USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 1 > Part 29
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The wounded man, Richard Andrews, died the same day. A county in West Texas perpetuates his name. A man named Penjarvis, had his Bowie knife driven by a ball partly into his body, but survived. The brave Henry W. Karnes, so distin- guished on that and on many subsequent occasions, was wounded by the explosion of his powder horn, which he re- sented in language so unrefined, as to provoke a laugh from all around him. Jacob H. Shepherd, long afterwards a citi- zen of Walker County, stood by Karnes and was slightly burned by the explosion. The man in the tower claimed to have had rare sport in firing from his concealed and exalted position.
The main body of the volunteers, then aggregating about seven hundred men, arrived an hour after the close of the en- gagement. Bowie and Fannin said that, if it had gotten up in time, " the victory would have been decisive and Bexar ours before 12 o'clock." If such could have been the case, it would have avoided much toil and many heart-burnings. Still, no one was at fault for the failure. They did all that men could do on hearing the guns of the enemy, to reach and sustain their comrades.
Austin divided his force into two bodies, stationing one below the town, and, with the other, took position a mile or so above. Bowie and Fannin were in charge of the first and Burleson of the second position; but there was a lack of or- ganized authority leading to confusion and want of concert of action, due largely to the presence of an unnecessary number of officers. Bowie and perhaps others holding merely staff positions were allowed command in the lines, a mistake in all similar cases fruitful of discord. Austin made no pretence to a knowledge of military affairs and early betrayed his de- ficiency in that respect by too much counseling and consulting and the issuance of instructions, lacking that affirmative character which inspires confidence in a commander.
Bowie was zealously in favor of an attack on Cos in the
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town, following up the brilliant victory already won, while the volunteers were full of enthusiasm. But the golden moment was allowed to pass and the enemy given time to strengthen his defenses and, later, to receive a heavy re- inforcement.
Scouts were kept constantly out watching all the lines of approach from Mexico. Travis rendered valuable serv- ice in this way, at one time, forty miles west, capturing three hundred horses under escort from San Antonio to the Rio Grande on account of the lack of forage. Milam, Cap- tain Byrd Lockhart and Captain Briscoe figured in similar services, and Deaf Smith, without command, brought into action his qualities as a scout. Men, in small numbers, were arriving and departing at will. In short, it was a voluntary assemblage of free citizens without the authority of law or government, and of sheer necessity lacked the coherency and vital authority necessary to success in all cases requiring time, patience, perseverance, and above all, wisely exercised but positive authority. Austin, from the first, was unwaveringly in favor of storming San Antonio, but wanted to await the arrival of heavy guns, of the ultimate reception of which there was no certainty, while others, like Milam and Bowie, be- lieved that the plan finally adopted, of relying upon their trusty rifles and penetrating through stone walls, from house to house, was the most certain and least hazardous of all modes of attack, and time triumphantly vindicated this theory. From some cause, not explained, two days after the victory at Concepcion, Bowie, who had been acting as aide-de-camp, addressed a note to Austin, saying :
" I have declined further action under the appointment given to me by yourself. This, you will, therefore, look upon as my resignation. I will be found in Captain Fannin's company, where my duty to my country and the principles of human rights shall be discharged on my part, to the extent of my abilities, as a private."
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On the 31st, Austin advised Bowie and Fannin of the propo- sal, received through a servant, of two companies of the army of Cos to desert and come out at a given signal, etc., and asked them to make the indicated signal. They replied at once, agreeing to do so, but added -" * * if these two companies do not join in a given time ( say five days, or some certain day ), let us storm the town simultaneously. We can- not doubt for a moment the result."
This was October 31st. On November 2d, Bowie wrote to Austin : " I take the liberty to tender you my resignation of the nominal command I hold in the army. I hope you will appoint some other person to occupy the post, more capable than myself
" I deem it of the utmost importance for you to effect a union of the two divisions of the army as soon as practicable. Great dissatisfaction now exists in this division, and unless counteracted by the measure I suggest, I seriously apprehend a dissolution of it."
