Chapter 12: the Second cavalry.1
- Pierce elected. -- Jefferson Davis Secretary of War. -- strength of the army. -- increase of force asked. -- action of General Johnston's friends. -- recommended by Texas Legislature. -- Senator Rusk. -- William Preston. -- political appointments the tradition. -- Mr. Davis reverses the rule. -- General Johnston made Colonel of the Second cavalry. -- no Favoritisms. -- the appointments tested. -- Ben McCulloch's disappointment. -- General Scott's opinion of General Johnston's appointment. -- General Johnston's acceptance. -- public honors by his neighbors. -- enlistment of his Regiment. -- March to Texas with the Second cavalry. -- suffering from cold. -- Northers. -- illness. -- letters. -- patriotic apprehensions of disunion. -- opposition to abolitionism. -- Administration of his military Department. -- extraordinary success in repressing Indian outrage. -- activity of his command. -- the people satisfied. -- mode of dealing with the frontier people. -- his motives. -- General Johnston's influence with Young men. -- two illustrations. -- a duel prevented. -- a Filibuster overruled. -- his present estimate of General Johnston's character.
When General Franklin Pierce was elected President, he appointed General Jefferson Davis Secretary of War. Pierce's gallantry, amiability, and address, had enabled him to avoid the blunders of the other “political generals” in the Mexican War; while his actual service made him perceive clearly the necessity of positive qualifications at the head of the War Department. He had the good fortune to secure as secretary a man who combined political knowledge and administrative ability with a perfect experience in the details and requirements of the service. It is not too much to say that the department was never conducted with more intelligence and skill, or with more satisfaction to the army and the country. The secretary attempted and secured great improvements in the organization and efficiency of all branches of the service. In carrying out these plans he had to ask for an increase in the force, which resulted in a bill, passed March 3, 1855, providing for four new regiments-two of cavalry and two of infantry. The necessity for this increase in the strength of the army will be at once apparent by reference to the President's message, and to the secretary's report of December 4, 1854. The secretary says:
We have a seaboard and foreign frontier of more than 10,000 miles; an Indian frontier and routes through the Indian country requiring constant protection of more than 8,000 miles; and an Indian population of more than 400,000, of whom probably one-half, or 40,000 warriors, are inimical, and only wait the opportunity to become active enemies. If our army should be expanded to its greatest limits it would have a force of 14,731 officers and men; but as a large allowance must always be made for absentees, invalids, etc., the effective force would probably never exceed 11,000.The secretary also estimated the Indian frontier of Texas at nearly 2,000 miles, the lines of communication through the Indian country
