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The following instructions and suggestions for troops that served in the Indian country were prepared by an old Army officer as the result of actual experiences of thirty years of frontier service. They were published by General Reynolds, in General Orders No.77, Headquarters, Department of Texas, in 1859 with reference to the fact that “so many of the officers now serving in the Indian country have not had handed down to them the usages of the old Army in Indian matters and in traveling over the great plains. We publish them now, when most of our Army are serving in the Indian country and are likely to have abundant occasion to make use of all their Indian lore.”

Marching and Encamping

No soldier will leave a military post or station, on field service, without first having been carefully inspected by the commanding officer, or by some suitable person by him designated. The inspector will see that such soldier is provided with arms and equipment, serviceable in every particular; that he has the prescribed amount of ammunition; good shoes; a change of underclothing; blanket, haversack, canteen, knife, fork, spoon, tin cup, tin plate, towel, comb, razor and a piece of soap. The inspector will see that the horse of a cavalry soldier is in apparent good health and well shod; that the horse equipments are in good repair and well oiled; that there is a lariat at least twenty feet long, and an iron picket pine; also a curry-comb and horse-brush. If an officer, whether of the line or staff, is to have charge of soldiers leaving a post or stations for field service, or as escort, such officer must be present at this inspection, personally to know the conditions of his men and animals before he starts. Means of transportation leaving a post or stations with or without troops, to be absent in the field or on ordinary roads, should in like manner be critically inspected.

If the journey lies through a country infested with thieves or hostile Indians, each teamster and employee must be armed and supplied with ammunition. Each teamster must have a curry-comb, horse-brush, bucket, axe, and extra helve, hand-axe or hatchet and spade. In a train of three or more wagons there should be a pick-axe and two spades to every three wagons, with which to repair roads. With each of such trains there should be two or three scythes, complete, and scythe-stones; a hand saw; two augers of suitable sizes; a monkey-wrench; one or two mortising chisels; a coil or less of lariat rope; one or two lanterns; a band and shoeing hammer, wrought nails, mule shoes and nails; extra linchpins, tongues, bounds and coupling poles; the timbers to be tied on the outside of the wagon beds. Also extra hamess, collars, halters, singe and double trees, and trace chains; some open links; saddler’s awls; and a few buckskins. A teamster with an awl and a strip of buckskin can soon repair broken harness. There should be for service in a country infested with hostile Indians, a six-gallon water keg in good order and tight; hung under each wagon. Larger kegs cannot well be carried from where filled to the wagon by one man. If troops travel with a train, or with wagons, there should be enough of these kegs to afford at least two quarts of water to each man, including teamsters and employees.

In ordinary marches, the cavalry soldier should march on foot, leading his horse, every third hour. Of course, all mounted officers marching with cavalry organizations will set the example of traveling on foot, when the cavalry soldier is required so to travel.

There should be a halt of ten minutes after the first fifty minutes of a day’s journey and of at least five minutes at the end of every subsequent hour.

When animals receive grain forage and are in good order, a day’s journey can be made without unsaddling cavalry horses or taking draught animals out of harness. When animals depend entirely on grazing, it will keep them up longer, especially if not in good flesh, to make, say two-thirds of the journey or thereabout, and then turn out and graze, and rest until the heat of the day is past; then saddle, harness, and move on so as to arrive at camp by or before sunset. It is always better to have daylight to see the surroundings of the camping place, collect fuel, get water, etc. When grass is scarce or lacks nutriment, and horses and mules are thin in flesh and travel-worn, two halts a day should be made to enable them to graze, or they will give out and break down entirely.

