Frontier Army 1865-1885

Military Mission - When Texas seceded and left the Union, more than 3000 troops left in the state, abandoning their posts and leaving to put down the Southern rebellion. Over the course of the next four years, settlers on the Texas frontier either “forted up” and joined with other families for their own defense, or relied upon the Texas Frontier Battalion, which struggled to fulfill the task formerly carried out by federal troops. When the Civil War came to a conclusion in 1865, more than 39,000 U.S. troops soon occupied the state on Reconstruction duties, though on the frontier, states rights and secessionist opinions notwithstanding, U.S. troops were a welcomed presence as the army soon returned to their antebellum role as a constabulary force.

Associated Sites - When federal troops returned to the Texas Frontier, they initially reoccupied those posts that had been in use before the Civil War. Beginning in 1866, Forts Mason, Chadbourne, and Belknap were reopened, though all proved to be insufficient for long-term operations, and were soon relegated to subposts of larger outposts. Consequently, Forts Richardson, Griffin and Concho, along with a reactivated and much enlarged Fort McKavett made up the third generation of military garrisons in Texas, and would remain in operation for the next decade or longer. As was the case before the war, these garrisons were rarely attacked, and served primarily as supply bases for larger operations designed towards isolating Kiowa and Comanche Indians and moving them to reservations north of the Red River.

Manpower and Motivation - As was the case before the Civil War, native-born Americans had little use for a regular army in peacetime, and as a result, the peacetime frontier constabulary force was composed primarily of “bummers, loafers and foreign paupers.” This was particularly true after 1870, when the U.S. Congress instituted an across-the-board pay cut for all enlisted grades, which reduced a privates pay from $16 to $13 per month. The next year, 8800 troops, 32.6 percent of the Army’s enlisted ranks, deserted.