West, it became the crucible that forged the commanders of both sides of America?s next great conflict. Sixteen of the officers who accepted appointments to the elite Second Cavalry became Civil War generals. No other regiment in the American army, before or since, produced so many generals in such a short time. Remarkably vivid and evenhanded, Jeff Davis?s Own offers the first in-depth examination of the exploits of the Second Cavalry. Drawing upon a wealth of military documents, archival materials, newspapers, and personal journals, James Arnold topples many of the long-standing legends surrounding the taming of the West. In their place, he offers a penetrating, frequently surprising look at the early service of some of the most outstanding leaders of the Civil War, and the creation of one of the army?s most storied regiments.The Second was the army?s elite. They rode thoroughbreds, with each company issued horses of a distinct, matching color; sat upon redesigned saddles; relied upon Samuel Colt?s five-shot revolver instead of the traditional saber; and wore a new uniform with a bright stripe on the trousers that earned the men of the Second the nickname "Yellow Legs." Abandoning established dogma, the Second adopted a new training manual, modeled after the French army?s experiences in Algeria and its advocacy of rapid movement and elastic formations.Jeff Davis?s Own follows the Second as it cuts a swath across Texas. It recounts in gripping detail the Second?s exploits, from the 1856 clash at Guadalupe River to Lieutenant John Bell Hood?s epic fight at Devil?s River the following year, to the time Major George Thomas (who would fight Hood in Tennessee in 1864) found himself escorting Indians in their exodus from Texas to Oklahoma, ironically defending them from vigilante mobs of settlers along the way. Excitingly told and meticulously re-searched, Jeff Davis?s Own is an intriguing and colorful saga of the commanders who united to fight an enemy on its native ground, then divided again to face each other across the battlefields of their own homeland.

Reviews

Created in 1855 by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the 2nd United States Cavalry was led by Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee and Maj. George H. Thomas. Arnold (Grant Wins the War) chronicles the birth and pre-Civil War service of this mounted regiment on the Texas frontier. When white settlers first moved into central Texas, the fierce Comanche warriors raided frontier settlements, stealing horses and cattle, killing men and carrying off women. After Texas became a state, the 2nd Cavalry was sent to guard the Texans and attack the hostiles. The result was a mixed bag of successes and failures as the cavalry companies grappled with the weather, civilians, hostile and friendly Indians, loneliness and isolation, and oftentimes lack of adequate supplies. Arnold writes of the unit's weapons and uniforms, its selection of horses, training at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, and its long march overland to the Texas frontier. The next five years were spent in frustrating combat and patrol against the Indians. There were occasional successes, such as Lt. John B. Hood's aggressive patrolling in 1857 and Earl Van Dorn's attack on a Comanche village at Crooked Creek in 1859. The regiment left Texas in 1861 and was redesignated the 5th U.S. Cavalry when the War Department reorganized the army's mounted units that year. Not since William Price's 1883 regimental history have the early years of this famous unit, which produced more general officers of Civil War fame than any other, received their due coverage. While this book will be a hard sell beyond its niche of regional war buffs, Arnold has produced an elegantly written narrative that will captivate anyone interested in this facet of American frontier history. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The author of Grant Wins the War (1997) provides a thorough, readable overview of the raising of the U.S. Second Cavalry and its activities on the Texas frontier. After the Mexican War, the U.S. was obligated to defend settlement in Texas and keep Indians in the new state out of Mexico. So restraining the Comanches, few in number but large in ferocity and skill, required cavalry. So Secretary of War Jefferson Davis generated the first two cavalry regiments, whose first three commanding officers were Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and George Thomas; 13 other officers also became Civil War generals. The cavalrymen were a motley lot, who on the whole gave useful service despite unsuitable horses; the climate, terrain, and size of Texas; the quality of the opposition; shortages of supplies; and the Texans' total lack of cooperation in any sort of peaceful relationship with the Comanches. More historians should produce books as balanced, erudite, and smoothly written as regularly as Arnold does. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471333646
• ISBN 13: 9780471333647
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384