"Lee had parted from Mary and the children at Arlington on February 12 [1856]. When he registered at the Plaza Hotel in San Antonio twenty-four days later, he had completed a difficult journey from Indianola [Texas] while the roads were quagmires."
... "This was Lees first field command -- four companies of the Second Cavalry."
The commander of the Second Cavalry, the Texan Albert Sidney Johnston, had assigned Lee to be in command of Camp Cooper in the middle of a Comanche Reservation. There were 100 lodges in the Comanche village there. From Camp Cooper Lee would command expeditions chasing renegade Indians.
The Second Cavalry was a star studded unit. From the cover jacket of the book, "Jeff Davis's Own, Cavalry, Comanches, and the Battle for the Texas Frontier" by James R. Arnold (Copyright 2000):
"The creation of the Second Cavalry in 1855 was a watershed event in the history of the United States Army. Ordered to engage the Native American tribes whose persistent raids were slowing the settlement of the West, the officers of the Second were unwittingly preparing to fight each other."
Established by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the Second and its officers were assigned -- disregarding rmy tradition -- on the basis of merit and not seniority. Davis's innovation proved sound. Half of the full generals in Davis's Confederate army had served with the Second Cavalry prior to the outbreak of the Civil War."
Lee would eventually take over command of the Second Cavalry when Johnston was called to Washington. Upon learning of his father-in-law's death, Lee relinquished command of the Second to George Thomas and returned home to help his sick wife deal with the estate.
Any recommendations for biographies of Robert E. Lee, William T. Sherman or Jefferson Davis? I want to get up to date on those people but don’t have their stories.
It is pretty interesting to see how many famous commanders from the Civil War served in the West, in the Mexican War or the Indian Wars.