USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 18
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east of the Alamo, waved hats, shouted and challenged the enemy to come forth. In a few moments four hundred cavalry emerged through the gate of the Alamo and charged the bold challengers. Just then, however, fighting was not in Hays' programme, so he retreated up the ridge towards our camp, feeling confident of his ability on such horses to regulate the distance between himself and his pursuers. The Mexicans fired their escopetas by elevation as they pursued, and dropped balls constantly among the little company. About midway the distance, the horse of Capt. Augustus H. Jones of Gonzales, began to fail, and fell behind, seeing which Hays, who was his bosom friend, threw the whole company behind him and regulated his speed to the ability of Jones' , horse to keep ahead. From there to our camp the skirmish- ing was brisk, our men being compelled repeatedly to wheel and fire, to save Jones - a man highly esteemed by all his comrades. Hays, closely pressed, crossed the Salado half a mile above our camp, there being no other crossing near, and wheeled at once down to Caldwell's position. The Mexican cavalry crossed at his heels, but, soon discovering our posi- tion, passed obliquely across the little valley to the ridge some three hundred yards east and in our front. From that time
till the arrival of General Woll with his infantry and artillery, probably two or three hours skirmishing was kept up, and many gallant acts performed. In that time one of the three brave brothers Jett escaped from San Antonio during the excitement of the morning, and by seeking the protection of the chapparal reached our camp a little before Gen. Woll arrived.1 About one o'clock p. m. General Woll, with eight hundred infantry and two peices of artillery, arrived on the ground. He formed his infantry on the hill-side, fired two rounds
1 This brave man was killed during the battle. One of his two brothers was the Mr. Jett, murdered, with the venerable Simeon Bateman, by Shultz, in January, 1845, for which the murderer was arrested ten years later and hanged in Galveston, in July, 1855.
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of grape and canister, then advanced in slow but good order. A general feeling of enthusiasm prevailed. Very soon the enemy sounded the bugle, commenced firing rapidly and rushed to the charge, but soon well aimed rifles of the Texians checked their advance. Here, there and everywhere the enemy fell rap- idly either killed or mortally wounded. After a desperate struggle of some twenty minutes the enemy fell back under the protection of their guns. At the same time, Vicente Cordova, the Mexican rebel from Nacogdoches, with forty Cherokees, a few renegade Mexicans and Carrizo Indians, attacked our guard and right flank at the mouth of a ravine running at an acute angle into the creek and somewhat en- filading the Texian line. Lieutenant John R. Baker with a small detachment rushed into a hand-to-hand fight with the enemy in the ravine and soon drove them out. At that moment Cordova stood on the opposite bank cheering his men, when Private John Lowe, of Bird's company, about ninety yards distant, fired diagonally across the Texian right front and shot that brave but misguided old chief through the heart. Several charges, not so vigorous as the first, were subsequently made and gallantly repulsed. Late in the after- noon Woll reformed his men on the ridge and there remained until about sunset. We now come to what is known in Texas history as Dawson's massacre.
While the battle was going on as before described, a com- pany of fifty-three volunteer citizens, all but two or three of whom were from Fayette County, under command of Captain Nicholas Dawson, was approaching from the east to re-inforce. Caldwell. When on the prairie about a mile and a half distant and within hearing of the guns, they discovered a body of Mexican cavalry directly in front and approaching them. The. enemy's cavalry had been unemployed during the fight on the creek. They numbered four hundred men, and, on the discovery of Dawson's approach, had been sent sent by Gen- eral Woll to engage him. For a mile or so around the
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country was almost level, but much higher, and out of view from the battlefield on the creek. Dawson took position in a small grove of mezquit trees, covering from one to two acres of ground, dismounted and prepared for action. The enemy advanced in a compact mass to within a point just beyond rifle shot, then divided into two parties, passing to the right and left of Dawson's position, thereby revealing the presence of a cannon, which at once opened fire with grape and canister. A very few moments revealed the fact that the Texians were at the mercy of this gun. Men and horses rapidly fell. The fire of Dawson's men proved to be totally ineffective at such a distanee. When more than half their num- ber had fallen it became evident that death or surrender was inevitable. Efforts were then made to surrender. Several signals to that effect were hoisted, when a rush was made by the enemy into the grove. As the Texians surrendered their arms in numerous cases they were cut down, and, had it not been for Col. Carrasco and a few other honorable officers, every man would have been slain. In this moment of con- fusion, two men escaped, one of whom was Gonzalvo Woods of Fayette, who surrendered to a Mexican, who attempted to pierce him with his lance. Woods, already wounded in three places, seized the lance, jerked the Mexican to the ground, drove the lance through his heart, mounted the Mexican's horse and made his escape. The other was Alsey S. Miller of Gonzales, who, at the same moment, mounted a horse near by (his own having been killed) and attempted to escape by flight, but was pursued by Antonio Perez and a few other renegade Mexicans, formerly from San Antonio, who were mutually acquainted. Miller's horse rapidly failed, but the fine horse of Edward T. Manton es- caped from the grove and came galloping by. Miller mounted this horse and outran his pursuers. The result was that, of the fifty-three men, forty-one were left dead on the ground, two escaped and ten were taken prisoners, four of whom were
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wounded, Norman B. Woods receiving wounds from which he died afterwards in the prison of Perote. Among the ten prisoners were : Nat W. Faison, Edward T. Manton, Norman B. Woods, - James, Joseph Shaw, Joseph C. Robinson, Wm. Trimble, J. E. Kornegy, Richard Barclay, and Allen H. Morrell.
