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Legislature establishes Frontier Regiment
On this day in 1861, the state legislature established the Frontier
Regiment to patrol west of the line of settlements from the Red River to
the Rio Grande. Less than a month later, the Confederate Congress
authorized the secretary of war to receive the regiment into Confederate
service for the protection of the Indian frontier of Texas. President
Jefferson Davis vetoed the bill, however, because it withheld the
control of the executive of the Confederate States over the troops. In
early 1863 Governor Francis R. Lubbock attempted once more to transfer
the regiment to Confederate service, but President Davis again refused
to accept the regiment if it remained under Texas control. The Frontier
Regiment achieved its greatest successes during the summer and fall of
1863, after James E. McCord replaced James M. Norris as commander. State
authorities finally transferred the regiment to Confederate control in
1864, but only after the legislature approved the establishment of the
Frontier Organization to ensure the continued protection of the
frontier. During the last eighteen months of the Civil War the regiment
increasingly devoted itself to enforcing Confederate conscription laws,
arresting deserters, and tracking down renegades and outlaws.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- FRONTIER REGIMENT
- DAVIS, JEFFERSON
- LUBBOCK, FRANCIS RICHARD
- MCCORD, JAMES EBENEZER
- NORRIS, JAMES M.
- FRONTIER ORGANIZATION
- CIVIL WAR
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Governor Wood takes office (1847)
- Legislature passes act to encourage transcontinental railroad through Texas (1853)
- Political boss Jim Wells dies (1923)
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