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ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume 12 (Winter 1953)
THE MEXICAN WAR EXPERIENCES OF
ALBERT PIKE AND THE "MOUNTED DEVILS" OF ARKANSAS
BY WALTER LEE BROWN
In April, 1846, the United States went to war with Mexico over the disputed question of the Rio Grande boundary. To vindicate the shedding of "American blood upon the American soil," Congress on May 13 gave President James K. Polk authority to call into service up to 50,000 volunteers. Two days later Secretary-of-War W.L. Marcy addressed a letter to Governor Thomas S. Drew of Arkansas, requesting him to organize immediately one regiment of cavalry, or "mounted gunmen," and one battalion of infantry. The cavalry regiment was to rendezvous at Washington, Arkansas, where the men would be mustered into the service of the United States. The infantrymen were to report to Fort Smith as replacements for the troops on the frontier, now all ordered to the Rio Grande by General Taylor.(1) In response Governor Drew issued a call for volunteers on May 27.(2) Albert Pike, the Whig leader of Arkansas, who had been since 1843 captain of the Little Rock Guards, an artillery company of the state militia, received this news with little joy. He knew that his men would be anxious to go
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1 W. L. Marcy, Secretary of War, to Thomas S. Drew, Governor of Arkansas War Department, Washington, D. C., May 15, 1846, in Little Rock, Arkansas, Gazette, June 1, 1846. Hereafter cited Gazette.
2 Gazette, June 1, 1846.