USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 1 > Part 40
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It was under this last action of the council that we find Col. Johnson again in the west, acting in concert with Dr. Grant, the " acting commander-in-chief of the Federal army, of near four hundred men, who had gone from San Antonio to Goliad and that region of the country under Grant, leaving Lieut .- Col. Neill with only sixty men and all the sick and wounded at San Antonio, stripped of supplies, even of medi- cine, Grant taking everything portable with him." Governor Smith, in his terrible indictment against the council, of the 9th of January, felt the full force of this outrage on humanity and, in a private communication to the council, boldly held them responsible for their participation in it. For fifty years, under partial statements of the facts, or a failure to give the facts, Governor Smith has been allowed to pass to the rising generation of to-day as a querulous, fault- finding, impracticable man, when, in truth, as the irrefutable facts prove, he was a faithful and fearless guardian of popular liberty, and, in so far as his power extended, stood boldly forth as the guardian of good government and the rights of the people and the champion of independence from Mexico. That he used harsh and unparliamentary expressions in regard to men he believed to be conspiring against the welfare and in- dependence of his country, is true; but that he performed an act or was guilty of an utterance not induced by fidelty to his country, no man can say who will examine the facts. Nor was he always right in opinion or action; but he never wavered, as he viewed the facts, in the duty he owed the country. Every land-grabber in the country, every great land-holder that valued his possessions more than he did the independence of the country ; and every selfish aspirant for place and power,
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regardless of law and organization, was his active enemy and vilifier. Still the commander-in-chief, the civil officers, the commanders at San Antonio and Goliad, Lieut .- Col. Ward of Fannin's command, the best citizens of Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Washington, Gonzales, Brazoria, Columbia, and Bastrop, such men as Rusk, Bowie, Travis, Burleson, Will- iamson, Hill, Forbes, Horton, Cameron, Edwards and Thorn - and the great body of the people stood by him, as did the new convention of the people that assembled at Wash- ington on the first of March. On the next day the conven- tion ratified his acts by declaring independence, and two days later by re-electing Sam Houston commander-in-chief of all the armies of Texas. A vindication, under all the circum- stances, was never more complete.
On the 6th of January Governor Smith wrote the private letter (previously referred to), to Lieut .- Col. William Ward, of the Georgia Battalion, then encamped near the mouth of the Brazos. Ward had visited the Governor at San Felipe and, after repeated interviews, mutual respect and friendship arose between them. Certain passages in that letter will throw light on the then condition of things. He says:
" I am sorry to say that much deep laid management and intrigue have been and still are being used here to overthrow the government and bring about an assimilation of the Mexican policy. It keeps me, as you well know, extremely busy to counteract their plans. * I perfectly understand them. You (a comparative stranger) do not. You cannot imagine to what the heretofore dominant but now expiring party would resort to save and sustain their heretofore rascally acquirements. They consider that all is now on the die; that if honesty is sustained and Texas becomes independent, all by us honestly gained, would be so much lost to them. They are using every exertion to get an expedition fitted out to suit their own purposes. * *
* They wish to have control of the army in fitting out the expedition and finally give laws to
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Texas. But I confidently hope, that Texas will yet become herself, and be ruled by her own laws. Every man that is not in favor of Texas becoming independent and free, distrust him. Every one that wishes to supersede the commander-in- chief, or not recognize him in his proper place, distrust him. I have anticipated them and ordered the commander-in-chief forthwith to proceed to the frontier, take charge of the army, establish his headquarters at the most eligible point, and to immediately concentrate his troops, at the different points, so as to be in readiness for active operations, at the earliest possible day. Some men of whom I have cautioned you are making bold moves to become commanders-in-chief of expeditions. I find it necessary, in order to circumvent them, to order Gen. Houston immediately to take charge. He will obey the order promptly." Which he did by leaving on the 8th as shown in his report heretofore given.
