USA > Tennessee > Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches > Part 24
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" The exalted sphere of the ladies which his heart appreciated, his hand was ever ready to acknowledge. He successfully threat- ened the recreant soldier with the fear of their frown as a pre- ventive of desertion-he was accustomed to speak of them as ' last at the cross, first at the sepulchre, and foremost in the cause of justice and humanity'-their defense and protection was his watchword on the plains of Chalmette, and when, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, he revisited those scenes of his early struggles for the last time, the charmning daughters of the sunny South, those whom he had protected from the ruthless invader in their infant cradles, received him on carpets of roses, and loaded his venerable brow with kisses of gratitude. Chivalrous to the last, he makes them the umpire before whom American valor shall become emulous upon the battle-field for the heir-looms of patriotism.
" But as the last touches of the pencil give beauty and fidelity to the picture, so the closing scenes of the veteran's life become the most interesting portion of his history. As in earlier life he was the brave and dauntless soldier in defense of his country's rights, so he became the brave and dauntless soldier of the cross. From his childhood he had revered Christianity, and often dwelt with grateful emotions on the tender and prayerful solicitude of
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his pious mother, during his boyhood, for his spiritual welfare. And even in the turbulent and boisterous periods of his career, when all his energies were concentrated in the conduct of san- guinary British and Indian wars, although vehement and impet- uous in spirit, the purest religious feelings animated his heart and shaped his inclinations. There is not in our language a more beautiful form of prayer and thanksgiving than is contained in a portion of his congratulatory and farewell address to his soldiers at New Orleans after the battle of the eighth-meekly giving all the glory of the victory to the God of battles, in whom he had put his trust. I have heard an old warrior against the Indians say, that on the eve of one of the most deadly conflicts in the Creek nation, when they were on watch for the enemy, whom they knew to be near, and when an order had been given that there should be no unnecessary noise in camp, one of the guard ap- proached the General and complained that a soldier was praying unnecessarily loud. 'God forbid,' said he, 'that praying should be considered an unnecessary noise in my camp.'
" These feelings ripened with age into a firmly settled convic- tion and conversion ; and for the last eight years he who had led and directed his countrymen on so many well-fought fields, who had humbled the proud British lion upon our Southwestern shore, and sent him howling home to his sea-girt den-who had wrung the unwilling acknowledgment of our country's rights from the crowned heads of Europe-might be seen upon the Sabbath, when his health would permit, bowing with his neighborhood circle in deep humility and humble adoration before the little altar which he had caused to be planted a short distance from his house, de- votedly and sincerely partaking of the sacred emblems of faith. I witnessed this-but I witnessed no richly embroidered carpets on which to walk-no silken and velvet cushions on which to kneel-no gorgeous purples in which to robe the chief-no pomp -no parade -- no insignia of superiority or power, like those which glitter within the royal chapels of princes and potentates. All was plainness, simplicity, piety, Christian purity. He fostered that little church with a father's solicitude and protection ; and one of his last wishes was that it might be sustained forever.
"In the full enjoyment of his mental faculties, he died as he had lived-undismayed, unterrified. Even death, at whose ap-
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proach mankind are prone to shudder, though he had long tor- tured the veteran's frame with the most excruciating pains, as if to apply the severest tests to his resigned spirit, could not shake his nerve or make his resolution tremble. He had spoken of the coming event for so many months as one would naturally speak of a journey to a distant country not soon to return, and had taken great care in the adjustment of his temporal affairs, arrang- ing all his papers, and leaving them where they would be acces- sible to the historian of his country.
" We rarely see a happier combination of all the virtues which belong to man than the character Jackson exhibited ; and when the faithful historic pen shall institute its comparisons between him and the celebrated heroes and statesmen of antiquity, who favored the acquisition of territory by conquest and not by the in- fluence of sound opinion upon the minds of the millions, whose object was to tyrannize over the world, and not to diffuse the blessings of free institutions amongst the governed, who were more ambitious of ephemeral popularity and power than of per- manent welfare-the slaves of princely pride and passion, and not the faithful and accountable servants of their country-who lived as reckless adventurers, and died by the hands of violence- when these lines of contrast shall be drawn, as they will be drawn, by the pen of the impartial annalist, we shall need no lofty pillar of Trajan, no sculptured arches, no massive column of Napoleon, to commemorate his deeds of glory, for they will be enshrined in our hearts, and transmitted to the latest generation of our pos- terity.
