USA > Texas > Border fights & fighters; stories of the pioneers between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi and in the Texan republic > Part 22
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Fannin, whose superb courage redeems his lack of ca-
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pacity; was confident that as they had beaten the enemy before they could do it again without difficulty, and that if they maintained a bold front the Mexicans would with- draw. The wounded stifled their groans and endured their sufferings, therefore, as best they could; while the surgeons, of whom there were several with the party, men of skill and training, did what they could to alleviate their sufferings in the pitch darkness. Everybody else worked in preparing for the attack of the morrow. The area en- closed by the square was much contracted, and the wagons were placed on the outside to form some sort of a protec- tion, a trench was dug and a slight earthwork thrown up behind which the men could await the coming attack.
Nobody slept. The night was chill and damp. The next morning, Sunday, the twentieth of March, Passion Sunday, broke clear and warmer, but the day brought no encouragement to the hungry, thirsty little army. The Mexicans had been heavily re-enforced during the night until they numbered some 1,200 effectives, and they were now provided with artillery overmatching the useless American guns. The battle began at once. The artil- lery fired grape shot and solid shot, demolishing the frail American entrenchments and rendering the position un- tenable. The Americans replied as well as they could, but their ammunition presently gave out and there was nothing left for them but surrender.
III. The Massacre at Goliad
Fannin was averse to capitulation, but he was over- borne. Indeed it is hard to see what else they could have done but surrender. Accordingly, after passively endur- ing the enemy's fire for some time, the white flag was
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raised. After due preliminaries a solemn convention was drawn up in triplicate, duly signed and witnessed, by which the most favorable terms were given the Ameri- cans. The officers' side arms and private baggage were to remain in their possession, and the whole party was to be sent back to the United States upon their promise not to bear arms against the Mexican government in future. As solemnly as men could do it, these conditions were ex- pressed and the terms made. The men were to be treat- ed as prisoners of war until they could be sent back, with every right jealously preserved. Upon these terms and no other Fannin surrendered. The Mexicans allege that the surrender was unconditional, but their statement is disputed by every American witness who survived the massacre that followed.
The captured Americans were immediately disarmed and marched back to Goliad, whither they were joined a few days later by eighty recruits who had landed at Mata- gorda Bay and been captured before they had an oppor- tunity to strike a blow. They were also joined by the sur- vivors of Ward's command who were taken near Victoria. Ward's party had but three rounds of ammunition left per man when they surrendered.
The surgeons, of whom there were eight with the sev- eral commands-the Texan cause seems to have appealed powerfully to doctors-were left on the battle-field with the wounded of both sides, who were treated temporarily as well as possible, and two days afterward they were all brought back to Goliad.
General Urrea seems to have acted at first in good faith. In spite of his severe wound, Fannin, in company with a German officer in the Mexican service named Holzinger, and some of his own subordinates, had gone down to
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Matagorda to charter a steamer or other vessel to take the prisoners to New Orleans.
None being immediately available, however, he re- turned to Goliad to wait. The men suffered the usual hardships of prisoners of war, but otherwise were not badly treated, except in the case of the wounded.
The loss of the Mexicans in the battle was never ascer- tained definitely. It must have been, however, between two and three hundred, although the Mexican reports claim much less, for the Texans were remarkably good marksmen, who shot to kill. At any rate, there were at Goliad over one hundred Mexican wounded, most of them so severely as to be utterly incapacitated. The ser- vices of the American surgeons were invaluable to these, and the Mexicans at first refused to allow the Texan wounded to be attended to at all until the Mexicans had been looked after, but the doctors stoutly insisted upon treating the cases in the order of their severity, without regard to nationality, and in the end had their way.
Santa Anna, who was campaigning to the eastward, had been apprised of the capture. He instantly de- spatched an order to the commanding officer at Goliad, in the absence of Urrea, one Colonel Portilla, directing his attention to the proclamation of the government- himself-with regard to foreigners in arms against the Mexican Republic, and peremptorily ordering him to carry out the decree-in other words, to have the prison- ers shot at once !
