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Elite cavalry regiment enters Texas
On this day in 1855, troopers of the Second United States Cavalry
Regiment entered Texas for the first time. The Second, one of four new
regiments approved by Congress in the spring of 1855, was organized
specifically for service on the Texas frontier. The regiment left
Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, in late October and rode through
Missouri, part of Arkansas, and a corner of Indian Territory before
crossing the Red River into Texas. Its officers were hand-picked by
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis; thus the elite regiment was known as
"Jeff Davis's Own." The Second Cavalry remained in Texas until the Civil
War. During its stay, companies of the regiment were involved in some
forty engagements along the western and northern frontiers of Texas and
along the Rio Grande, fighting Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas, and Mexican
marauders. The regiment was known for the outstanding quality of the
sixteen general officers it produced in the 6½ years of its existence.
The Second supplied one-half of the full generals of the Confederate
Army: Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Edmund Kirby Smith, and
John Bell Hood. The Second Cavalry was Lee's last command in the United
States Army.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- SECOND UNITED STATES CAVALRY
- DAVIS, JEFFERSON
- JOHNSTON, ALBERT SIDNEY
- LEE, ROBERT EDWARD
- SMITH, EDMUND KIRBY
- HOOD, JOHN BELL
- CIVIL WAR
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Wealthiest signer of Declaration of Independence arrives in Texas (1834)
- John Woodward appointed Texas consul general to New York (1836)
- Railroad runs excursion train to lure settlers (1887)
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