Matters passed from day to day, without any decisive step or act and the restlessness of the citizen-volunteers, as is ever the case under such conditions, increased. Who was to blame, may be answered by saying, the peculiar circumstances exist- ing, and a few persons. The two divisions, however, as urged by Bowie, united in the camp above town on the next day.
On the 2d of November Austin held a council of twenty- six officers, whose names he gives, including captains, lieuten- ants and members of his staff, who, after discussing the question of storming San Antonio as contradistinguished from the slow siege or starving-out policy, voted twenty-five against storming to one in favor of it, the gentleman voting in the affirmative being Major Benjamin F. Smith, who, says Austin, " voted substantially in the affirmative, saying that in his opinion the town ought to be taken immediately." That Major Smith was more wise than the twenty-five who voted against him may be prudently assumed from the fact that
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when, a little over a month later, Milam did successfully storm San Antonio, Cos had four hundred more men and the Texians two hundred less than when that vote was taken; while the relative condition otherwise, excepting in the materi- ally increased strength of the Mexican fortifications, remained the same.
A few immaterial skirmishes occurred during the first three weeks of November, but the condition remained without material change, excepting that the Texian force in that time decreased, in the aggregate, from about nine hundred to about five hundred. Complaints arose against the temporary com- mittee at San Felipe, which called forth a defensive letter from R. R. Royall, its chairman, to Fannin, dated November 15th, saying among other things: "If your commander, or his staff, could see two inches from their noses, and order supplies in time, the country has means, men and all that is necessary, if system was pursued and timely application made; " an ungracious remark in view of the fact that when the letter was written, Austin had been only thirty-five days in command of a new, moving, daily changing and poorly organized band of fresh volunteers, aided by a staff as wholly inexperienced as he was himself in that line of admin- istration.
It will be remembered that Captain George M. Collinsworth commanded at the capture of Goliad on the 9th of October. The company was increased by additional volunteers; but Collinsworth, in some way, was promoted Major, left the company and repaired to San Antonio, upon which the com- pany elected Philip Dimmitt, an old and experienced citizen, as their Captain. Under his orders, Adjutant Ira Westover, with forty men ( including as privates James Kerr, James Power, John J. Linn, Augustus H. Jones and others of high standing) attacked and captured the Mexican fort of Lipantit- lan, twelve miles above San Patricio, on the west bank of the Nueces. It was a gallant and daring enterprise and occurred
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on the 5th of November, 1835. The Texians only had one man wounded, William Bracken of the Lavaca, who had come to the country with Green De Witt, while the Mexican loss was considerable, including a gallant and worthy young man (Capt. Rodriguez ) who, at his own request, was tenderly conveyed by his captors to San Patricio to die, and, after death, was buried by them with military honors.
The successful affair at Lipantitlan, on account of its ad- vanced geographical position and the interference of its garrison in stopping intercourse with the Rio Grande, was hailed throughout the country with a joy altogether beyond its intrinsic importance. It had the effect, however, of preventing three of the gentlemen named - Messrs. Kerr, Power and Linn - from taking their seats in the grand Consultation which sat in San Felipe from the 3rd to the 14th of November, and also caused the release of several Irish prisoners held by the Mexicans.
From his headquarters at San Antonio, November 18th, Austin dispatched this order to Captain Dimmitt, commander at Goliad :
" To Captain Philip Dimmitt:
" On receipt of this you will deliver to Captain George M. Collinsworth the command of the fort and the town. Iregret to say that I am compelled to adopt this measure owing to complaints made by Governor Viesca, and also by the act- ing Alcalde and other sources.
" These complaints show in substance that great harshness has been used towards the inhabitants of Goliad. This conduct is the reverse of what I expected and have ordered, and is well calculated to injure the cause we are en- gaged in.
" Colonel Gonzales did not come here, as I am informed, owing to the reception Governor Viesca and himself met with at Goliad. This officer would have been very useful here,
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for there is little doubt he could have drawn nearly all the cavalry out of Bexar.
" God and Liberty.
" STEPHEN F. AUSTIN."