The order reached Portilla on Saturday night, March 27th. It filled him with dismay, and it is only just to the other Mexican officers to say that their commander's dis- may and horror were shared by the most of them. But Santa Anna was the Dictator of the miscalled Mexican
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Republic, and no despot ever ruled more supremely than he. Portilla deliberated for a night upon the subject, and finally concluded that he had no alternative but obe- dience. He determined, however, to save Miller's men, who had committed no overt act other than landing on the shore, and the surgeons as well, with some others who had been attending to the wounded, eight in all.
He did this largely on the representations of Colonel Garay, one of his subordinates, whose name deserves to be held in kindly remembrance, for he protested vehe- mently against the order and repudiated all connection with it both before and after the catastrophe.
The eight surgeons, in entire ignorance of the reason for the order, early on the morning of Palm Sunday, March 27th, 1836, were marched to Garay's head-quarters and kept there with two other men to whom he had be- come attached, and to save whom he had risked much. The wife of one of the officers, Senora Alvarez, also secreted several of the Americans.
The prisoners were entirely unconscious of the fearful fate prepared for them. Indeed, although Fannin had not succeeded in getting a ship, they anticipated an early release, and one of the survivors relates that they spent the evening before congregated around one of their num- ber who had saved, or borrowed, a flute, and who played hymns which they sang, ending with "Home, Sweet Home," in which everybody joined. Early in the morn- ing of the fateful Sunday the three hundred prisoners appointed for massacre were divided into three companies of one hundred each. The wounded for the present were left behind.
The men were lined up between two rows of Mexican soldiers fully armed. One party was told that it was to
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go out to slaughter beeves; another party that it was to be taken to a convenient place for exchange; the third, that it was to be quartered somewhere else, as the place it had occupied was needed for Santa Anna's army which was approaching.
It was a pleasant, sunny, delightful spring morning. Chatting and laughing among themselves and entirely unconscious of any impending disaster or treachery, the three parties set out in different directions. As they marched through the town many pitying glances were cast upon them, and here and there a woman, more tender- hearted than the rest, was heard to murmur, " Poor fel- lows, poor fellows!" (Pobrecitos.) The Texans attached no meaning to these words, however, supposing that they were being commiserated as prisoners, not realizing that it was on account of their approaching murder.
The parties soon separated, but what happened to one happened to all. When they had reached a suitable place outside the town, where each party was hidden from the others, at a sudden command the Mexicans on the left flank, facing about, marched through the open ranks of the prisoners and joined their comrades on the right. The men were ordered to turn their backs upon the sol- diers, and sit down, and as, in their bewilderment, most of them did so, the guns of the troops were presented and a volley was poured on the helpless prisoners at contact range.
Nearly the whole of each party fell at the first fire. Some there were, however, who were only slightly wounded, and a few untouched. They made a bold dash instantly to escape. Their efforts in most cases were en- tirely unavailing, for the cavalry had been ordered out and squads now appeared on the scene running down the fu- gitives, who were also the targets for rapid firing as the
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guns were loaded. Most of them were shot down. Out of the whole number some twenty-seven, many of whom were wounded, did make good their escape.
Acts of heroism were numerous.
" Boys," said one young man, " they're going to mur- der us! Let's die with our faces to the foe !"
Many of them followed his example, refusing to sit down, and faced the Mexican guns, waving their caps and shouting with their last breath,
" Hurrah for Texas! "
With incredible brutality the Mexicans examined the bodies of the fallen and deliberately bayoneted those who yet survived. The hellish work, however, was not yet over. Squads of soldiers went back to the barracks where the wounded Americans lay. They dragged them out on the prairie and threw them upon the ground. Those who could do so struggled to their feet or their knees, but most of them lay helpless on the sod and were shot to death. Ward, a powerful and splendid soldier, died with words of scorn and contempt and bitter reproaches for their treachery on his lips.