" Had he been faultless, he had been more than man. Do you remember that he had any imperfections ? Where, on earth, may we look for perfection ? Error is one of the first offspring of humanity-and if in his career you have discovered indiscretions, you will at least admit, that they were of that class which ' some- times serve us well when better judgment fails.'
" He is gone. 'I bequeath,' said he, in his last will and testa- ment, ' my body to the dust whence it came, and my soul to God who gave it, hoping for a happy immortality through the atoning merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. My desire is, that my body be buried by the side of my dear departed wife, in the garden of the Hermitage, in the vault there prepared.'
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" In the circle of an ever-watchful and devoted family, he ex- pired on a summer's evening of our holy Sabbath. He had said it was probably the last he would be permitted to enjoy on earth, and had called his household to his bedside to tell them of the pleasant paths of righteousness, and to express a dying Christian's hope that he might meet them all again in Heaven.
" The funeral orator at his burial, held up a small copy of the Bible which had been literally worn out by the veteran's own hand, who was accustomed to consult it freely, to listen to its teachings, to believe in its promises, and to regard it as the only anchor of his spiritual safety.
" It was as he had desired. In the vault, which he had years before caused to be prepared for its reception, his body was buried by the side of his dear departed wife, in the garden of the Her- mitage, amid ample beds of variegated flowers in full bloom, cul- tivated and arranged with taste and elegance under the eye of his ' more than daughter ' -- a spot on which nature had been encour- aged to lavish the brightest charms of Flora-in all its beauty, simplicity, and sweetness, more appropriate for the remains of the plain republican patriot, than the marble sarcophagus of Septimus Severus,* which in life he had rejected with a freeman's indigna- tion-nay, than the proudest of the Egyptian pyramids.
" By a few of his aged friends and compatriots in arms, his body was silently laid in its last consecrated spot-a select choir chaunted his favorite psalm as a requiem, and the gallant military corps, which had long borne aloft his portrait on their banner, discharged their musketry over his resting place.
" It was an hour of tears. Thousands were there to witness it. As the veteran soldier, with his whitened locks, lowered the re- mains of his old General into their last resting place, the tear whichi
* His language declining it was : "I cannot permit my remains to be the first in these United States to be deposited in a sarcophagus made for an Emperor or · a King. I have prepared an humble depository for my mortal body beside that wherein lies my beloved wife, where, without any pomp or parade, I have re- quested, when my God calls me to sleep with my fathers, to be laid," etc. When President, he charged Judge Woodbury, one of his cabinet ministers: "Should I die here in Washington, remove my ashes to Tennessee, and let me sleep beside my beloved wife." When asked by a friend what course he would pursue if permitted to live his life over again, he replied with a benignant smile : " I would not accept the boon if it were offered me."
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trembled on his eye-lid and then trickled down his furrowed cheek, told the beholder that it was from the fountain of deep, deep grief.
" As the throng pressed nearer the spot to witness the last so- lemnities over the hallowed relics of their country's benefactor, a keener sense of their loss was manifest, and few, indeed, were tearless in that assembly.
" 'To live with fame, the gods allow To many. But to die with equal lustre, Is a gift which Heaven selects From all the choicest boons of fate, And with a sparing hand, on few bestows.'
" Like the Father of his Country, he descended to the grave with all the civil and military honors of his countrymen-like him, he welcomed the battle-field, welcomed the olive branch of peace, welcomed the public service, welcomed retirement, wel- comed life, welcomed death, and abides in the grateful hearts of millions of freemen. Like him, his memory will bloom upon our altars for ages and ages with perennial freshness. The mother shall teach her infant to lisp their names in unison-the father shall teach him to emulate their strong virtues. An admiring posterity shall make frequent pilgrimages to Mount Vernon in the East, and the Hermitage in the West, to linger around the mounds which contain the ashes of the illustrious dead, to com- mune with the spirits of the immortal WASHINGTON and JACK- SON.
