The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948 Page: 54

)otes aid DoImiCHts .
WV. . reemaa's Report oi the ighth military
Department
Edited By M. L. CRIMMINS
INTRODUCTION
HE first important inspection report on the United States
Army Posts in Texas was made by Brevet Lieutenant
Colonel William Grigsby Freeman.' In compliance with
the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, of February 2, 1846, the United
States agreed to prevent American Indians from marauding in
Mexico.2 The United States therefore established army posts
near the frontiers in Texas and pushed the posts forward as the
tide of civilization followed in their wake. In reading this re-
port, it is well to bear in mind the purpose of these army posts
and to keep in mind the attainment of objectives in the recom-
mendations that old posts be abandoned and new ones estab-
lished.
The writer of the report which follows, William Grigsby Free-
man, was born in Virginia and appointed to the United States
Military Academy from that state. He entered the Academy on
July 1, 1830, when he was fifteen, and graduated at the age of
nineteen, ranking fifteenth in a class of thirty-six.
Freeman received a commission in the artillery and served as
major of a regiment of Creek Volunteers during the Florida War.
Later he was assistant instructor of infantry and artillery tactics
at, the Military Academy, and assistant adjutant general, remain-
ing on this duty until his resignation in 1856 because of physical
disabilities. Freeman had received the staff grades of brevet
major and brevet lieutenant colonel "for meritorious conduct,
particularly in the performance of his duty, in the prosecution
of the war with Mexico."*
10O.Q.M.G. File Box No. 1. Item 51, San Antonio, National Archives.
2Order No. 46 Hq. 8th M.L. Depot. May 15, 1851.
3Army and Navy Journal, November 24, 1866, p. 222; George Washington Cul-
lum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military
Academy (7 vols.; Boston, 1891), I, 573-574.