From his camp on the 21st of January, after having learned of the pretended suspension of the Governor, Major Ward answered Governor Smith's letter, in terms showing his full agreement with that gentleman's views and recognizing him as the rightful and only governor. He also reports the vote of his volunteers for four delegates to the convention of inde- pendence thus: James Collinsworth, 157 ; Asa Brigham, 156 ; Edwin Waller, 150 ; J. S. D. Byrom, 150. This was the inde- pendence ticket, triumphantly elected from Brazoria. Major Ward uses this emphatic language in a letter to Governor Smith :
" We Georgians came here to defend the cause of Texas. Nothing shall deter us from pursuing a straightforward course, and I assure you that unless independence is declared in March, every man will lay down his musket and march back. But if independence is declared not only those here but hundreds of others will be ready to shed their blood in the cause of Texas. I am compelled to communicate the mortifying intelligence that a few of our men have deserted us; but I
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hope the people of Texas will not distrust all Georgians be- cause we have a few cowardly and unprincipled scoundrels among us." Again he says : " I am under lasting obligations to you for the frank and open manner in which you have been pleased to address me. Allow me to assure you that the con- fidence placed in me shall never be forgotton."
It was expressions like this from volunteers to which Austin took exception in his letter to Royall of December 25th, denouncing Wharton.
Dr. Charles B. Stewart, Executive Secretary to Governor Smith, came in for a full share of the persecution of the fragment of the council. They fined him two thousand five hundred dollars for his fidelity to his chief and repudiation of their assumptions. The judgment was never collected. But the people right there in the municipality of Austin, embrac- ing San Felipe, vindicated both himself and his chief, on the first day of February, by electing him by a great majority to the convention, wherein he signed the Declaration of Inde- pendence. He subsequently served much in public life and was one of the framers of the constitution of 1845 and was in the first and other legislatures under it, his last service be- ing in the legislature of 1882, forty-six years later. But for great deafness, for many years, his services would have been much greater. He was a true son of South Carolina - a refined and elegant gentleman, and lived till early in 1886.
The remainder of the actions of this fragmentary semblance of the council, headed by Lieutenant-Governor James W. Rob- inson, their president, and by them proclaimed " Acting Gov- ernor " were too puerile to justify repetition. The toryism of a cunning and selfish few, as has been shown, at that mo- ment of chaos and confusion, enabled them to beguile and mislead some men whose patriotism and honor cannot, after a review of all the facts, fifty years later, be questioned. As an illustration of this, let it be borne in mind that at the very hour these men were plotting against the independence of
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Texas in San Felipe, quoting Austin's letters of December the 22d and 25th in support of their positions, Austin was writing from New Orleans to Sam Houston, at Nacogdoches, and S. Rhoads Fisher and R. R. Royall, at Matagorda, in favor of the absolute independence of Texas from Mexico. Public sentiment had already sounded the death knell to the hopes of the submissionists; to the hopes of the infatuated men who still talked reverently of the constitution of 1824; and to the hopes of another nondescript class who had a vague idea of something like an independent, self-governing State under the consolidated, centralized and despotic government erected by Santa Anna, on the ruins of his country. These letters of Austin, though late and involving a great change of views, under the new order of things confronting him in New Orleans, left the malcontents without standing room on the soil of Texas, and they sank into insignificance - an insignifi- cance from which their chief workers never emerged - while the true men of the period rose in the public esteem as wise and trustworthy patriots.
CHAPTER XLVI.
Our Commissioners to the United States - Address of Governor Smith, under the Caption of " Usurpation and Tyranny " - Startling conditions at San Antonio - Reports from Col. Neill - Travis ordered to San Antonio - Letter from Col. James Bowie to Governor Smith - Another From Travis - The Soldiers at San Antonio denounce the Council and uphold Governor Smith.
While these things were transpiring in Texas and volunteers coming from the United States and several little vessels were armed or being armed for naval purposes, our commissioners to the United States, Austin, Wharton and Archer, commenc- ing in New Orleans and acting in the utmost harmony, were performing a grand work for Texas, enlightening the people as to the righteousness of her cause, securing volunteers, con- tributions of arms, munitions of war, commissary and quarter- master's stores, and in every way winning the friendship and sympathy of the American people. Their addresses to im- mense crowds in New Orleans, Natchez, Memphis, Nashville (where the eloquent Wharton carried captive every heart), Louisville ( where Austin made a profound impression), and Richmond (where the mercurial Archer aroused intense enthusiasm on his native heath), produced widespread enthu- siasm, reaching Washington, Pittsburg and New York. Some- times they were together, and sometimes separated to meet the calls made upon them. Col. Wharton was more especially assigned to intercourse with the members of Congress and the Government at Washington, where he had a large acquaint- ance and the personal friendship of President Jackson. Gen. Austin spread enthusiasm throughout Kentucky and Ohio, while Virginia hearkened to her own honored son in the per- son of Dr. Archer. They constituted a trio of whom Texas
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was proud and never more justly so than on that momentous mission.