Among the slain were: Captain Nicholas Dawson, the venerable Zadock Woods (father of the two brothers named ), aged nearly eighty years, a mulatto man belonging to Samuel A. Maverick,1 Jerome Alexander, - Cummings, - Farris, and David Berry, over seventy years of age.
The dead were stripped of every particle of clothing and left on the field. About sundown General Woll, rejoined by the cavalry and their ten prisoners, retired to San Antonio - employing about sixty carts in bearing away most of his wounded, and some of his dead. This engagement was wholly unknown to Caldwell and his men until early next day, but one or two persons reported to Col. Caldwell that they had heard artillery in the direction of this tragic scene. The night being dark and stormy, with a continual down- pour of rain, nothing could be done until morning. During the night Captains Jesse Billingsly and W. J. Wallace of Bastrop, each commanding a company (including men from La Grange, in all one hundred men), and Major James S. Mayfield commanding the whole, arrived in camp. Among them was Samuel H. Walker (afterwards so distinguished as a Texas ranger, and who fell at Huamantla, Mexico, in 1847), on his first campaign in Texas. When morning came Col. Caldwell dispatched John Henry Brown, Wm. Burnham, Griffith Jones, and Dr. Caleb S. Brown, and one other to in- ' vestigate the reported sound of the cannon, the first named and a young Mexican named Chico being the only persons who
1 The mulatto had been sent by Mrs. Maverick, with one thousand gold dollars, belted around his body, to secure the release of his master, who had been captured in San Antonio on the previous Sunday.
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claimed to have heard the guns in that direction. They speedily arrived at the scene, guided thereto by the wounded horses around the grove. They counted in the grove forty dead bodies entirely naked, so mutilated with cannon shot, sabre wounds and lances as to be unrecognizable. The heads of several were nearly severed from their bodies. The cold rain of the previous night had cleansed them of blood and given the bodies a marble-like appearance. It was simply a horri- ble sight. The forty-first man, whose name was Cummings, from the Lavaca settlement, having run about four hundred yards before he was killed, was not found until afterwards.
Among the casualties in Caldwell's command were a goodly number of killed and wounded horses. Mr. Stephen Jett was killed. Among the wounded were: Cockrell, Jesse Zum- walt, Creed Taylor, James Taylor, John Henry Brown, Sol- omon Stephens, and others.
Col. Caldwell remained in camp on the 19th and until the morning of the 20th. Learning that Woll had begun his retreat early in the morning Caldwell moved in pursuit at ten o'clock, nooning at the head of the San Antonio River, anxiously hoping for re-inforcements; but, none arriving, he continued the march and reached the Presidio crossing of the Medina (where Castroville now stands ), at twelve o'clock in the night. Next morning he moved up the valley five or six miles and halted, while Hays and a few others went forward to reconnoitre. About noon Hays returned bringing in four prisoners, and stating that Woll was encamped eight miles above. At this time re-inforcements were reported near at hand. At four p. m. they arrived, eighty from the Colorado and twenty from the Lavaca, unorganized, but the old veteran, Col. John H. Moore, was in command. This increased the aggregate force to four hundred and eighty- nine men, which by general consent was speedily divided into two battalions, with Matthew Caldwell as colonel, John H. Moore, lieutenant-colonel, and James S. Mayfield, major. Ben
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McCulloch, returning from eastern Texas, accidentally fell in with these men, and joined the pursuers at the same time, his arrival being hailed with great delight. After night-fall Caldwell moved up to within two miles of Woll's encampment on the opposite side of the Medina. At midnight scouts reported Woll still in that position. At daylight on the 22nd Caldwell moved forward but, on reaching the crossing, found that Woll had retreated. A rapid pursuit was continued until three p. m., when Hays, in the advance, came up with Woll's rear guard, and exchanged a few shots, in which the valiant Samuel H. Luckey received an ounce ball through his lungs. He lived to die ten years later in San Antonio. The pursuit was continued till near sunset. Hays came up with the main body of the enemy on the Arroyo Honda, where the new road made by Woll passed through dense chaparral. In a narrow and serpentine defile through this chaparral, Hays charged their rear, and up to the cannon's mouth, killing five Mexican artillerymen and having three of his own men (Archibald Gipson, Hurd Perry and Col. Wm. G. Cooke) wounded, and one horse killed.
