The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 50, July 1946 - April, 1947 Page: 234
582 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
series of more recent date are vast and forbidding, but they
must be mastered if one really wishes to find out what has been
going on. If this enterprise is approached in a corporate and
cooperative manner, instead of being left to individual forlorn
hopes, it should prove practicable enough.
After the year of annexation, the State Department
files cease to apply to Texas history. But the same is not true
for the files of the War Department, and as the State Depart-
ment wanes, all the departments for the administration of do-
mestic affairs become correspondingly more important. It is
not difficult to understand how the files of the War Department,
for example, apply to the history of the state. Within a few
months of annexation, the United States and Mexico were at
war, and Texas was serving as a base for the invasion of north-
ern Mexico. The Mexican border flared up as late as 1916, when
General J. J. Pershing had to go in pursuit of Pancho Villa. If
there were Mexicans on one frontier, there were Indians on all,
against whom protection had always to be on hand until late in
the century. The War Department archives include a "con-
solidation"-relevant papers pulled out of various files because
of frequent reference to the topic-concerning the raids which
the Kiowa chiefs Satanta and Big Tree made in northern Texas
in 1874-1875. The Confederate Records include the files of the
Confederate Military Department of Texas, New Mexico, and
Arizona. After the Civil War, Texas was under military oc-
cupation, and the administrative papers are necessarily in the
War Department files. The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands set up agencies and sub-agencies, one of
which coincided with the state, and there is a file on "Outrages
in Texas," which I trust is a dead one. There is much material
of great local interest in the records of this bureau. Texas with
its spaciousness has always been a favored area for military
posts, and the reports which these posts submitted each month,
including all events since the previous report, together with the
files which they accumulated on the spot, are on hand unless acci-
dent has destroyed or scattered them. How the appropriate ma-
terials on the several topics mentioned are scattered among
the several archival series, the files of the secretary of state's
office, of the adjutant general's office, of the headquarters of the
army, or of the engineers' records, is a matter of special knowl-
edge to which one can find guides both printed and personal.
It is always a matter of importance to the investigator inter-234
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 50, July 1946 - April, 1947, periodical, 1947; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101117/m1/278/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.