* THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
*
VOL. IX, No. 6 AUSTIN, TEXAS MAY, 1949
RIPLEY A. ARNOLD--- FRONTIER MAJOR
by TOMMy THOMPSON
Arlington Heights High School, Fort Worth
c OM PAN Y, halt! Dismount !"
rang through the clear after-
noon air of June 6, 1849.
There was a creak of saddle leather as
the forty-two blue-uniformed soldiers of
Company F, Second Dragoons, swung
stiffly from their saddles.
Major Ripley A. Arnold remained
on his horse, still dripping from the
river crossing. He looked at the slow-
moving river, at the deep grass on its
banks, at the high bluff overhead.
"We'll build Camp Worth here," he
said.
This, the founding of Fort Worth
by Major Arnold, was the climax of a
life spent in the service of his country.
Ripley Allen Arnold was -born in
Hancock County, Mississippi, in April;
1817. Little is known of his youth, as
his diary and other personal papers
were in a trunk possessed by his grand-
daughter, Mrs. W. H. Thompson of
Fort Worth, which was destroyed by
fire.
Arnold entered the Military Academy
at West Point on July I, 1834. His rec-
ord was good, for on July I, 1838, when
a little past twenty-one years of age,
he graduated and was commissioned a
second lieutenant. He was assigned to
the First Dragoons, a cavalry unit then
on duty in the Indian war in Florida.
The next year he was doing commend-
able work against the Seminoles and was
promoted to a first lieutenancy on .Feb-
ruary I, 1841.
In that year while on a visit to his
home town, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi,
Arnold renewed his attentions to Miss
Catherine Bryant, a former sweetheart.
Actuated by the daring of a soldier and
inspired by the ardor of a true lover,
the young lieutenant arranged a
hasty betrothal with the fair damsel,
which was opposed by the lady's parents
because of her tender age. Love was de-
termined. The couple eloped to a near-by
town and were married: Their honey-
moon was divided between Washington,
where Lieutenant Arnold was frequently
called by the War Department, and Flor-
ida where his regiment was stationed.
The Arnolds were a strikingly hand-
some couple. Mrs. Arnold was a reign-
ing southern belle,. being possessed of
both personal beauty and a fine educa-
tion. She was a slender girl, with dark
blue eyes, rich brown hair, and a stately
carriage and charming voice, according
to an account by Carroll Peak, Fort
Worth pioneer.
Lieutenant Arnold was six feet tall,
with piercing gray eyes and 'auburn
hair topping a dominant forehead. With
a mouth that evidenced determination
and an alert and military bearing, he
was every inch a commanding officer.
Earnest devotion to duty brought an-
other promotion within a year. Lieu-
tenant Arnold became a captain on
April 19, 1842, for gallant conduct
against the Florida Indians. To appre-
ciate the significance of these quick
,promotions, one must study the military
regulations at that time, when "gallant
conduct on the field of battle" meant
something far above the duty expected
and exacted of every officer.
Without intermission of service,
young Arnold served on frontier duty
at Baton Rouge and Fort Jessup, Louisi-
ana, until the United States declared
war on Mexico in 1846. He came to
Texas with General Zachary Taylor,
encamped at the mouth of the Nueces