On the 22d of January, under the caption of " Usurpation and Corruption," Governor Smith published an address to the people in vindication of his course, so overwhelmingly con- victing the remnant of the council of usurpation, faction and ruinous intermeddling with the proper administration of the government, as to call forth the maledictions of an indignant public - an indignation greatly increased a few weeks later, when the fruit of their malversations resulted in the unneces- sary loss of four hundred and sixty-one valuable lives. It is difficult to write of such acts with that temperate spirit which should guide the historian's pen. Every life lost under Johnson and Grant, Fannin, Ward and King, is indirectly chargeable to that remnant of the council who ignored the functions of the lawful governor and commander-in-chief, and clothed Fannin and Johnson with unlawful powers. There is no escape from this conclusion. Yet it was long fashionable to shift the responsiblity for this immolation of so many noble men on to the shoulders of Governor Smith and Gen. Hous- ton. Had the council, as patriots and true representatives of the people, sustained those chief officers and rejected. the approaches of men led astray by military ambition, those blood-curdling atrocities would not have occurred. Battles truly would have been fought and men killed; but these wholesale slaughters would not have transpired. Let the responsibility rest where it belongs ; not on those who did all in their power to prevent it.
Gen. Houston was informed by courier from Col. Neill, in command of only eighty men at San Antonio, that a large Mexican force was advancing upon that place. This was on the night of his arrival at Goliad, January 16th. On the 17th he ordered Col. Bowie, with thirty men (to be followed, if possible, by Capt. Dimmitt with a hundred more ), to hasten to San Antonio, with instructions to Col. Neill to demolish
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the fortifications and bring off the artillery, as it would be impossible to hold the town with the force there, stripped as the town had been by Dr. Grant of men and munitions.
On the same day, January 17th, General Houston wrote Governor Smith :
" In an hour I will take up the line of march for Refugio mission, with a force of about two hundred effective men, where I will await orders from your Excellency. I do not believe that an army of such small force should advance upon Matamoros, with a hope or belief that the Mexicans will co- operate with us." This hope had been alluringly held out by Grant, Johnson and their associates, to induce the men at San Antonio to join them.
General Houston continues :
" I have no confidence in them ( the Mexicans). The dis- aster at Tampico should teach us a lesson to be noted in our future operations. * * * I would myself have marched with a force to Bexar, but the ' Matamoros fever' rages so high that I must see Col. Ward's men. You can have no idea of the difficulties I have encountered. Patton has told you of the men that make the trouble. Better materials never were in ranks. The government and all its officers have been misrepresented to the army." 1
1 The following is the letter in full :
" HEADQUARTERS, GOLIAD, January 17th, 1836. " To Governor Henry Smith:
SIR: I have the honor to send, for your information, the enclosed from Lieut .- Col. J. C. Neill [asking to be relieved from San Antonio], under date of the 14th inst. Col Bowie will leave here in a few hours for Bexar, with a detachment of from twenty to fifty men. Capt. Patton's company it is believed is now there. I have ordered the fortifications in the town of Bexar to be demolished; and, if you should think well of it, I will remove all the cannon and other munitions of war to Gonzales and Copano, blow up the Alamo, and abandon the place, as it will be impossible to keep up the station with the volunteers. The sooner I can be so authorized, the better it will be for the country. In an hour I will take up the line of march for Refugio mission, with a force of about two hundred and nine effective men,
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General Houston, as we have seen, on reaching Refugio and learning that he had been ignored by the council and virtually superseded by the authorizations given to Fannin and Johnson, returned to Washington on the Brazos. Col. Neill answered that he could not remove the artillery for want of teams, and therefore did not demolish the fortifications. Grant had not left horses enough for scouting purposes or bringing in beeves. The men were not paid and were poorly fed and had gone home till only eighty remained. Grant had only left sixty, but recruits had considerably increased in force for the moment, till again reduced as stated.
