 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Unit Histories
"The 9th Regiment of Cavalry" (1) 2 (3) (4)
It is difficult to fully appreciate all the work undertaken by the officers in those early days. The men knew nothing, and the non-commissioned officers but little more. From the very circumstances of their preceding life it could not be otherwise. It was a serious crime to teach an African-American to read or write before and during the Civil War. According to a report filed at the time about the new recruits, "They had no independence, no self-reliance, not a thought except for the present, and were filled with superstition. To make soldiers of such material was considered more of an experiment than as a fixed principle." The Government depended upon the officers of those early days to solve the problem of the colored soldier.
The colonel of the regiment was Edward Hatch, a young man full of energy and enthusiasm. He went right to work, determined to succeed, and in this his officers ably seconded him. They were all equally enthusiastic in proving the ability of colored soldiers, and in forcing the issue to a successful solution. The officers were compelled, not only to attend to the duties that naturally attach to the office of a troop commander and his lieutenants, but, in the endeavor to make finished individual soldiers of the black man and to feel that the troop, taken as a unit, was an independent fighting force, well drilled, well clothed, well fed, suitably armed and equipped, and thoroughly able to take care of itself in garrison or campaign. Unlike other cavalry regiments the officers of the 9th were forced to enter into the minutest details of military administration, and personally to assume nearly all the duties of the non-commissioned officer. The process of molding non-commissioned officers into a responsible and self-reliant class was a slow one. Troop officers were in fact squad commanders, and it took both time and patience to teach the men how to care for themselves.
The amount of writing that fell to the officers during the earlier years of the regiment is not to be passed over lightly. Fully to appreciate this, it must be borne in mind that the enlisted men were totally uneducated; few indeed could read and scarcely any were able to write even their own names. It is related that but one man in the entire regiment was found able to write sufficiently well to act as sergeant-major. (This was probably Emanuel Stance.) It was not an uncommon thing for a captain to assist his first sergeant in calling the roll, and an officer prepared every record, from the morning report to the monthly return. In time the simpler reports were mastered, but it is only in later years that troop clerks are found.
Early in June the regiment was ordered into western and southwestern Texas to assist in opening up once more that vast territory, extending from Fort Clark to El Paso, and from the Rio Grande to the Concho, River. By this time the regiment was deemed sufficiently well organized, equipped and disciplined, to be sent to the extreme frontier, and capable of undergoing the long and trying march into the wild and unsettled country that lay before it.
The regiment was distributed as follows: Headquarters and Troops A, B, E and K, Colonel Hatch commanding, at Fort Stockton; Troops C, D, F, G, H and I, Lieutenant Colonel Merritt commanding, at Fort Davis. Troops L and M had previously been sent to Brownsville.
The principal duty of the command in western Texas was to open up and protect the mail and stage route from San Antonio to El Paso; to establish law and order in the country contiguous to the Rio Grande frontier, which had been sadly interfered with by Mexicans as well as Indians during the Civil War; to prevent marauding by Indians and to capture and confine to their reservations all roving bands; in fact, to help pave the way for the western advance of civilization, and to add their part in the great work of opening to settlement the vast resources of the great West.
Having landed the regiment in this far away part of the country, a word or two of everyday garrison life during those early days, when the nearest railroad was six hundred miles distant, may be of interest. In many respects the everyday life of the men in garrison was difficult at best. There was drill, stables and parade duty; there were logging teams for the saw-mill and special details for the garden; men mixing mud for adobe bricks and burnishing brasses for orderly duty; but guard duty, though no more tedious than ever, was spiced with an element of danger which added zest to life. Strict orders prohibited all persons from leaving the immediate limits of a garrison, except in small parties, and they were enjoined always to carry their carbines. Heavy herd guards were detailed, and lookouts were posted on high ground during grazing hours.
The appliances for the personal comfort of the soldiers were few. Ashen slats on bunk irons and a bedsack filled with straw made a very good bed for the fortunate possessor, while the less favored ones were often at their wits’ end to improvise a comfortable resting place out of two blankets. Sheets, pillows, white shirts, linen collars and barrack shoes, were not dreamed of, and bath tubs were unknown, for the water system was limited to a huge tank on wheels, with eight mules, and a surly driver.
The stomachs of the men, even more than their bodies, were subject to a Spartan simplicity. The commissary kept only the component parts of the regular ration, and the pound of fresh vegetables was not a part of it.