The ground was boggy from recent rains. Caldwell did not arrive in time to support Hays, who fell back a short distance. When the main body came up and was reformed it was too dark to pursue further. Caldwell went into camp, formed a line of pickets around the Mexican encampment and awaited the dawn of day. When that time arrived it was found that General Woll, leaving his carts and baggage, and, being favored by the wet ground, had retreated noiselessly during the night. He crossed into Mexico at El Presidio Rio Grande. Being without provisions and many of the horses being worn out, the pursuit was reluctantly abandoned. The volunteers, in a somewhat irregular manner, retraced their steps to San Antonio, meeting on the way the old hero, Col. Edward Burleson, with about three hundred volunteers, who counter- marched and returned with them. All parties reached San
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Antonio on September 24th and on the 25th a meeting was held in front of the Alamo, standing in a window of which Col. Burleson addressed the crowd, then increased to about twelve hundred. He recapitulated the repeated outrages of the Mexicans within the last year or two, and outlined a plan for a retaliatory expedition into Mexico. He advised those present to return home, recruit their horses, procure suitable clothing, supplies, arms and ammunition and rendezvous at San Antonio a month later. This plan resulted in what became known as the Somervell expedition, and finally the battle of Mier, on Christmas day, 1842.
At the same time Major James S. Mayfield, feelingly and most eloquently, after indorsing Col. Burleson's plan, ap- pealed to all the volunteers from Fayette County to repair with him to Dawson's battle ground, and there bury their forty-one fallen comrades. This was done and their bodies remained till 1848, when they were exhumed, removed and interred on Monument Hill, opposite La Grange.
During his occupancy of San Antonio, General Woll main- tained his pledge made to the citizen-prisoners at the time of their surrender, guaranteeing the humane treatment due to prisoners of war. He interfered with the local authorities, appointing local officers according to Mexican customs. He also interfered with ecclesiastical affairs, by removing the pastor of that church, a native Spaniard, who had been placed in that position by the new vicar-general, Rev. John M. Odin,1 restoring to that place the native priest, Don Refugio de la Garza.
1 In 1840 Rev. John M. Odin arrived in Texas as vicar-general for the whole Republic, by authority of the Catholic church. On arriving at San Antonio, he was shocked to find that La Garza, the resident priest, in defi- ance of his vows, was the father of a large family of children. He removed him from his position and placed in charge an estimable priest who had arrived in the country with him - hence the action of Woll in restoring La Garza to his former position. This priest, however, returned to Mexico with Woll, which restored the statu-quo. Substantially the same facts ex-
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On the retreat of Vasquez from San Antonio in March, Antonio Perez and about forty of the citizens of the San Antonio valley abandoned the country and allied themselves with the Mexicans beyond the Rio Grande, and thus formed a company in Woll's present command. In the interval, between March and September, Col. John N. Seguin, who had been greatly endeared to the people of Texas, quietly withdrew into Mexico. His father, Don Erasmo Seguin, had been the friend of our people from the troubles of 1812-13 and was yet venerated by the whole American people of Texas, while his son, Juan Nepomucino Seguin, had been a gallant captain at San Jacinto, and a few months afterwards, while there was no Americans in San Antonio, had collected and buried in the church of San Fernando in that city, with military honors, the charred remains of the martyrs of the Alamo. He had been a good frontier soldier, and a senator of the Republic. His defection can only be explained on the grounds as stated by himself that he had been grossly mistreated by parties in and around San Antonio. As late as 1885 he declared that he had never raised an arm against Texas - this declaration being made in reply to the long prevailing opinion that he had accompanied Woll into San Antonio. He died in 1890, over .eighty years of age. The influence of the men under Perez, during their nine days' stay in San Antonio, induced some of the old Mexican citizens of that place to desire a more quiet life beyond the Rio Grande. A number of them with no other means of transportation than Mexican carts, undertook to ac- company Woll in his retreat, but most of them necessarily fell behind, and were overtaken and passed by Caldwell's com- mand before reaching the crossing of the Medina, and there- upon returned to San Antonio. Among them was the then venerable Don Erasmo Seguin, who was treated by the Tex-
isted at Goliad in the person of Padre Valdez, where the same corrective was applied.
