By January 1866 the number of posts had already been reduced to 207; by September there were only 101. Without cavalry the troops could not patrol outside of towns and along rail lines. A Freedmen’s commissioner in Texas expressed the basic spatial logic of Reconstruction: “The wrongs increase just in proportion to their distance from the United States authorities.” As an army commander complained, it was impossible to stop Southern stragglers and marauders by telegraph. He needed cavalry.
