Head Quarters West Dept.
Camp Sabine Aug 28. 1836
Sir
I had the honor to receive by the last mail
your Excellency’s letter of the 8th of this month, advising me of
the Suspension by the President of the United States of the movement of
the Regiment of Mounted Gun-men which you did me the favor a few days
previously to notify me were about to assemble at Jackson preparatory to
their march to this frontier.
I deeply regret the trouble
and disappointment to the brave and patriotic Volunteers and more
especially the embarrassment to yourself individually,
which my requisition has occasioned.
However much I may have erred in the hope
and opinion which I entertained and expressed in my letters of the 28th of
April and 10th of May last that this frontier was no longer in danger of
being attacked, or again menaced by a formidable Savage foe, I have the
Satisfaction to find that no great evil or injury to the Service has as
yet resulted from the error _ an error in to which the wisest and best of
our Statesmen appear to have fallen -- and from the Same causes which had
operated upon my mind and misled me: -- namely, the apparent prospect of a
speedy termination of the war between the Mexicans and Texans -- I cannot
however admit that I have erred in requesting of your Excellency the
Regiment of mounted Gunmen in question.
I have during the last and present month
been strongly impressed with the belief that the whole of this frontier
would be involved in an Indian War, as soon as the threatened hostilities
between our blood-thirsty neighbors of the west should be renewed.
When I learned from the Secretary of War
that the President of the United States approved my views reported to him
in March and April last to assemble upon this frontier an effective force
of mounted men equal to that of either of the Belligerents -- a force that
would enable me to speak to both in a language they could not fail to hear
and to heed! And when at the same time I found myself expressly instructed
by a letter from the Department of War dated May 4. 1836- (of which a copy
is annexed No. 1) -- that the President will Sanction the employment of
whatever force may be necessary to protect the western frontier of the
United States from hostile incursions and that the Department of War had
addressed the Governors of the States of Louisiana, Mississippi,
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama requesting them to call into Service
such militia force as I may find necessary in carrying into effect the
instructions heretofore given to me adding “the theatre of operations is
so distant from the seat of Government that much must be trusted to your
direction”
“The two great objects you have to
attain, are first the protection of the ”frontiers and Secondly as strict
a performance of the neutral duties “of the United States, as the great
object of self defence will permit” --and when to this is added the
Secretary’s letter to you of the same date of which the following is
an Extract-- “I am instructed by the “President to request your
Excellency to call into the service of the United States, the number of
militia which have been or may be required by “General Gaines”
there can be no ground to doubt that I was fully authorised to request of
you the Regiment in question.
That from 4000 to 10000 Indian Warriors
will be employed against the inhabitants of the disputed Territory, as
soon as the Theatre of the war between Mexico and Texas is extended to the
left bank of the Brazos I have not a doubt: unless indeed the prospect of
our having on this frontier sufficient mounted force to repel the invasion
of the disputed Territory and afford to the defenceless inhabitants that
protection which we have promised to afford them.
I am more than willing to risk myself with
1600 men for the protection of a thinly Settled frontier of 400 miles in
extent; but with full authority from the Department of war to call for
whatever force I may deem necessary and proper for the purpose, I am not
willing to have less force than I have called for, without a force of 7000
men held ready for action upon this frontier the Indians can in one month
destroy nine tenths of the inhabitants within the disputed Territory; with
a great part of the adjacent Settlements, including those upon the Red
river from Alexandria to Fort Towson, embracing a large portion of the
original inhabitants when ceded to the United States with the finest
cotton growing Section of the United States, whose annual crop has already
amounted to millions of dollars.
