20 
ESTABLISHMENT OF MILITARY POSTS. 
their wandering habits. The moral effect of the troops would thus he continually felt, and the 
Indians would he forced to keep their warriors constantly on hand to defend them from attacks 
which might at any time he made upon them. 
Another well known effect of military posts heretofore has been to attract settlers, who culti¬ 
vate the country in the vicinity, and who are able in a short time to supply most of the necessi¬ 
ties of the garrisons. A very few years (as experience lias already sufficiently demonstrated) 
find these settlements so prosperous and with so large a population that military protection is 
no longer required, and the garrisons can safely be moved farther into the Indian country, to 
produce in time the same results. 
The settlements not only commence in the immediate vicinity of the posts themselves, hut 
gradually Creep along the routes from their depots of supplies, and the whole region between 
the line of extreme settlements and the chain of posts would soon he occupied by the hardy 
pioneers of western settlement. The Indians would, as has heretofore been the case, retire 
before them, and. would, after the lapse of a very few years, find themselves beyond the line of 
posts. By this process our western States have been settled, and hence the very great import¬ 
ance of establishing military posts, where it can he done with a view to military considerations, 
in a fertile, well-watered region, adapted to settlement and cultivation. There are few places 
to which the Indians of the plains can retire for protection against the hardships and sufferings 
of a winter on the prairies, and the policy of occupying these positions with military posts is 
sufficiently apparent. A state of war, or the commission of depredations, which almost always 
occur in the winter months, when the difficulty of procuring supplies of food and clothing is 
greatest, would effectually debar them from access to the shelter of the timbered region and 
deprive them of the assistance of the government; and it seems clear that a powerful influence 
would he thus brought to hear in restraining their depredations. 
In the establishment of a chain of military posts for combined action, a view must he had 
also to the advantage of so locating the line of posts that it shall divide the tribes upon which 
it is intended to operate, and thus prevent any combined action. The reluctance with which 
wild Indians cross a well-beaten road for the purpose of committing depredations is well known 
to all conversant with their habits, and the establishment of well-beaten routes to connect the 
posts along the line is a matter of the first consequence. It enables the garrisons to concen¬ 
trate promptly should the necessity ever arise; and being constantly traversed by troops, it 
absolutely cuts off any party of Indians which has crossed it on plundering expeditions. This 
route should be plain and well-beaten, and constantly traversed between the posts by an armed 
force. The posts should he placed along it at intervals, certainly not to exceed one hundred 
and seventy-five miles if it he possible to avoid it. With such a chain of posts through the 
centre of the Indian country, the greatest moral effect is produced; the safety of the route 
between the posts is secured, and the Indian tribes are divided from any combined action 
against the settlements. The chain of military posts along the frontier of Texas has already 
exhibited the beginning of these results. The Camanches, who have been in the habit hereto¬ 
fore of traversing the State by various routes to the Rio Grande, are now confined to one which 
carefully avoids crossing or approaching the chain of posts: their depredations have been of 
much less extent or consequence; and wherever the posts have been placed in a country adapted 
to agriculture, settlements have been commenced. The Indians are beginning to frequent the 
posts for trade, and are gradually assuming the dependent condition which I have stated above 
to he the inevitable result of association with the whites and indulgence in their luxuries. 
When people of such different races and of such diverse interests are brought into contact, 
difficulties must be anticipated; hut the military arrangements I.have suggested would effectu¬ 
ally destroy the possibility of general warfare, or combined or powerful expeditions for plunder. 
Such are some of the important elements which enter into the selection of sites for military 
posts in the Indian country, and such are a few of the results which they produce. The estab¬ 
lishment of a line of posts across the plains would necessarily determine the travelled routes 
