The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 41, July 1937 - April, 1938 Page: 168
383 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
was "for gallant and meritorious conduct" in the battles in
Mexico that Twiggs was promoted to Brigadier General and
brevet Major General.
General Twiggs was nearly six feet tall and of erect stature;
his robust and capacious body, powerful shoulders, bull neck, and
heavy cherry-red face denoted great physical energy. He had
bristling white hair and, when the regulations permitted, wore a
thick white beard.1 If we may accept the statements of certain
of his brother officers, he was not popular with either the officers
or the men.2 His lack of popularity probably resulted from his
manner and habits, but it may have been affected also by the
fact that he was not a West Pointer and did not conform to the
West Point ideal of an officer.
In March, 1857, brevet Major General Twiggs was ordered to
take command of the Department of Texas. He assumed com-
mand, with headquarters in San Antonio, on May 16, of the same
year. Within less than a year after his arrival he committed a
gross breach of military discipline in the publication of the fol-
lowing order :3
Head Quarters, Department of Texas,
San Antonio, February 8, 1858.
ORDERS,
No. 4. f
The following letter from the War Department has been ordered
to be published:
War Department,
Washington, January 16, 1858.
Sir:
"The orders No. 33, December 14, 1857, of the Department of
Texas, are before me on the appeal of Surgeon Wood, and the
following is the decision thereon:
General Twiggs committed a gross breach of discipline in ap-
pointing a Court of Inquiry in a matter in which the President
had appointed a Court, and in publishing to his command his
opinion and decision to contradict the opinion which the President
had pronounced and published in orders.
iJustin H. Smith, The War with Memico, II, 48.
2"He was not a man well beloved by officers or soldiers; he possessed no
magnetic power; he was not genial in temper or disposition and yet he
enjoyed a joke and at times made a pun." Samuel G. French, Two Wars:
An Autobiography, 102.
31 found this order hidden away in the Old Files Section of the Adjutant
General's Office in Washington, D. C.168
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 41, July 1937 - April, 1938, periodical, 1938; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101103/m1/184/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.