Chapter 2: 1872: Fort Davis, Texas

In eighteen sixty-nine, Congress again reorganized the Army infantry, in effect reducing the infantry from forty-five regiments to twenty-five. The colored regiments were reduced from four regiments to two regiments. Specifically, on November first of that year, the Thirty-eighth and the Forty-first (my regiment) colored regiments were consolidated into the Twenty-fourth U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment and the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth were consolidated into the Twenty-fifth U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment.

The reorganization did not extend to the ten cavalry regiments that had been created in eighteen sixty-six; they were unchanged. The Ninth and Tenth Cavalries remained colored units.

The Twenty-fourth Infantry Regiment, besides maintaining the nine border posts garrisoned by the disbanded Forty-first, was also given the responsibility of garrisoning Fort Davis, Fort Lancaster and Fort Stockton. The latter two posts were east of Fort Davis along the San Antonio-El Paso Road. Fort Stockton was about ninety miles from Fort Davis by the Road, or about seventy miles if using the horse track through the mountains. Fort Lancaster was a bit more than eighty miles further east, beyond Fort Stockton. Assisting in the Twenty-fourth’s mission to garrison the twelve posts were were two companies of the Ninth Cavalry.

To better understand the army’s involvement in Texas in the face of Indian, bushwhacker, and bandit threats at that time, it might help to know that there were more than three dozen garrisoned U.S. Army posts in Texas by eighteen seventy-two. They were in every corner of the state as well as scattered across the interior. Most were units of white infantry and cavalry regiments, though the more southern outposts were usually manned by colored troops.

For us foot soldiers of the Twenty-fourth, there were some familiar faces in the officer cadre. In fact, Colonel Ranald Mackenzie and Lieutenant Colonel William Shafter, both from the old Forty-first, were placed in command of the re-organized Twenty-fourth Infantry Regiment. Meanwhile, Major George Schofield had transferred to the Tenth Cavalry Regiment and was replaced by Major Henry Merriam, who now served as administrative officer for the Twenty-fourth. Major Merriam was another veteran of The War who had distinguished himself in several actions in command of colored troops. While Major Schofield had been well-respected and his loss was significant to the regiment, Major Merriam was a worthy addition to our ranks.

The new regiment’s headquarters was at Baton Rouge, former headquarters of the Forty-first, but our field headquarters was to be at Fort Davis, where the two disestablished regiments’ encampment lines had intersected, and close to the intersection of the Military River Road with the San Antonio-El Paso Road.

Moreover, while border incursions had, to a degree, become less frequent, attacks by Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa raiders had increased in central and western Texas and into neighboring New Mexico Territory on the west and in Indian Territory and Kansas to the north. Though border security remained our responsibility, our more immediate field of operations stretched from the Pecos River valley in Texas into the badlands of south-eastern New Mexico and throughout the Rio Grande Valley, from Rio Grande City to Fort Quitman.

To our immediate advantage, the new regiment was over-strength. As an unexpected consequence XXotXX the reorganization, two under-strength regiments became one very over-strength regiment.

Recruitment after The War had not been able to keep pace with casualties and normal attrition in the ranks due to separations of those whose enlistments had expired. As a result, before consolidation, our average company contingent had dropped from sixty-four to fifty-two men. It had been even worse for the old Thirty-eighth, which had seen more Indian fighting and had suffered greater casualties.

The only cadre that had maintained strength with both regiments was the Indian scouts, who now numbered forty-one, including sergeants and corporals. There were a goodly number of young Indians, particularly among the Pawnee and the Black Seminoles, who were interested in serving with the Army.

But the recruitment of colored infantry replacements remained a problem. After the consolidation we were able to field fourteen companies with an average of seventy-two enlisted, though, three years after the reorganization, those number were now down to sixty-eight men comprising twelve companies The regiment was operating with three battalions of four companies each. Infantry scouts still owed first allegiance to their companies, but special detachment units were formed at both battalion and regimental levels when needed. The Indian scouts were assigned to the battalion, with fourteen men at First and Third Battalions and thirteen at Second.

My personal Army career had followed a similar involved path since eighteen sixty-eight.

In February of that year, I had faced a Court of Inquiry following an attack on our column at Chulo Wash, in Bexar County. While that Court had formed principally to determine what precisely had occurred rather than as a judicial proceeding, afterward Lieutenant Colonel Shafter had administered a non-judicial hearing. His assessment had found me derelict for my failure to properly maintain standard scout positions, thus allowing the enemy to approach and surprise the column. A number of men were killed, including my friend, Reeds Water, Sergeant of Indian Scouts. Reeds had lost his own life while protecting mine. It still weighed heavy on my heart.

Prior to beginning any proceedings, Lieutenant Colonel Shafter had offered me the option of taking the matter to a general court martial if I preferred that to the non-judicial administrative hearing. To my thinking, it did not require a court martial to establish the guilt I knew I bore, so I accepted the administrative hearing at which my dereliction was cited. Besides periods of confinement and hard labor, and loss of a month’s pay, I had been reduced in rank to corporal. Even so, I felt I had got off too easy, I had been careless and negligent, which had been the assessment of the Court of Inquiry. There was no excuse and I had offered none.

Nevertheless, a year later my sergeant’s rank was restored. Moreover, I learned that it had been Captain Lange who had recommended to Lieutenant Colonel Shafter that I be demoted. Lange knew that the serious consequence of a reduction in rank would help me deal with the guilt I felt over the deaths of my comrades in that battle. Lieutenant Colonel Shafter had only intended to sentence me to the confinement, loss of pay, and hard labor, but Captain Lange tadvised him that I was already punishing myself far more than the Army could, and he suggested the demotion as a means of tempering my having made myself my own whipping boy. They wanted me to remain in the Army and with the regiment, but they needed my best performance, so Captain Lange thought that adding the demotion to the punishment package would provide a figurative slap upside my head while still retaining my contributions to the non-commissioned cadre.

Looking back four years later, I had to agree that Captain Lange had made the right call.

As a result of my own failures, I had become more aware of blunders made by otherwise capable officers and soldiers simply through poor judgment and unintentional negligence. I realized that I had to accept that maybe I wasn’t as perfect as I had unknowingly assumed. I had exchanged several letters with Uncle Sammie regarding my performance, as well as having had several long conversations with Captain Lange. He had even written to Uncle Sammie, with my permission, and they had corresponded as well. What it amounted to was that I had a bit less of a bright-eyed view of myself and a more realistic appreciation of the grim necessities of military functions.

In that same interim, Twin Smith had been promoted to senior Sergeant of Indian Scouts, replacing Reeds Water. Smith was a member of the Caddo, a native people of the forested region of east Texas and western Louisiana. He was a good man and was respected by those who knew him.

After the Infantry consolidation, Captain Lange had been promoted to major and been appointed Chief of Scouts for the regiment. Shortly thereafter, I was promoted to first sergeant and given the title Sergeant of Scouts.