If it be true that the Indians have
determined to commence hostilities as soon as the Mexicans approach the
Settlements East of the Brazos and that this is their Settled plan I have
not a doubt, then it must be evident that we cannot obtain from Tennessee
or from any of the central or Western States sufficient force to prevent
the apprehended depredations as they may be to a great extent perpetrated
whilst our requisitions for force are on the route to the States
authorised to furnish it. with this impression I cannot but consider our
promise of protection to this frontier wholly unsubstantial and calculated
to excite hopes and expectations which we shall not have the sure means of
fulfilling I cannot willingly be instrumental in producing on this border
scenes such as have occured in East Florida a frontier ravaged and
desolated before troops for its protection have been marched or authorized
to march from their homes In my letter to the Secretary of war of the 7th
of June acknowledging the receipt of his letters of the 25th of April and
4th of May I conclude as follows:-- “Although I have upon the whole
of this frontier about 1600 regular troops mostly Infantry yet it will be
recollected that this force has to guard an extent of 400 miles of
frontier unsupported by any other than very sparse settlements; and that
the chivalry of Mexico may be expected Soon to fly to the rescue of their
President and reinstate his Red allies, and inspire them with a spirit of
Revenge against their white neighbours recently Screened from their
barbarism. Under these impressions I have deemed it proper to request
Governor Cannon to authorize the Brigade of Tennessee Volunteers, enrolled
under his Proclamation of the 28th of April last to calculate on the
probability of another call to this place, and that should I have occasion
for Volunteers as I apprehend I shall, those enrolled shall have a
preference to all others.” In answer to which I received on the 3rd
inst a letter from the Secretary of war dated the 11th of July(of which I
annex a copy No 2) in which you will perceive no expression disapproving
my purpose to call for a Brigade of Tennessee Volunteers. The Secretary
however expressly authorises me to call on the Executives of Missouri and
Arkansas for one thousand men each. But this authority did not reach me
until the 3rd of this month, when I had reason to believe the Regiment of
Mounted Gun-men, requested of you had been raised and would be here before
I could have suspended their movement, if indeed I had deemed it proper so
to do. This however did not appear to me proper: on the contrary I deemed
it necessary to request of the Governors of Missouri and Arkansas the two
thousand men authorized as additional force -- for reasons set forth in my
letter to Gen Arbuckle (of which I annex a copy No 3) --
. 2 .
of these measures, the war Department has been regularly advised.
Some of our fashionable party leaders
Editors and others seem very much shocked at my preparatory measures to
cross a little muddy branch of the Sabine Bay (which branch Some are
pleased to call the Sabine whilst others of more literary pretension call
it the Rubicon)- to hold the savages in check merely because some few
white men have been killed by them and some women and children the wives
of the slain, have been taken prisoners and carried off to the bosom of
the wilderness!
In reply to such silly Effusions of the
Selfish slaves of party I need only to remark that in deciding upon the
course of measures proper for me to pursue, in reference to the outrages
committed by the Indians near me -- I think it my duty to consider the
poorest frontier family menaced with the Indian Scalping knife, as
Entitled to the Same attention and the Same vigilant measures of
protection, as the most fashionable of our interior citizens. If I were
capable of making an invidious distinction in such a case between the rich
and the poor-- the lordly politician and the humble pioneer, and of
taking more or less care of the one than of the other -- I should thereby
prove myself to be wholly unworthy of the trust reposed in me.
But I am exultingly reminded by some that
the people killed and those menaced by the Indians are not citizens of the
United States I reply that most of them are citizens of the United States,
and that whenever the national Boundary line is Established in the manner
provided for by Treaty many if not all of those who find themselves left
upon the Mexican Side of the line will return to our own beloved country.
But until then we must protect them from Savage Massacre.
Since I sat down to write this letter, an
express has arrived with a positive declaration that he had seen and
conversed with a Mexican Officer at an Indian Village forty miles to the
northwest of Nacogdoches, who was understood by the Indians to be engaged
in setting on foot an expedition against Nacogdoches This I believe to be
true because it is in accordance with the previous statements of Several
persons who are Entitled to credit.
I have the honor to be
with very great respect
Your obdt Servt
/s/
Edmond P. Gaines
Major Genl. Commanding
To his Excellency
Newton Cannon
Governor of the State of
Tennessee
Nashville
Source:
The original letter is the property
of the Tennessee State Library and
Archives, 403 Seventh Avenue North,
Nashville, TN 37243-0312. (615) 741-2764.