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XI.
INCIDENTS IN THE EARLY LIFE OF SAM. HOUSTON -- HOW THE INDEPENDENCE OF TEXAS WAS WON.
I HAVE incidentally noticed in the sketch of the campaigns of Gen. Jackson the signal bravery displayed by Gen. Sam. Houston in the battle of the Horse Shoe, which secured for him the last- ing friendship of his old commander, as well as the admiration of the army. Gen. Houston was born in Rockbridge county, Vir- ginia, March 2, 1793. His mother, after the death of her hus- band, removed to Tennessee, and settled in Maryville, Blount county. In 1813 he enlisted as a private in the thirty-ninth reg- iment, United States army, commanded by Col. John Williams, of Knoxville, but was promoted to the position of Ensign before the battle of the Horse Shoe. After the ratification of peace in 1815, he was promoted to be a Lieutenant, and was stationed with his regiment near Knoxville, and afterwards in New Orleans. At the latter place the wound in his shoulder received in the battle of the Horse Shoe, broke out afresh, and he under- went a painful and dangerous operation which nearly cost him his life. In April, 1816, he sailed for New York, where he re- mained several weeks, and with health somewhat improved, re- turned to Tennessee by way of Washington. He was stationed in Nashville, Januuary 1, 1817. In November of the same year he was appointed a sub-agent for the Indians, and being called to Washington on business connected with the agency, he resigned his position as Lieutenant in the regular army, March 1, 1818, returned to Tennessee, and settled in Nashville. Here he studied `law with Judge James Trimble for about six months, when he obtained a license and commenced the practice of the law. In October, 1819, he was elected by the Legislature Attorney Gen- eral for the district embracing Nashville, but discharged the du - ties of that office for only a short time.
Gen. Houston stood six feet and six inches in his socks, was of fine contour, a remarkably stout, well-proportioned man, and of
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commanding and gallant bearing; had a large, long head and face, and his fine features were lit up by large, eagle-looking eyes; possessed a wonderful recollection of persons and names, a fine address and courtly manners, and a magnetism approaching that of Gen. Jackson. He enjoyed unbounded popularity among men, and was a great favorite with the ladies. He was strongly inclined to dabble in politics, and ambitious to receive the ap- plause of the people. In 1823, he was elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 1825. Immediately upon entering Congress, he assumed a prominent position in that body. He did not pos- sess the advantages of a finished education, but was a man of strong practical sense, and had acquired a vast fund of knowledge from his intercourse with educated and intelligent men of his day. During the administration of Gen. Jackson, a fellow-mem- ber of Congress made a coarse and vulgar speech against the President, to which Houston replied in a very effective manner, and afterwards caned the traducer of his old commander, which caused great excitement in the North.
In August, 1827, Houston was chosen Governor of Tennessee by a majority of about 12,000, his competitor being Gov. Newton Cannon. The retiring Governor was Gen. Wm. Carroll, who had already served three terms, and the constitution rendered him ineligible for a fourth. Houston's personal popularity was very great, and it is said that on his accession to office he had not a single opponent in the Legislature. Houston became a candidate for re-election and was opposed by Gov. Carroll, who was now eligible. This contest was between two heroes of the war of 1812, each possessing fine talents and being good speakers, while they had hosts of friends, and the result of the election was regarded as very doubtful. The canvass opened near Nashville in April, 1829. In the January previous Gov. Houston had married Miss Eliza H. Allen, a daughter of John Allen, of Sum- ner county. She came of a wealthy and very influential family. Her brothers, Campbell Allen and Col. Robert Allen, of Smith county, had distinguished themselves in the war of 1812 under Gen. Jackson, especially Robert Allen, who commanded a regi- ment of volunteers in the Creek war. Col. Allen served in Con- gress with distinction, and was afterwards a member of the Con- vention of 1834 which framed the constitution of Tennessee.