Fannin was the last one to be shot. He handed his watch and money to the officer commanding the firing party, asked him not to shoot him in the face and to see that he was suitably buried. Then he struggled to his feet, opened the breast of his shirt, and calmly awaited his end. He had no wish to survive after having witnessed the massacre of his men. He was shot in the face, and his body, with those of the others, thrown into a great brush heap which was set on fire with but partial results.
Among the surgeons was one Dr. Bernard from Illi- nois, who has left a description of the situation, of the helpless men in the tents listening to the massacre, even seeing some of the fugitives being shot or bayoneted.
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Another surgeon was the commander of the Georgia company, the " Red Rovers' Battalion," Dr. Shackelford, who was forced to stand passive in Garay's tent while his own company, composed of the best young men in his neighborhood, whom he had personally enlisted, and which included his son and two nephews, was shot to death.
The feelings of those who had been saved can scarcely be imagined. Their utter impotence was the worst feature of the situation. Such was the temper of the soldiers, inflamed by the massacre, that they would have killed them out of hand if they could have reached them. The surgeons were eventually saved and with the twenty-seven who escaped and a few others secreted by Madame Alvarez, in all less than forty, were the only sur- vivors of this horrible massacre of quite three hundred and thirty helpless prisoners who had trusted to the sol- emn word of their captors-men to whom honor was nothing but a name.
When the massacre, coupled with the slaughter at the Alamo, became known, such a wave of horror rushed through Texas and the United States as finally brought about the success of the effort to establish the Lone Star Republic. The Texans at last took fierce vengeance for these butcherings on the bloody field of San Jacinto. It is to be wondered how the officers ever succeeded in re- straining the men from executing summary justice upon the bloodthirsty butcher who disgraced the profession of arms and the country over which he ruled by this and other murders and massacres which he ordered without a shadow of justification.
Santa Anna, who loved to style himself the Napo- leon of the West, is one of the meanest characters of modern history.
PART VI TEXAS
III Sam Houston and Freedom
.
SAM HOUSTON AND FREEDOM
I. Some Characteristics of the Man
A
REMARKABLE character was General Sam Houston, to whom we were introduced at the Battle of Tohopeka. He was a descendant of a North of Ireland family, coming from the place which may justly boast of the ancestry of such men as Stark of the Revolution, Crockett of the Alamo, and Jackson him- self. The Houston family was one of consideration en- titled to coat armor in the old country. One of them had been among the redoubtable defenders of Londonderry in 1689. While not belonging to the landed gentry of the Old Dominion, they were large and prosperous farmers.
Houston's father was an officer of the famous brigade of riflemen that Morgan led to Washington's assistance from the right bank of the Potomac. His mother was one of those pioneer women of superb physique, high principles, and strength of mind and courage to match. After the death of her husband, when young Sam, who was born in 1793, was but thirteen years old, she took the family far over the Allegheny Mountains and settled on the borders of the Cherokee Nation in western Tennes- see.
Such schooling as the neighborhood afforded was given Sam. His educational opportunities were meagre, but he made the best of his limited advantages and with such books as the Bible, the Iliad, Shakespeare, the Pil-
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grim's Progress, and later when he was commander-in- chief of the Texan army, Cæsar's Commentaries-in translation, of course, which he studied for the art of war -he gave himself a good grounding. He was a constant student in his way, and in manner and in ability, when he became Governor of Tennessee, President of Texas, Sen- ator of the United States, Governor of Texas, etc., he had no cause to blush when placed by the most distinguished men of his time.
According to some authorities his unwillingness to clerk in a country store, according to others the refusal of his older brothers to permit him to study Latin, caused him to abandon civilization and cast his lot in with the Cherokees, whose territory lay adjacent to his home. He was adopted into the family of one of the sub-chiefs of the tribe, and for a long period he lived a wild, savage life with them. At different intervals during his career he re- sumed his relations with them, on one occasion taking a wife from among them, who afterward died, leaving no children.