Learning of this deplorable condition of affairs, Governor
where I will await orders from your Excellency. I do not believe that the army, of such a small force, should advance upon Matamoros, with a hope or belief that the Mexicans will co-operate with us. I have no confidence in them; the disaster at Tampico should teach us a lesson to be noted in our future operations.
" I have learned that Colonel Gonzales is somewhere on the Nueces with one hundred and seventy men, but accounts vary as to their actual numbers. I am told they are to operate in the eastern confederacy [in Mexico].
"I will leave Capt. Wyatt in command at this post, until I can relieve him with thirty-five regulars now at Refugio. I pray your Excellency to cause all the regulars now enlisted to be formed into companies, and marched to headquarters. It will be impossible to keep up garrisons with volunteers. Do forward the regulars. Captain Smith had been relieved, and I met him on his way home to-day. Capt. Patton will return to the Lavaca country, and bring a company as soon as possible. I have sent to Capt. Dimmitt to raise one hundred or more men, and march to Bexar forth- with if it should be invested; if not, to repair to headquarters with his command. Capt. Patton will do likewise. I would myself have marched with a force to Bexar, but the Matamoros fever rages so high, that I must see Col. Ward's men. You can have no idea of the difficulties I have en- countered. Patton has told you of the men that make the trouble. Better materials never were in ranks. The government and all its officers had been misrepresented to the army.
"I pray you send me copies of Austin's letters, or rather extracts. If the council is in session, I do wish they would say something about the confederacy.
"Please send me frequent expresses, and advise me of your pleasure. " I have the honor, etc.
" SAM HOUSTON."
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Smith relieved Lieut .- Col. Travis of superintending the re- cruiting service, and ordered him with a small force to San Antonio. On his arrival, Lieut .- Col. Neill, on account of ill- health, returned to his home in central Texas, leaving Travis in command, and became active in raising men for the spring campaign.
Here for the first time the following correspondence is pub- lished :
" COMMANDANCY OF BEXAR, January 6, 1836.
" To the Governor and Council, at San Felipe de Austin: " SIRS : * * It will be appalling to you to learn and see herewith enclosed our alarming weakness. But I have one pleasurable gratification which will not be erased from the tablet of my memory during natural life, viz. : that those whose names are herewith enclosed are, to a man, those who acted so gallantly in the ten weeks open-field campaign, and then won an unparalleled victory in the five days siege of this place. Such men in such a condition and under all the gloomy embarrassments surrounding, call aloud upon you and their country for aid, praise, and sympathy.
" We have 104 men and two distinct fortresses to garrison, and about twenty-four pieces of artillery. You, doubtless, have learned that we have no provisions or clothing since Johnson and Grant left. If there has ever been a dollar here, I have no knowledge of it. The clothing sent here by the aid and patriotic exertions of the honorable council was taken from us by the arbitrary measures of Johnson and Grant, taken from men who endured all the hardships of winter and who were not even sufficiently clad for summer, many of them having but one blanket and one shirt, and what was in- tended for them given away to men, some of whom had not been in the army more than four days, and many not exceed- ing two weeks. If a divide had been made of them, the most needy of my men could have been made comfortable by the stocks of clothing and provisions taken from here.
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About two hundred of the men who had volunteered to garrison this town for four months left my command contrary to my orders and thereby vitiated the policy of their enlist- ment. * * *
" I want here, for this garrison, at all times 200 men, and I think 300 men, until the repairs and improvement of fortifi- cations are completed. * * *
" Yr. obt. servant,
" J. C. NEILL, Lt .- Col. Commanding."
" COMMANDANCY OF BEXAR, January 14, 1836. " Maj .- Genl. Sam Houston :
" SIR : The men all under my command have been in the field for the last four months. They are almost naked, and this day they were to have received pay for the first month of their last enlistment, and almost every one of them speaks of going home, and not less than twenty will leave to-morrow, and leave here only about eighty efficient men under my command. There are at Laredo now 3,000 men under the command of General Ramirez, and two other generals, and, as it appears from a letter received here last night, 1,000 of them are destined for this place, and two thou- sand for Matamoros. We are in a torpid, defenseless condition, and have not and cannot get from all the citizens here horses enough to send out a patrol or spy company.