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He was the father of our townsman, Mr. Joseph W. Allen; also of Mrs. Allison, Capt. John Allen, and others. Gov. Houston's wife was a most estimable woman, yet family troubles long since forgotten, and still shrouded in a mystery that is impenetrable, and will forever remain so, caused him to separate from her im- mediately after the opening of the canvass for Governor in April, 1829, and to resign the office of Governor two days afterward, and go into involuntary exile among the red men West of the Mississippi, from which he emerged to become the great leader of the Texas revolt. This revolution stands upon as strong ground of justification as our own revolution of 1776, which gave birth to our Republic. By the treaty of 1819, the United States fool- ishly surrendered to Spain the magnificent territory embraced by Texas, which from its position and contiguity, should have con- stituted part of our Republic. Mexico had never extended its settlements further than the head of the Rio Grande and the bay of San Francisco. The fine lands of Texas remained uncultivated for a very long period. The people of Mexico were a mining and pastoral people, and that country was not adapted to agricul- tural pursuits. Mexico desired to place a brave American popu- lation in Texas as a barrier to the incursions of the Indians into Mexican settlements along the frontier, and invited citizens of the United States to accept grants of land in Texas upon condi- tion of settling upon them, and assuring them that they should be protected by the constitution of Mexico of 1824, which was sim- ilar in most of its features to that of the United States. A hardy and brave colony under Col. Austin were the first to settle in that country. Others came afterwards, principally from Tennes- see and Kentucky, but there were considerable numbers from other Southern and Western States, constituting a population that would compare favorably in all the essential requisites of manhood with any people in the world. Meantime affairs in Mexico became very much disturbed. The republic of 1821 was superceded by Iturbide in 1822, who was in 1823 deposed, ban- ished, returned and was shot, and Victoria was made President. Pedraza was elected in 1828, and Guerrero deposed him the next year and was made President. Then Bustamente overthrew Guerrero, and quickly Santa Anna overthrew Bustamente, and with him all the forms of the constitution and the whole frame
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of the federal government, annihilating the State governments and establishing a consolidated government of which he was monarch, under the retained republican title of President. The Texans did not acquiesce in what Santa Anna had done, but they did not revolt. They retained their State government in opera- tion, and looked to other States of Mexico, older and more pow- erful than Texas, to re-establish the federal constitution. of 1824. This was still the position of Texas in September, 1835, at which time a Mexican armed vessel appeared off the coast of Texas and declared her ports blockaded. At the same time Gen. Cos ap- peared in Western Texas with an army of fifteen hundred men, with orders to arrest the State authorities, to disarm the inhabit- ants, and to reduce the State to unconditional submission. Gon- zales was the point selected for the commencement of the execu- tion of these orders; and the first thing was the arms, those trusty rifles which the settlers had brought with them from the United States, which were their defense against savages, their re- source for game, and the guard which converted their houses into castles stronger than those " which the King cannot enter." A detachment of Gen. Cos' army appeared at Gonzales and de- manded the arms of the inhabitants. It was the same demand, and for the same purpose, says Mr. Benton, which the British made at Lexington on the 19th of April, 1775. It was the same demand, and the same answer was given-resistance, battle, vic- tory ! for American blood was at Gonzales as it had been at Lex- ington; and between using their arms and surrendering their arms, that blood never did and never will hesitate. Then fol- lowed the rapid succession of brilliant events, which in two months left Texas without an armed enemy in her borders, and the strong forts of Goliad and the Alamo, with their garrisons and cannon, the almost bloodless prizes of a few hundred Texan rifles. The Mexican soldiers captured in these forts were released on parole. This was in the fall of 1835.
