The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906 Page: 228

228

Texas Historical Association Quarterly.

oi Texas. The military plan contemplated two things-the crea-
tion of a regular army and the organization of the militia.
The army was to consist of 1120 men, rank and file, part of
them regulars, enlisted for two years, and part of them volunteers,
enlisted for, and during the continuance of, the war-"permanent
volunteers," they were called. To this was added a corps of 150
rangers, commanded by a major, and subject to the commander-in-
chief when in the field. The soldiers were to be governed, so far
as local conditions and circumstances would permit, by the regu-
lations and discipline of the regular army of the United States.
And the force might be decreased or augmented at the discretion
of the governor and council. The commander-in-chief, appointed
by the consultation and commissioned by the governor, and "sub-
ject to the orders of the governor and council," had the rank of
major general and was to be "commander-in-chief of all the forces
called into public service during the war." He was allowed to
choose his own staff of one adjutant general, one inspector general,
one quartermaster general, a surgeon general, and four aids-de-
camp.
For militia duty all able-bodied men between the ages of six-
teen and fifty were declared qualified, and they were ordered to
embody themselves, on or immediately after the third Monday in
December, in companies of fifty-six men, and elect officers-a cap-
tain and a first and second lieutenant. The municipality was to
be the basis of organization, and in case there should be as many
as three companies in a single municipality, the officers were to
elect a major to command the entire force; if there were four com-
panies, they were entitled to a lieutenant colonel; if five, to a
colonel, and if more than five, to a brigadier general. Five com-
panies formed a regiment of militia.
General Sam Houston had already been elected commander-in-
as. l'roceedngs of the General Council: of the Ordinances and Decrees of
the Consultation, Provisional Government of Texas, and the Convention,
etc., which will be referred to as, Ordinances and Decrees; and of the
Archives of Texas, section D. Since my notes were made these docu-
ments have been transferred to the State Library and catalogued, but
the file numbers have been preserved, and are therefore retained in the
references. Considerable use has also been made of the Austin Papers,
at the University of Texas.
"Journals of the Consultation, 48-49.