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Reconstruction and Military Government in the South, 1867–1870
Office of Civil Affairs, Part 4: Fifth Military District (Texas and Louisiana)
Reconstruction and Military Government in the South, 1867–1870, Office of Civil Affairs, Part 4: Fifth
Military District (Texas and Louisiana) chronicles the tumultuous period of Reconstruction in the state of Texas
and the military government’s attempts to maintain order despite racial tension, rampant Indian
attacks, and bands of armed outlaws. Nearly
all the documents in this collection are related
to thefts and murders committed by bandits,
Indians, or Mexicans. The collection contains
correspondence, official reports, court documents, and newspaper clippings collected by the
Bureau of Civil Affairs of the Fifth Military District
and the Department of Texas.
As the military government attempted to relocate entire
populations of native people, violent conflicts with Indians
were common. Many of the folders in this collection
contain letters from citizens and military reports regarding Indian attacks on settlers in Texas. One petition to
General Sheridan, received in October, 1867, requests that
a military post be established in Bandera County, northwest
of San Antonio, Texas, to prevent attacks by Indians. The
petition states: “Each full moon, during the spring, summer and fall, is the time, almost unfailing, for the Indians
to do their work; and so bold have they become that the
Philip Henry Sheridan commanded the Fifth Military District in 1867,
the Department of the Missouri from 1867–1869, and the Division of the
Missouri from 1869–1883. In this letter from September 1874 he describes a
confrontation between General Nelson A. Miles and Indians along the Red
River. Reel 5, Frame 0139.
noon day sun is often the witness of their
bloody deeds” (Reel 1: 0004). A newspaper article describes raids made by the
Kickapoo Indians on ranches near Rio
Frio and Neuces, Texas, and their habit of
escaping justice by crossing into Mexico.
The author of the article wrote: “Every
week brings its tale of murder scalping
and robbery, inflicted upon our people
by this handful of red banditti, with the
ridiculous farce of a pursuit stopped at
the Rio Grande!! Oh! for an hour of
Sheridan” (Reel 1: 609). In a letter from
Lieutenant General P. H. Sheridan to
Brigadier General C. C. Augur, dated
November 10, 1874, Sheridan wrote:
“I deem it necessary that you should
continue operations against the hostile
Indians in your Department until they all
unconditionally surrender or are killed”
(Reel 5: 0465). The collection also
includes reports by Indian Agents regarding the establishment and maintenance of
Indian reservations, and transcripts from
councils held with Indian chiefs.
Indians were not the only threat that settlers faced. Outlaws robbed, raped, and
murdered with impunity in the frontier
towns of Texas. This collection contains
numerous accounts of these crimes and
military reports of attempts to bring the
perpetrators to justice. In one newspaper
clipping, the author described the accidental shooting of an African American
boy during a shootout in the streets of
Alum Creek, Texas: “The carrying of
fire-arms and the use of too much mean
whiskey is the true source of our troubles
in this State to a great extent” (Reel 2:
0160). In another newspaper article,
from the Waxahachie Argus, April 6,
1869, the author described the dramatic
death of the notorious desperado Ben
Bickerstaff: “When he was prostrate upon
the ground, and his adversaries were
gathered round, he exclaimed, ‘You have
killed as brave a man as there is in the
South’ ” (Reel 1: 0264).
Although they represented a small minority of the population in Texas, African
Americans were the subjects of much
In this anonymous letter, the writer describes activities of the Ku Klux Klan and warns of a plan to
rob and murder all African Americans and Union sympathizers. Reel 8, Frames 0576–577.
Library Research
contention in Texas during Reconstruction.
This collection reveals their varied roles
as empowered soldiers fighting against
Indians, freedmen fighting against
entrenched racial injustice, and as wanted
criminals. In a February 8, 1869, letter, for
example, Judge A. K. Foster of Hallettsville,
Texas to Louis V. Caziare, Foster asked
for military assistance in bringing a band
of Ku Klux Klan members to justice for
the robbery of Jacob Oakman, an African
American. Foster wrote, “I advise the freed
people to arm and defend themselves as
best they can until military protection can
be had” (Reel 1: 0904).
The documents in Reconstruction and
Military Government in the South,
Part 4 vividly portray the dangers faced by
soldiers, settlers, lawmen, freedmen, and
Native Americans living in Texas during the
Reconstruction era. They also reveal the
complexity of the task of administering the
military government of a frontier state and
simultaneously renegotiating racial equality,
displacing a native population, suffering
unbridled lawlessness, and protecting a
vast, desolate border shared with a foreign
nation in turmoil.
Report of crimes committed and arrests made in El Paso County, Texas, July 1869. Reel 8, Frame 0656.
The collection includes numerous newspaper clippings describing violence in
the Fifth Military District. This clipping
describes the murder of Hilario Rodriguez
by a group of Indians near San Antonio.
Reel 2, Frame 0162.
Reconstruction and Military
Government in the South, 1867–1870,
Office of Civil Affairs, Part 4: Fifth
Military District (Texas and Louisiana)
8 reels
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Source Note: National Archives
Building, Washington, D.C., Record
Group 393: Records of U.S. Army
Continental Commands, Records of
Military Districts, 1867–1871, Fifth
Military District and Department
of Texas, Entries 4836, 4837, 4838,
4852, 4865, and 4875. Fact sheet text
adapted from user guide scope and
content note.