The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993 Page: 12
681 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
of firepower rather than tactical finesse. Beginning in 1849, Fort Inge
mounted troops carried the six-shot cap-and-ball Colt pistol, the decid-
ing technical factor in the antebellum Indian conflict. The Fort Inge
post commander reported in 1850, "To a few men [the Colt pistol]
gives the strength and confidence of numbers and inspires the savage
with dread." By 1853 most of the companies on the Texas frontier, in-
cluding the mule-mounted infantry, were equipped with the Colt, al-
though some units had only one-half the required number of pistols.
The standard issue rifles on the antebellum Texas frontier were the .58
caliber round-ball U.S. 1841 Springfield Rifle, called the "Mississippi
Rifle," and the U.S. 1855 Springfield Rifle-Musket, firing a .58 caliber
conical minie ball. Single-shot, muzzle-loading rifles were a burden and
largely ineffective on the Texas frontier. An officer observed the rifle
was "both troublesome and dangerous to carry on horseback." Rifles
were replaced with shorter breech-loading carbines, such as the .52 cal-
iber Sharps, beginning in 1852, augmented in 1855 by the U.S. Car-
bine, .58 caliber for cavalry. In the immediate post-Civil War years the
mounted troops of Fort Inge carried fast-loading metallic cartridge
weapons, the Colt pistol, as well as breech-loading carbines such as the
Spencer. Infantry soldiers used the breech-loading metallic cartridge
conversions of the earlier Springfield muzzle-loaders in 1865-1866. In
1868 the new .50 caliber U.S. Springfield Rifle, called the "trap-door"
model, began to be issued on the frontier.22
The mounted soldiers of Fort Inge were traditionally issued the
saber, but rarely carried it on frontier patrols. A veteran dragoon offi-
cer at Fort Inge noted of the saber, "In marching makes a noise which
may be heard at some distance, perhaps preventing surprise, and in a
charge, when not drawn, is positively an encumbrance."23
22On the Second Dragoons at Fort Inge m 1849 being armed with Colts see Bvt Lt Col
William J. Hardee to AAAG Tree, Aug 27, 1849, Eighth Department, Aug 27, 1849 as con-
tamed in Theo. F. Rodenbough, From Everglade to Canon wzth the Second Dragoons . . (New
York: D. Van Nostrand, 1875), 165. For the quote on Colt pistols see Hardee to AAAG, Eighth
Department, Nov. 20, 1850, File H458/1850, RG 90 (NA). On equipping the frontier with Colt
pistols see Crimmlns (ed.), "Freeman's Report," SHQ, LI (Jan., 1948), 255 (3rd quotation) LII
(Oct., 1948), 228, and LII (Jan., 1949), 350, and Crimmins (ed.), "Mansfield's Report," SHQ,
XLII (Jan., 1939), 248. On rifles, muskets, and carbines, see Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 27 (2nd
quotation); Crimmins (ed.), "Freeman's Report," SHQ, LI (Oct., 1947), 173, LI (Jan., 1948),
255 (3rd quotation), LII (Jan., 1949), 350, LIII (July, 1949), 77; Merritt Roe Smith, Harpers
Ferry Armory and the New Technology- The Challenge of Change (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1977), 346; Randy Steffen, The Horse Soldzer, 1776-1943 (4 vols.; Norman: University of Okla-
homa Press, 1977), II, 49-52, 83, 132; Martin Rywell, United States Military Muskets, Rifles, Car-
bines (Union City, Tenn.- Pioneer Press, 1963), 19-25; and Col. Philip M. Shockley, The Trap-
Door Springfield zn the Service (Aledo, Ill . World Wide Gun Report Inc., 1958), 5 (4th quotation).
23 Hardee to AAAG, Eighth Department, Nov 20, 1850 (quotation), File H458/1850, RG 90
(NA). Lt. Dabney Maury, a Rifles officer at Fort Inge in 1853, recalled, "It was usual for our
men in the Rifles to put away their swords whenever they went upon a hostile expedition."
Maury, Recollectzonu of a Virginzan, 105. For details of the standard frontier cavalry saber see
Steffen, The Horse Soldzer, II, 50.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993, periodical, 1993; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101215/m1/38/: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.