When he was begged to come back, in his grandilo- quent way he remarked that he preferred " measuring deer tracks to measuring tape." After several years with the Cherokees, finding himself in debt for some barbaric finery, he returned to civilization and opened a country school at the age of eighteen. His pluck was greater than his attainments, which yet appear to have been sufficient to make the school a success, for it included all the chil- dren of the neighborhood, and he was enabled to raise the tuition fee from six to eight dollars per year, one-third payable in corn at thirty-three and one-half cents per bushel, one-third in cash, and one-third in cotton goods or other kind. He once said, after he had filled almost
" She took the family far over the Allegheny Mountains."
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every elective position except that of President of the United States, that he experienced a higher feeling of dignity and self-satisfaction when he was a school-master than at any period of his life.
Tiring of school-teaching he enlisted in the army as a private and soon won promotion to the rank of ensign. After his early exploits he resigned from the service; one of the reasons therefor being on account of a severe and merited rebuke which he received for appearing before the Secretary of War dressed like a wild Indian! He never liked Calhoun or his Democracy after that day. He was always a dandy in his dress, although at times he affected peculiar and striking costumes which his great height and imposing presence enabled him to wear with- out inspiring that ridicule which would have attended a similar performance on the part of a less splendid man.
When he was first inaugurated Governor of Tennessee, August 2, 1827, he wore " a tall bell-crowned, medium- brimmed, shining black beaver hat, shining black patent- leather military stock or cravat incased by a standing col- lar, ruffled shirt, black satin vest, shining black silk pants gathered to the waistband with legs full, same size from seat to ankle, and a gorgeous red-ground, many colored gown or Indian hunting shirt, fastened at the waist by a huge red sash covered with fancy bead work, with an im- mense silver buckle, embroidered silk stockings, and pumps with large silver buckles. Mounted on a superb dapple-gray horse he appeared at the election unan- nounced, and was the observed of all observers." ] should think so!
When he was a United States Senator it was his habit to wear, in addition to the ordinary clothing of a gen- tleman of the times, an immense Mexican sombrero and
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colored blanket, or serape, and his appearance naturally excited attention in Washington.
While candidate for re-election as Governor of Ten- nessee, he abandoned his young wife after six weeks of married life, gave over his campaign, and once more sought asylum with the Cherokees. The reason for his action has never been discovered, although he explicitly stated that no reflection upon the character or conduct of the lady in question was implied or expressed by his conduct. Championing the Indians when he came back to civilization, he became involved in a quarrel with Rep- resentative Stanberry, whom he publicly caned. For his conduct he was formally censured at the bar of Congress. This quarrel brought him into public notice again. It is shrewdly surmised that he provoked it for that purpose, for he said :
" I was dying out once, and had they taken me before a justice of the peace and fined me ten dollars for assault and battery it would have killed me; but they gave me a national tribunal for a theatre and that set me up again."
Like many men of great physical vigor he was much given to excess. In his last sojourn among the Chero- kees, the Indians expressed their contempt for his dissi- pated habits by naming him the " Big Drunk," but drunk or sober, there was something about him that inspired re- spect. Whatever he did he was always " Sam Houston." People used to say that he really signed his name " I am Houston." After he was converted, however-and in a large measure before that time, at the instance of his third wife, a woman of the most noble character, who married him to reform him and did so-he entirely stopped drink- ing and demeaned himself to the end of his life as a sincere and humble Christian of the very highest type. When
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he got drunk, he got thoroughly drunk, and when he became converted to the Baptist faith, he did it with the same thoroughness; a thorough-going man, indeed.
In one particular he was remarkable among his con- temporaries. He had the greatest reluctance to resort to the duel, which was then the usual method of settling differences between gentlemen. He had to endure many sharp remarks and bitter criticisms on this account, his courage was even impugned at times, although we now realize it not only to have been past reproof but actually to have been the very highest courage, as evidenced, for one thing, by those very refusals. Sometimes his wit en- abled him to escape. To one gentleman who challenged him, after counselling with his secretary, he informed the gentleman who brought the challenge that his principal was number fourteen on the list, and that he could hold out no hope of meeting him until he had disposed of the other thirteen !
