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HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT, Natchitoches,
Louisiana, April 8,1836.
SIR: The war in Texas, which has of late assumed a sanguinary and savage aspect, has
induced the President of the United States to require a considerable augmentation of
the regular force to be concentrated upon this section of the national frontier, to
which my attention has been particularly directed. He deems it to be the duty of the
United States to remain entirely neutral, and to cause their neutrality to be respected,
peaceably if practicable, forcibly if necessary.
The thirty-third article of the treaty with Mexico requires both the contracting
parties to prevent, “by force, all hostilities and incursions on the part
of the Indian nations living within their respective boundaries, so that the United
States of America will not suffer their Indians to attack the citizens of the Mexican
States,” &c. The provision of this article I am particularly instructed to cause
to be enforced; and I have, pursuant to instructions, taken measures to make known to
the various Indian tribes inhabiting that part of the United States bordering on the
Mexican territory, on the waters of the Red and Arkansas rivers, the determination of
the government to prevent any hostile incursions into Texas; and have directed that
the chiefs be called upon to inculcate upon their people the necessity of carefully
abstaining from any violation of the above-mentioned engagements; and I have moreover
informed them, pursuant to the orders of the President, that I will not hesitate to
use the force at my disposal for the purpose of preventing such designs.
I have learned, from several of our citizens entitled to credit, that one
Manuel Flores, a Mexican Spaniard, but for some years past
a citizen of “ Spanish town,” in this State, near the Sabine ridge,
has been lately commissioned
by persons professing to act by-the authority of the Mexican government, for the
purpose of enticing the Indians in the western prairies, on our side of the boundary
line, to join them in the war of extermination now raging in Texas; and that, with
this view, the agent, Manuel Flores, accompanied by a stranger, has lately passed
up the valley of the Red river, and has already produced excitement among the
Caddo Indians; and I have very recently learned from several intelligent persons
in Texas, and others who have lately been there, that many of our Indians have
lately gone over to the Texas side of the line.
These facts and circumstances present to me the important question, whether
I am to sit still and
suffer these movements to be so far matured as to place the white settlements on
both sides of the line
wholly within the Tower of these savages, or whether I ought not instantly to
prepare the means for
protecting the frontier settlements, and, if necessary, compelling the Indians
to return to their own
homes and hunting grounds. I can-not but decide in favor of the last alternative
which the question
presents; for nothing can be more evident than that an Indian war commencing on
either side of the
line will as surely extend to both sides, a ’ s that a lighted quick match
thrust into one side of a powder magazine will extend the explosion to both sides.
But I am without mounted men, the only description of force which will enable me
to interpose an effectual check to the daily increasing danger which every intelligent
citizen with whom I have conversed upon the subject apprehends; and apprehending,
as I do, that the loss of a month, which it would require to submit the case to
the decision of the President of the United States, might prove fatal to a large
portion of the frontier inhabitants, I have determined to solicit of your
excellency a brigade, to consist of two or three battalions of volunteers,
as many to be mounted as practicable, to repair to this place as soon as may
be convenient, by companies or battalions; to receive their arms and camp
equipage at New Orleans and Baton Rouge. There may be eight or ten companies
to a battalion.
Should the war in Texas be brought to a close without the apprehended Indian
hostilities, the volunteers will, in that case, be discharged forthwith.
With perfect respect, I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
EDMUND P. GAINES, Major General, Commanding.
Their Excellencies the Governors of LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA, AND TENNESSEE.
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Source:
American State Papers, House of Representatives, 24th Congress, 1st Session
Military Affairs: Volume 6, Page 420.
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