Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/164

126 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS Maj. Taylor, with a battalion of regulars, formed a part of the command of Gen. Hopkins in the expe dition against the hostile Indians at the head-waters of the Wabash. In 1814, with his separate com mand, he being then a major by commission, he made a campaign against the hostile Indians and their British allies on Rock river, which was so suc cessful as to give subsequent security to that im mediate frontier. In such service, not the less hazardous or indicative of merit because on a small scale, he passed the period of his employment on that frontier until the treaty of peace with Great Britain disposed the Indians to be quiet. After the war, March 3, 1815, a law was en acted to fix the military peace establishment of the United States. By this act the whole force was to be reduced to 10,000 men, with such proportions of artillery, infantry, and riflemen as the president should judge proper. The president was to cause the officers and men of the existing army to be arranged, by unrestricted transfers, so as to form the corps authorized by the recent act, and the supernumeraries were to be discharged. Maj. Taylor had borne the responsibilities and per formed the duties of a battalion commander so long and successfully that when the arranging board re duced him to the rank of captain in the new organization he felt the injustice, but resigned from the army without complaint, returned home, and