Seminole Wars
In 1821 Congress felt safe enough to cut expenses by disbanding the Rifle Regiment and the 8th Infantry and reducing the size of companies to fifty-one enlisted men, the smallest ever. This arrangement endured for fifteen years when the Indians forced an enlargement. A mostly militia force won the Black Hawk War of 1831-1832. However, the Regular Army needed to be increased by 39 men per company plus one infantry regiment and volunteer and militia units had to be used, at least at first, in order to win the Seminole Wars in Florida, which began in December 1835 and lasted until 1842. After the war, the companies were reduced to minimum size but the second regiment of dragoons which had been added to the army was turned into a regiment of riflemen. When they were reconverted to dragoons after a year, the rifle corps disappeared.
Read more about this topic: Regular Army (United States)
Famous quotes containing the words seminole and/or wars:
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery. Nothing else holds fashion.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)