Standing in the Gap: Army Outposts, Picket Stations, and the Pacification of the Texas Frontier, 1866-1886

After the Civil War, the United States Army faced a tremendous challenge on the Texas frontier. Military authorities had to overcome major obstacles in mobility and communications, and they had to learn a far different kind of warfare to defeat the Kiowa, Apache, and Comanche Indians.

Large military posts have been examined in detail in numerous books written about the Texas frontier, but the importance of smaller outposts and picket stations has been generally overlooked. In Standing in the...