The men of the Second Cavalry went to Texas to fight Indians. Then they returned home to fight each other. The creation of the Second Cavalry in 1855 was a watershed event in the history of the United States Army. Ordered to engage the Native American tribes whose persistent raids were slowing the settlement of the West, the officers of the Second were unwittingly preparing to fight each other. Established by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the Second and its officers were assigned-disregarding Army tradition-on the basis of merit and not seniority. Davis's innovation proved sound: Half of the full generals in Davis's Confederate army had served with the Second Cavalry prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.Texas's western frontier was their battleground, and the warriors of the Comanche tribe were their foes. Forsaking the infantry's rustic stockades that had merely served as detour signs for fleet raiding parties, the Second Cavalry developed innovative tactics to address a novel situation, thereby showing the army how to complete the conquest of the West. Led by men such as Robert E. Lee (in his first independent combat command), John Bell Hood, and George Thomas, the troopers of the Second Cavalry schooled themselves in the tactics and strategies of mobile desert warfare, tutored by a skilled and tireless adversary.Drawing upon a wealth of military documents, archival materials, period newspapers, and personal journals, Arnold adds a new and insightful chapter to the history of the U.S. Army and the men who shaped it. The author of Grant Wins the War (1997) provides a thorough, readable overview of the raising of the U.S. Second Cavalry and its activities on the Texas frontier. After the Mexican War, the U.S. was obligated to defend settlement in Texas and keep Indians in the new state out of Mexico. So restraining the Comanches, few in number but large in ferocity and skill, required cavalry. So Secretary of War Jefferson Davis generated the first two cavalry regiments, whose first three commanding officers were Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and George Thomas; 13 other officers also became Civil War generals. The cavalrymen were a motley lot, who on the whole gave useful service despite unsuitable horses; the climate, terrain, and size of Texas; the quality of the opposition; shortages of supplies; and the Texans' total lack of cooperation in any sort of peaceful relationship with the Comanches. More historians should produce books as balanced, erudite, and smoothly written as regularly as Arnold does. Roland Green Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Created in 1855 by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the 2nd United States Cavalry was led by Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee and Maj. George H. Thomas. Arnold (Grant Wins the War) chronicles the birth and pre-Civil War service of this mounted regiment on the Texas frontier. When white settlers first moved into central Texas, the fierce Comanche warriors raided frontier settlements, stealing horses and cattle, killing men and carrying off women. After Texas became a state, the 2nd Cavalry was sent to guard the Texans and attack the hostiles. The result was a mixed bag of successes and failures as the cavalry companies grappled with the weather, civilians, hostile and friendly Indians, loneliness and isolation, and oftentimes lack of adequate supplies. Arnold writes of the units weapons and uniforms, its selection of horses, training at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, and its long march overland to the Texas frontier. The next five years were spent in frustrating combat and patrol against the Indians. There were occasional successes, such as Lt. John B. Hoods aggressive patrolling in 1857 and Earl Van Dorn's attack on a Comanche village at Crooked Creek in 1859. The regiment left Texas in 1861 and was redesignated the 5th U.S. Cavalry when the War Department reorganized the army's mounted units that year. Not since William Prices 1889 regimental history have the early years of this famous unit, which produced more general officers of Civil War fame than any other, received their due coverage. While this book will be a hard sell beyond its niche of regional war buffs, Arnold has produced an elegantly written narrative that will captivate anyone interested in this facet of American frontier history. --Publishers Weekly, September 25, 2000 In 1855, a unique crisis demanded a unique response. The government?s relocation of eastern Native American tribes and the increasing encroachment of settlers threatened the survival of the Great Plains tribes, most notably the Comanche. The "Lords of the Plains" reacted with furious raids against frontier settlements in Texas and Mexico.The government?s answer was the Second Cavalry, created by U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. Designed from its inception to fight a mobile war with innovative tactics, this select unit not only helped turn the tide