If a party is small and liable to be attacked at night, it should do all its cooking in the daytime. Supper should be eaten before dark, water kegs filled, and bundles of fuel with which to cook breakfast tied under the wagons. The party should then move away from the watering hole or spring, and, after nightfall, move off road and camp in some valley or depression in the ground where the men, animals and wagons will not be seen relieved by the sky, and where an enemy, if he comes, will be thus visible. Each depression in the ground camped upon will doubtless have some run or ravine by which it is drained. In this, a gunshot distance from the camp, three sentinels, if the size of the command will admit of it, should be posted---one to stand post, the others in turn to sleep near him. Indians creep up such hollows where they might surprise a camp; they might shoot one sentinel with arrows; they could rarely shoot three with arrows before an alarm would be given. Under such circumstances a good sentinel will sit down near his comrades so that he can awaken them by a touch in case of need; will keep in the shadow, and depend upon his vigilance at night as much upon his ears as his eyes. Of course there will be other sentinels posted if the command can afford them; and these in like manner, should be posted in threes within the depression so as just to look over its rim, being in shadow and bringing against the sky any one who approaches. In a camp set for the night, there must be no loud talking, no fire, no light, no striking of flint and steel, no burning of matches. When it is determined upon before night that such a camp must be made, the men with their knives (if there be no scythes along) should grass enough for the horses and mules for the night. This they bring in on their blankets and stow it away in bundles in the wagons. By doing this, when danger of attacking is impending, all the horses and mules can be tied to the wagons or to a line and be securely fed, while the men, not being embarrassed by loose or scattered animals, have nothing to do but fight any one who menaces the camp. It often occurs when horses and mules are picketed out that a single Indian will crawl among them, cut a lariat, and gradually crawl away leading a horse or mule until out of range. He will then mount and ride slowly away until beyond earshot, and afterward double by circles of miles to catch views of the ground passed over by his own trail, that he may watch and count his pursuers as they slowly follow his tracks, step by step, himself unseen.

In hostile Indian country a small escort should always precede the person escorted. On such occasions creeks or ravines to be crossed, or canons or other dangerous places to be gone through, should be first carefully reconnoitered. After these are passed the escort will never move on without having the person escorted well up on it. If danger be imminent, two or more men will travel as an advance guard ---some fifty or one hundred yards in front, and a like number in rear as rear guard. In broken ground, one man, at least, should march a hundred yards or more on each flank, abreast of the advance guard, but always in sight of it.

Arms should be carefully inspected by the officer in charge every night before the men lie down to sleep. The carbine or musket of each soldier should be carefully loaded, the piece at half cock and laid beside its owner on his blanket, muzzle toward his feet to prevent danger from accidental discharge, and also to be in position to be readily seized and aimed. If the man has a revolver, the inspector will see that it is not only fully loaded and capped, and that the cylinder revolves easily, but that the hammer is on the stop. When danger of an attack during the night is apprehended, the man will not be permitted to remove his pistol from his person, or his shoes from his feet. In the morning, without fail, the men, teamsters and all, will fall in quickly and completely armed, when called by signal or otherwise. This practice will accustom the men to seize their arms ready to fight the moment they spring from bed---even when awakened at any hour. When everything has been prepared for the march, the officer in charge, before a man leaves the ground, will have another careful inspection of the arms and the outfit generally, personally, to know that each man is ready to fight at moment’s notice. He will see that the canteens and kegs are filled, if he is still near water; if not near water, this will be done under his own supervision at the next water on the route. Under no circumstances will teamster’s arms be stowed in wagons or feed boxes, or in the ambulances under other things, but be kept strapped to the bows of the wagon, or stanchions of the ambulance, breech toward the owner, at half cock, ready for use in a moment. Let this be remembered. Many a life has been lost by forgetting it.

The person in charge of an escort, detachment, or train should, by previous inquiries, have learned as far as possible all about the road or country he is to pass over from day to day, to the end that if no fuel is to be found at his next camp or halting place, he may have a few fagots or “buffalo chips” put on his wagons for cooking. Fires made of green wood make much smoke, which at nightfall settles along valleys and low places, and can be seen a long way off. Fires made from dried hard wood make but little smoke, which seldom settles or becomes visible, even when a norther or other sudden cold change in the weather is about to take place. The burning brands of wood left after cooking is done should at once be scattered and extinguished by shoveling dirt upon them, especially at night when fire is no longer required, even though the camp is to remain for the night; first, that the fire may not be seen; second, that sudden gusts or gales of wind may not blow sparks into wagons, tents or beds, or set the neighboring grass on fire; third; that the remaining unburned wood may be used next morning, or by yourself on your return trip, or by some needy traveler. Soldiers and teamsters have the bad habit, when about to leave a camp or halting place, of piling all remaining wood upon the fires. Fires should be extinguished and the remaining brands and logs should be scattered. It takes but very little fuel, if carefully husbanded, to boil a kettle of water for coffee, bake bread or fry a pan of meat. If possible, bread should be baked in the daytime at points where fuel is plenty. If properly made, it will last and be good for two or three days, especially in cold weather.

In Texas especially, and on the plains generally, all rivers, streams, and dry beds of creeks are subject to very sudden and dangerous floods, sometimes from distant rains, when overhead the sky is clear and not a drop of rain has fallen. Therefore troops and trains should always cross one of these and then move on to ground certain to be above the reach of any freshnet, before they encamp. This rule should never be forgotten.