Some one had falsified to Austin on the latter point. Hear- ing of the escape from prison and the approach of Governor Viesca, Captain Dimmitt sent Messrs. Kerr, Linn and Power (all of whom spoke Spanish and were personally acquainted with the Governor), with an escort, to meet, welcome and conduct him into Goliad. They met him eight or ten miles out and escorted him into the town, where he was welcomed with a military salute and hospitably entertained, until he left for San Felipe. They did everything but recognize him as Governor, which they could not, and would not do, on the eve of the formation of a government by their own people. This, and this only was the grievance of Governor Viesca.
This order of Austin to Captain Dimmitt was most unfortu- nate. At San Antonio a feeling had grown up that he was too much given to councils and lacked that affirmative self- reliance deemed necessary in a chief commander, under such surroundings, to inspire confidence and, consequently, cheer- ful obedience. Some of the more enlightened and daring spirits evidently participated in this feeling. Still, in a purely voluntary organization, without law or the semblance of legal authority, where men are held in comparative inac- tivity for any length of time - and here this condition had existed for twenty-eight days - such manifestations of restless- ness are inevitable. The order to Dimmitt, however, went to the opposite extreme in the exercise of a power and authority the possession of which by him was unanimously denied by the citizen volunteers at Goliad. On receipt of the order and information of its contents, the entire force, independent of Captain Dimmitt, held a meeting and had it read, on the 21st.
A long letter and a series of protesting resolutions, signed
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by every one of the sixty-seven members of the company ( Captain Dimmitt taking no part), were the same day for- warded to General Austin. They were published in full in the Texas Republican, in Brazoria, December 16th, 1835, from which the following extracts are made. The letter, after expressing respect for and confidence in the patriotism of the General concludes :
" On hearing the order read, our ground was instantly taken. No time was allowed for management or the insidious approaches of intrigue. Your volunteers appointed a com- mittee, composed of J. W. Baylor, B. Noble, John P. Borden, Benjamin J. White, Sr., and Dugald McFarlane, to prepare a preamble and resolutions expressive of their sentiments, who were instructed to report the same for their adoption. Both have been read and both have been adopted by the signers hereto.1
THE GOLIAD RESOLUTIONS.
"1. Resolved, That we entered the service of our country as citizen-volunteer-soldiers; that, as such, we claim and can
1 The sixty-seven signers were: J. W. Baylor, Dugald McFarlane, Ira Ingram, Wm. S. Brown,* Thomas S. Mitchell, James O'Connor, W. Red- field, R. L. Redding, George McKnight,* James Duncan, Wm. S. Winning- ham,* Lewis Poweble, A. Silsbee, Gustavus Colwell, Charles Smith, James Elder, John P. Borden, Isaac Robinson, John J. Bowman, B. Noble, Benja- min J. White, Sr., Edward Quirk, Henry Valentine, George W. Paine,* Daniel Martindale, t David George, Spirse Dooley, Robert McClure, James St. John, Thomas O'Connor, Thomas Brien, Michael Riley, Andrew Devereaux, J. B. Dale, Michael O'Donnell, James Rawls, Charles Malone, Edward St. John, Thomas M. Blake, Augustus H. Jones (died in Gonzales County in April, 1877), J. L. Mckenzie, Joseph Codle, Elkanah Brush, John James,* Thomas George, Charles Musser, Thomas Anderson, Mariano Car- bajal, Morgan Brien, Martin Lawler, Benjamin J. White, Jr., Willie Cum- ming, Patrick O'Beary, William Quinn, Benjamin Rawls, John Bowen, Napoleon B. Williams,* John Huff, Jeremiah Day, Patrick Quinn, Jefferson George, John Dunn, Walter Lembert, John Fagan,* John P. Hancock, Thomas Todd, P. Loupey - 67.
The seven marked thus * were murdered with Fannin's men, March 27th, 1836. Daniel Martindale t escaped from that massacre.
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never surrender but with life, the right to elect, and to elect freely, our immediate commander.
" 2. Resolved, That in conformity with this principle, and. in pursuance of this determination, we have elected and rec- ognize as our present captain, Citizen Philip Dimmitt; that we have every confidence in his capacity, firmness, patriotism and uncompromising devotion to the great cause in which all we hold near and dear, both as citizens and citizen-soldiers, is now involved.