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Thus was the war between Texas and Mexico commenced. An army of invasion appeared before Bexar and commenced for- tifying. A small force of Texans held the Alamo, and the Mex- ican commander demanded the surrender of the place. This de- mand was answered by a shot from the fort. On the 23d of February, 1836, the Mexicans opened their guns upon the Alamo,
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which they bombarded for eleven days. Before daybreak of the 6th of March, a combined attack was made upon the fort by the whole Mexican force. Twice assaulting, they were twice driven back with severe loss. The Texans, unable to load in the hand- to-hand fight which ensued, clubbed their rifles and fought with desperation until but six of their band were to be found alive. These, including Col. David Crockett, surrendered to Castillion, under promise of his protection, but being taken before Santa Anna, they were by his orders instantly put to death. Col .. Crockett fell with a dozen swords sheathed in his breast. Col. Bowie, ill in bed, was then shot, after having killed several of his assailants. Maj. Evans, another gallant officer, was shot while in the act of firing the powder magazine. The bodies of the slain were now collected together in the center of the Alamo, and after being horribly mutilated (in which act it is said Santa Anna and his Generals joined), they were burned. But three persons, · a woman and child and a servant, escaped this massacre. Not one of the brave defenders of the Alamo was left to tell the story of that bloody episode. Among the soldiers engaged on the Mexican side were a number who had been captured and paroled by the Texans a few months previous. This act of treachery and murder was repeated in a more horrible form at Goliad on the 27th of the same month. A detachment under Col. Fannin sur- rendered to a superior Mexican force near Goliad on the 20th of March, and a capitulation was signed by which it was agreed that the Texans should be treated as prisoners of war, and as soon as possible sent to the United States. Having surrendered their arms, they were then marched to Goliad, where on the 26th of March an order was received from Santa Anna requiring them to be shot. At daybreak on the morning of the 27th (it was Palm Sunday), the five hundred and twelve prisoners at Goliad were marched out of the fort under the cruel delusion of a return to their families, when they found themselves enveloped in double files of cavalry and infantry, and were marched to a spot fit for the perpetration of the horrid deed; and there, says, Benton, without an instant to think of parents, country, friends, and God-in the midst of the consternation of terror and surprise, were inhumanly set upon and pitilessly put to death, in spite of those moving cries which reached to Heaven, and regardless of
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those supplicating hands, stretched forth for mercy, from which arms had been taken under the perfidious forms of a capitulation. Five hundred and six perished that hallowed Sunday morning --- young, vigorous, brave, sons of respectable families, and the pride of many a parent's heart-and their bleeding bodies, torn with wounds and many yet alive, were thrown in heaps upon vast fires, for the flames to consume what the steel had mangled. The vic- tims of the Alamo and Goliad were like those of the Old Mission and San Patricio. One common fate befell them all. The men whose lives were thus sacrificed while bravely defending the country of their adoption will never be forgotten, and the memory of their great deeds will be enshrined in the hearts of all through- out the civilized world who struggle for liberty.
Santa Anna had an army seven thousand strong, and flushed with what he called victory, he confidently expected that the spirit of the Texans had been broken under the heavy losses they had sustained through the treachery of himself and his subordi- nates, and that the remnant of the Texan army would seek safety in flight to the United States, and thus leave the State of Texas under his domination. But he soon found that he was laboring under a fatal delusion. It was reserved for Sam. Houston at San Jacinto not only to dispel that delusion, but to turn the tide of events and to gain a victory which brought independence to Texas. Mr. Benton speaks of the result of this battle as a " ro- mantic victory which has given to the Jacinto (the hyacinth) that immortality in grave and serious history which the diskos of Appollo had given to it in the fabulous pages of the heathen my- thology." "That combat of the San Jacinto!" exclaims Mr. Benton, "it must forever remain in the catalogue of military miracles. Seven hundred and fifty citizens, miscellaneously armed with rifles, muskets, belt-pistols, and knives, under a leader who had never seen service, except as a subaltern, march to attack near double their numbers-march in open day across a clear prairie, to attack npwards of twelve hundred veterans, the elite of an invading army of seven thousand, posted in a wood, their flanks secured, front intrenched; and commanded by a General trained in civil wars, victorious in numberless battles; and chief of an empire of which no man becomes chief except as a conquerer. In twenty minutes the position is forced. The
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combat becomes a carnage. The flowery prairie is stained with blood; the hyacinth is no longer blue, but scarlet. Six hundred Mexicans are dead ; six hundred more are prisoners, half of them wounded; the President-General himself a prisoner; the camp and baggage all taken, and the loss of the victors, six killed and twenty wounded!" It was a victory without a parallel except that of the 8th of January, 1815, at New Orleans. Where all fought so nobly, it may seem invidious to mention names, but I must be pardoned for referring to Richard Scurry, who com- manded the artillery, and his brother Gen. William Scurry (cousins of my wife)-who gallantly fell on the side of the South in the war between the States-as having greatly distinguished themselves in the battle of San Jacinto.
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