The Old Army in the Big Bend of Texas

Even before Pancho Villa’s 1916 raid on Columbus, New Mexico, the U.S. Army was increasing its presence on the southwestern border in response to the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The army remained for a decade, manning multiple outposts along three-hundred miles of the Rio Grande region. The rugged terrain of Big Bend stayed a cavalry and pack mule operation until the outposts were withdrawn in 1921.

Thomas T. “Ty” Smith, one of Texas’s leading military historians, has delved deep into the records of the U.S. Army with The Old Army in the Big Bend of Texas: The Last Cavalry Frontier, 1911–1921. He provides a definitive portrait of the final era of soldiers on horseback in the American West. All those interested in the U.S. Calvary in Texas will learn much from this book!