" 3. Resolved, That we regret the order of the 18th instant, for the delivery of the immediate command over us to an- other, as an unmilitary, ill-advised, ill-timed and arbitrary act.
" 4. Resolved, That to the citizen (George M. Collins- worth ) named in the order as the successor of Captain Dim- mitt, we have no personal objections. On the contrary, he has our confidence, both as an officer and a man ; we know, we esteem, we highly respect and love him. He was once the elected commander of our company, but he withdrew from us. He was elected to the position of Major and left us with- out a commander. We elected another to fill his place, and it has been ably filled.
" 5. Resolved, That it is not our province to prefer charges. and specifications against any officer ; much less is it our place on this occasion, to anticipate or presume of any against the man and the officer of our choice. When they are made, how- ever, it will be competent for all concerned to fill the places al- lotted them, with calmness and decision; and for the interested party (Captain Dimmitt ) to discharge, and fearlessly dis- charge, as he thus far has done since our association with him, his duty to himself, his company and his country.
" 6. Resolved, That while we retain and adhere to the right of freely electing our company offcers so long as we remain in the service under existing regulations - or rather during the want of all regulations - we freely concede to the com-
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mander-in-chief that of so applying and disposing of us as, in his opinion, the advancement of the common cause of Texas may require."
" Done at Fort Goliad, November 21st, 1835."
No further action followed this proceeding as, four days later, Austin retired from the army. These are facts, how- ever, of not only great interest, but of great importance, as affecting cause and effect in other matters of grave import, to happen within the next ten months.
These protestants were chiefly respectable citizens of the country, above the average in intelligence - a number being men of talent and subsequent prominence. Captain Dimmitt himself died in a Mexican dungeon in 1841, and many of them gave up their lives in defense of their country. Yet these men awarded General Austin the fullest credit for honesty and patriotism and avowed their readiness to go whithersoever or do whatsoever he might order them. They simply rejected his authority to appoint their company officers, assuming that he had been elected by about three hundred citizen-volunteers as their commander at Gonzales, without law or government - while a less number at Goliad had elected Dimmitt as their captain ; yet for the good of the cause, until a government could be formed, they were more than willing to recognize Austin as commander-in-chief. The true facts should be understood.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Meeting of the Consultation and its Labors - Formation of a Provisional Government - Henry Smith made the first American Governor of Texas, and Sam Houston Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of Her Armies - Austin, Wharton and Archer Chosen Commissioners to the United States - Rights of the Cherokee Indians.
THE GENERAL CONSULTATION.
The general Consultation, as per adjournment on the 16th of October, for want of a quorum, re-assembled at San Felipe on the first day of November, 1835, but a quorum did not appear till the third.
On that day the body organized by unanimously electing Dr. Branch T. Archer of Brazoria as president. Dr. Archer had formerly served as Speaker of the House of Delegates in the Virginia legislature and possessed excellent qualifications as a presiding officer. Peter B. Dexter was elected secretary. Dr. Archer delivered the following address :
" GENTLEMEN: I return to you my thanks for the honor you have conferred upon me. The duties which devolve upon the members of this body are arduous and highly important: in fact the destinies of Texas are placed in your hands ; and I hope that you are now assembled, in every way prepared to discharge those duties in a manner creditable to yourselves and beneficial to your country. I call upon each and all of you, to divest yourselves of all party feelings, to discard every selfish motive, and look alone to the true interests of your country. In the words of the Hebrew prophet I would say : ' Put off your shoes, for the ground upon which you stand is holy !' The rights and liberties of thousands of freemen are in
(380)
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your hands, and millions yet unborn may be affected by your decision.
" The first measure that will be brought before the house, will be a declaration in which we will set forth to the world the causes which have impelled us to take up arms, and the objects for which we fight.
" Secondly. I will suggest for your consideration the pro- priety of establishing a "Provisional government, " the election of a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and council, and I would recommend that these officers be clothed with both legislative and executive powers. This measure I conceive absolutely necessary to prevent Texas from falling into the labyrinth of anarchy.
