Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/649

 are herded at some central point between our settlements and the trading-posts where they are sold, and that from this point stealing parties strike for our settlements, leaving others in charge of the animals already taken. To punish these Indians, as well as to ferret out the parties who purchase our horses from them, required an able force, and was a work requiring much time and privation. The duty of raising troops for this expedition was assigned to Col. M. T. Johnson, of Tarrant County, to whom was issued orders on the 17th of March to raise a sufficient number of mounted rangers to repel, pursue, and punish the Indians now ravaging the north and northwestern settlements of Texas, with full liberty to dispose of the force under your (his) command, at your (his) discretion. In pursuance of this order Col. Johnson raised five companies of rangers of 83 men, commanded by Captains Smith of McLennan, Darnell of Dallas, Woods of Fannin, Fitzhugh of Collin, and Johnson of Tarrant. These rendezvoused at Fort Belknap, where they were joined by two companies under command of Capts. Ed. Burleson and W. C. Dalrymple, and on the 23d of May the expedition started for the Indian country.

The several reports of Col. Johnson to be submitted will furnish a full statement of the progress of the expedition. A portion of the troops were ordered back by Col. Johnson from Old Fort Radsminske the 30th of July. The others penetrated the Indian country beyond the line of Kansas, and after enduring many privations returned to Fort Belknap, where they were disbanded by order of the Executive.

Although no Indian depredations were at that time reported, the Executive, to guard against their repetition, ordered Capt. L. S. Ross to McLennan on the nth of September to raise a company of seventy men, and to take his station beyond Fort Belknap, where he arrived on the 17th of October,

On the 6th of December information reached the Executive of the most appalling outrages committed by the Indians in Jack and Parker Counties, Orders were immediately sent forward to Capts. Thos. Stocton, of Young, and James Barry, of Basque County, to raise each twenty-four men, and proceed to cooperate with Captain Ross in protecting the settlements. These troops did not then enter the service, but on the 17th of December an order was issued to Capt, A. B. Burleson to raise seventy men, which was followed by orders to Capt. E, W. Rogers, of Ellis, on the 26th of December, and to Capt. Thomas Harrison, of McLennan, on the 2d of January, to raise each seventy men, all of whom have now gone forward to Fort Belknap, where Col. W, C, Dalrymple, of Williamson County, acting under commission as aide-de-camp to the Executive, has been ordered to repair, to effect an organization of the troops, and to devise means for their efficiency.

It affords the Executive pleasure to state that the Indians who committed the late depredations in Jack and Parker Counties have been overtaken and killed, by a force under command of Captain Ross, whose report will be submitted.

The Executive, to support and render efficient the force which he has had from time to time in the field, has had no money at his command except the University Fund, amounting to $106,993.26, which was by special act of the Legislature authorized to be used for purposes of frontier defense. It was his opinion that the Legislature intended that this fund should be used alone for the defense of the Indian frontier, and not for the payment of claims on account of the war upon the Rio Grande. The troubles upon the Rio Grande, although