few days after the convention voted for secession from the union on February 1, 1861 (though before the necessary referendum), the Texas Committee of Public Safety established a Provisional Army, in which McCulloch received a commission as colonel. On March 4, he was appointed commander of the 1st Texas Cavalry Regiment, also known (especially to its officers) as the 1st Texas Mounted Rifles. The unit was recruited from several counties in central Texas to serve for twelve months and was the first Texas cavalry regiment to enter Confederate service. Its mission was to maintain a line of patrol from the Red River southwest to the junction of the Concho and North Concho Rivers, a point near present-day San Angelo. McCulloch was acknowledged by his superiors and others for his emphasis on precise discipline and gentlemanly conduct in his regiment. His training methods included complex cavalry and infantry maneuvers as well as sabre-fighting and the proper care of horses and equipment. Many Texas units maintained only lax rules of propriety and organization, but the 1st Texas remained a cohesive and loyal unit, disbanding only under the proper orders. After receiving word of the action at Fort Sumter, McCulloch moved five companies to confront any federal troops remaining in Texas who had not yet embarked at the port of Indianola, but en route he received orders from Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn to intercept a federal force northwest of San Antonio. On May 9, McCulloch's troops, numbering some 1,300, captured the 8th U.S. Infantry near San Lucas Springs. Late in June, McCulloch crossed the Red River with Maj. Edward Burleson to ensure the friendliness (or at least the neutrality) of the Wichita and Caddo Indians, following this with a warning that any raids across the river into Texas would bring retaliation—and over the following year, there were in fact a number of engagements between elements of the 1st Texas and Indian raiding parties. The success of the Texas troops in suppressing these raids is shown in the fact that the number of raids actually decreased during 1861 and 1862 from the numbers reported in previous years. In September 1861, McCulloch, now a brigadier general, assumed temporary command of the Department of Texas until the arrival of Brig. Gen. Paul O. Hébert, and in December was named to command the new Western Military District, comprising that part of the state west and south