" Thirdly. The organization of the militia requires your immediate attention. You have an army in the field whose achievements have already shed lustre upon our arms : they have not the provisions and comforts necessary to continue their services in the field. Give them character, or their victories, though they are achieved not without danger and glory, will, nevertheless, be unproductive of good. Sustain and support them, and they will do honor to you, and render incalculable service to their country. But neglect them - Texas is lost. The adoption of a code of military laws is indispensable. Without discipline and order in the ranks, your armies will be mobs, more dangerous to themselves than to their adversaries, and liable at all times to be cut to pieces by a handful of regulars. I know the men that are now in the field ; there never were better materials for soldiers; but without discipline, they can achieve nothing. Establish mili- tary laws, and, like the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus, they will produce armed men. It will be necessary to procure funds, in order to prepare the contemplated government, and to carry on the war in which we are now engaged. It will, therefore, be our duty to elect agents to procure these funds. I have too high an opinion of the plain, practical sense of the
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members of this body, to think for a moment that they will .elect any but some of our most influential citizens to this important post. Without funds, however heroically your armies may fight, however wisely your councils may legislate, they will erect but a baseless fabric, that will fall by its own weight.
" There are several warlike and peaceful tribes of Indians that claim certain portions of our land. Locations have been made within the limits they claim, which has created great dissatisfaction amongst them. Some of the chiefs of those tribes are expected here in a few days; and I deem it expe- dient to make some equitable arrangement of the matter that will prove satisfactory to them."
" Permit me to call your attention to another subject. Some of our brethren of the United States of the north, hearing of our difficulties, have generously come to our aid; many more, ere long, will be with us; services such as they will render should never be forgotten.
" It will be proper for this convention to secure to them the rights and privileges of citizens, to secure to them their land in ' head right,' and place them on the same footing with those of our citizens who have not yet obtained from government their lands, and, in all other respects, to place them on an equal footing with our most favored citizens. Again, the path to promotion must be open. They must know that deeds of chivalry and heroism will meet their reward, and that you will throw no obstruction in their pathway to fame.
" Some fraudulent sales or grants of land, by the late government of Coahuila and Texas, will require your atten- tion. The establishment of mails, and an express depart- ment, is deemed necessary to promote the interests of the country, besides other minor matters that have escaped my observation in this cursory review.
" Finally, gentlemen and friends, let me call your attention from these details to the higher position which you now
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occupy. Let me remind you that the eyes of the world are upon you, that battling, as we are, against the despotism of a military chieftain, all true republicans, all friends to the lib- erties of man, are anxious spectators of the conflict, or deeply enlisted in the cause. Let us give evidence that we are true descendants of that band of heroes who sustained an eight years' war against tyranny and oppression and gave Liberty to a new world. Let our achievements be such that our mother country, when she reads the bright page that records them, shall proudly and joyfully exclaim: 'These are my sons ! ' their heroic deeds mark them as such. Again gen- tlemen, let me admonish you, that the ground on which you stand is holy ; that your decisions will affect the rights and liberties of thousands of freemen, the destinies of millions yet unborn, and, perhaps, the cause of Liberty itself. I do not view the cause in which we are engaged as that of freemen fighting alone against military despotism; I do not view it as Texas battling alone for her rights and her liberties; I view it in a nobler, more exalted light ; I view it as the great work of laying the corner-stone of Liberty in the great Mexican Republic."
This was the third deliberative body organized under American auspices in Texas, having been preceded by the conventions of October 1st, 1832, and April 1st, 1833. They assembled in times of peace, peacefully to inaugurate meas- ures for its perpetual continuance. Their overtures were spurned and their messenger of peace wantonly incarcerated in prison, an outrage against humanity and liberty and a defy- ing insult to every freeman in Texas.
This third body assembled in the midst of war. The clash of arms had already resounded through the land -first at Gonzales, next at Goliad, then at Concepcion and around the precincts of ancient Bexar, then under actual siege, and, two days after their assemblage, at Lipantitlan. They had assembled not again as humble petitioners for justice but
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as stern, liberty-loving soldiers and lawmakers. How they discharged the momentous trust reposed in them will be seen as facts are unfolded.
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