His grandiloquent mind invested the slightest occur- rence with majesty. A friend of his gave him a razor, which he received with these words :
" Major Rector, this is apparently a gift of little value, but it is an inestimable testimony of the friendship which has lasted many years, and proved steadfast under the blasts of calumny and injustice. Good-by. God bless you. When next you see this razor it shall be shaving the President of the Republic, by G-d!"
His manner toward ladies was as magnificent as his person, his dress, his oratory. His habitual word of ad- dress to them was "lady; " a very courtly, distinguished old fellow was he.
After his supersession as Governor of Texas, because of his unwillingness to allow the state to go out of the
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Union, when the officers of the Confederacy established a stringent law requiring all men over sixteen years to register and obtain a pass, Houston paid no attention to the order. When he was halted by an officer who de- manded his pass, the old man waved him aside in his most Olympian manner, frowning and remarking, “ San Jacinto is my pass through Texas." Small wonder that the people loved him.
He had such a sense of humor and the dramatic as few men have ever had. He was one of the best campaigners among thousands of brilliant specimens that America has ever produced. His witty and epigrammatic speech is well illustrated by the following :
A former friend had betrayed him and when the traitor's character was assailed on account of his ingrati- tude, Houston remarked, " You mustn't be too hard on S -. I always was fond of dogs and S- has all the virtues of a dog except his fidelity."
This, his characterization of the leader of a certain cause, is one of those brilliant epigrams in which the very truth of history is enshrined : " Ambitious as Lucifer, and cold as a lizard."
He may fairly be called a statesman, he most certainly can be styled an orator, and a little verse which he wrote to a relative illustrates that he was not deficient in the arts and graces, and is worth quoting :
" Remember thee? Yes, lovely girl. While faithful memory holds its scat,
Till this warm heart in dust is laid, And this wild pulse shall cease to beat, No matter where my bark is tost On life's tempestuous, stormy sea,
My anchor gone, my rudder lost. Still, cousin, I will think of thee."
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Houston did everything in his power to prevent the secession of Texas in 1861, but when she left the Union he went with her. We can understand him, Texas was like his own child. He died in reduced circumstances in 1863, his last years embittered by the too evident failure of the Confederacy and the discords which tore his beloved country in twain. But the world is familiar with the events of his strange, romantic and useful career; few men have been so written about, and few men have deserved it more. While he did not rise to the solitary height to which the title of greatness accrues, yet he was one of the most eminent men of his time, and his valuable services are held in undying remembrance. Pass we to the second great day of his life.
II. In the Service of the Texan Republic
Aroused at last by the pleadings of his better nature he determined to abandon the loose, aimless, lazy, drunken, savage way of life with the Cherokees and go to Texas. It is believed that he went there at the instigation of Pres- ident Jackson, whose friendship and regard for him never wavered. A man of such prominence could not fail to attract attention in a country like Texas, and he was presently made commander-in-chief of the Texan army. After the capture of the Alamo and the terrible and in- human massacre at Goliad, Santa Anna deemed that the Texan revolution had been crushed and that the war was practically over. He intended to send back most of his troops to Mexico, but upon the urgent representations of some of his generals he agreed to march them further eastward and complete the subjugation of the country be- fore he did so. Houston with a small body of Texans,
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numbering less than one thousand, was encamped at the crossing of the Colorado River near Bastrop, whither he had retired from Gonzales.
It is probable that, in the light of subsequent develop- ments, his force was strong enough on account of its quality successfully to have engaged the whole Mexican army. No one knew or believed this would be so then. The Mexicans were regular soldiers, trained in the latest European methods. They were led by an hitherto suc- cessful commander who had succeeded in every battle. The Texans were a body of undrilled, untrained frontiers- men, armed with their own rifles and bowie knives, with no artillery, no bayonets, no camp equipage to speak of. There was but one drum in the whole camp, and Hous- ton did the drumming himself! His reveille was three taps on the drum.
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