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

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.

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.

About this edition

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