I hope we will be re-inforced in eight days, or we will be over- run by the enemy, but, if I have only 100 men, I will fight * * 1,000 as long as I can and then not surrender.
" Your obt. servt,
" J. C. NEILL, " Lieut .- Col. Commanding."
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" HEADQUARTERS, GOLIAD, Jan. 17, 1836. " To His Excellency, Henry Smith :
" Col. Bowie will leave here in a few hours for Bexar, with a detachment of from 20 to 50 men. Capt. Patton's com- pany, it is believed, are now there. I have ordered the fortifications in the town of Bexar to be demolished, and, if you should think fit, I will remove all the cannon and other munitions of war to Gonzales and Copano, blow up the Alamo and abandon the place, as it will be impossible to keep up the station with volunteers. The sooner that I can be authorized the better it will be for the country. * * I have sent to Capt. Dimmitt to raise ' 100 or more men ' and march to Bexar forthwith, if it should be invested, and, if not, to repair to headquarters with his company. Capt. Patton will do like- wise. I would myself have marched to Bexar with a force, but the Matamoros rage is up so high that I must see Col. Ward's men. * *
" I have the honor to be, with great regard,
" Yr. obt. servt.,
" SAM HOUSTON,
" Commander-in-Chief of the Army."
" COMMANDANCY OF BEXAR, Jan. 27, 1836.
" To His Excellency, Henry Smith, Governor of Texas :
" DEAR SIR : I have received a copy of resolutions enacted by the council and approved by James W. Robinson, Acting Governor, as signed, empowering me (as said therein ) without. giving me the means to do sundry acts to my own relief as commander of this place. In my communication to the Executive I did not ask for pledges and resolves, but for money, provisions and clothing. There has been money given or loaned by private individuals expressly for the use of the army, and none has been received. We can
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not be fed and clothed on paper pledges. My men cannot, nor will not, stand this state of things much longer.
" I am, sir, respectfully,
" Yr. obt. servt.,
" J. C. NEILL, " Lieut .- Col. Commanding Bexar."
" HEADQUARTERS, CAMP AT BURNHAM'S, COLORADO. Jan. 28, 1836.
" To His Excellency, Henry Smith, Governor of Texas;
" SIR: In obedience to my orders, I have done every thing in my power to get ready to march to the relief of Bexar, but owing to the difficulty of getting horses and pro- visions, and owing to desertions, I shall march to-day with only about thirty men, all regulars except four. I shall, however, go on and do my duty, if I am sacrificed, unless I receive new orders to countermarch. Our affairs are gloomy indeed. The people are cold and indifferent. They are worn down and exhausted with the war, and, in consequence of dissentions between contending and rival chieftains, they have lost all confidence in their own government and officers. * * Money must be raised or Texas is gone to ruin. Without it, war cannot be again carried on in Texas. The patriotism of a few has done much ; but that is becoming worn down. I have strained every nerve, I have used my personal credit, and have neither slept day nor night since I received orders to march, and, with all this, I have barely been able to get horses and equipments for the few men I have. * *
" I have the honor to be,
" Your Excellency's obt. servant,
"W. BARRETT TRAVIS,
" Lieut .- Col. Commd."
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" BURNHAM'S, COLORADO, Jan. 29, 1836.
" To His Excellency, Henry Smith, Governor of the State of Texas.
SIR: I have been here with the troops under Capt. Forsythe, but shall await your orders at Gonzales, or some other point on the road. I shall, however, keep the thirty men of Forsythe's company in motion towards Bexar, so that they may arrive there as soon as possible.
" Not having been able to raise 100 volunteers agreeably to your orders, and there being so few regular troops together, I must beg that your Excellency will recall the order for me to go to Bexar in command of so few men. I am willing, nay anxious, to go to the defense of Bexar, but, sir, I am unwill- ing to risk my reputation ( which is ever dear to a soldier ) by going off into the enemy's country with such little means, so few men, and with them so badly equipped. In fact, there is no necessity for my services to command these few men. The company officers will be amply sufficient. * * *
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