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ians with marked distinction. He was deeply affected and wept like a child, saying: "In 1813 I saved the lives of a number of Americans after their defeat on the Medina; in 1821 as commissioner of the government I conducted Stephen F. Austin, and a small party with him, from Natchitoches on his first entrance into Texas, and have ever since been a true friend to the Americans of Texas." All of which was known to be strictly true, besides the fact that he with his family and the families of his sons had abandoned San Antonio at the approach of Santa Anna in 1836, and retired to San Augustine in Eastern Texas. Moreover, from exposure on that trip he lost a brother, a son and other kindred. He was born in San Antonio in 1772, and died in his native place in 1857. The cattle and provisions of those people had, since the beginning of the revolution in 1835, furnished subsistence to both American and Mexican expeditions, without compensation, until they were reduced to extreme poverty. It was not, then, strange that they should seek relief among their own people, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.
Simultaneous with Woll's invasion several predatory bands . of Mexicans, understood to be under the direction of the Ranchero General Licentiate Canales, made demonstrations on the lower route, but did not reach Goliad and hence found nothing upon which to depredate. Nothing further on the southwestern frontier worth mentioning occurred, until the inauguration of the Somervell expedition hereafter to be given.
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Somervell Expedition and Battle of Mier - Another Removal of the Seat of Government.
After the adjournment of the called session of Congress at Houston, President Honston issued a proclamation, tempora- rily removing the seat of government to Washington on the Brazos, where it remained until the final action in connection with annexation to the United States, when it was restored to Austin, the permanent capital.
Following the meeting at the Alamo on the 25th of Sep- tember, providing for an expedition to Mexico, President Houston ordered out two regiments of militia, one from Montgomery County ( embracing what now constitutes Mont- gomery, Grimes and Walker Counties ), under Col. Joseph L. Bennett, who had been a Lieut .- Col. at San Jacinto ; and one from Washington County under Col. Jesse B. Mc- Crocklin, who in due time proceeded via Gonzales to San Antonio. He also assigned the command of the contemplated expedition, presumably to be composed of those regiments and newly-forming volunteer companies, to Brigadier-General Alexander Somervell of the State malitia, who also repaired to San Antonio and assumed command. During the same period there arrived at San Antonio, from different parts of the country, various volunteer companies, commanded re- spectively by Captain Wm. M. Ryon, of Fort Bend ; Capt. John N. O. Smith, of Houston (who was left sick at Gon- zales and the company throughout the campaign was com- manded by First Lieut. Thomas S. Lubbock, with Lewis B. Harris as first sergeant ) ; Captain Bartlett Simms, of Bastrop; Capt. Wm. M. Eastland, of Fayette; Capt. Ewen Cameron, of
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the " Cow Boys; " Capt. John G. W. Pierson, of Robertson County ; Capt. Clark L. Owen, of Jackson County ; Capt. Isaac N. Mitchell, of the Lavaca; Capt. Shelby McNeel, of Brazoria; Capt. Jerome B. Robertson, Capt. E. S. C. Robert- son, Capt. Phillip Coe, Capt. Wm. S. Fisher, and Capt. Wm. P. Rutledge (the last five being from Washington County), also Capt. Samuel Bogart's company from Washington County. There was also a " spy" or advance company commanded by Capt. John C. Hays, with Henry E. McCulloch as first, and Eph. M. McLean as second lieutenant, and James W. Hen- derson (" Old Smoky, " afterwards Lieutenant-Governor of the State ), as first sergeant. Bogart's company was attached to that of Hays, and they continued in the advance throughout the expedition.
The bulk of these volunteer companies was organized into a regiment, and an election held for field officers. James R. Cook of Washington was elected colonel, George Thomas Howard of San Antonio, lieutenant-colonel, David Murphree of Victoria, major, and Capt. Houghton was appointed adjutant. The companies of Simms and other small bodies remained unattached, but were afterwards formed into a battalion, and an election ordered for major. At this time the militia regiment of McCrocklin, and the greater portion of Bennett's militiamen, under various pretenses, had returned home. Col. Bennett, however, with a few unorganized men, was included in this proposed battalion. There were two elections for major between Col. Bennett and Capt. Peter H. Bell, (afterwards Governor). In the first there was a tie, in the second Bell was elected, but it bred an ulcer, which was not . entirely cauterized during the campaign. Bennett was a brave old veteran, writhing under the fact that so many of his militia regiment had gone home against his wish ; while Bell was a princely looking young man of dash, a soldier of San Jacinto, and supported unanimously by those who knew him from Travis, Bastrop, Fayette and Washington. The result
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was that neither finally assumed the position, and Simms, as senior captain, maintained command of the battalion. Of the entire force, Chief Justice John Hemphill was appointed adjutant-general, and Col. Wm. G. Cooke quartermaster- general.
After considerable delay, all things were announced ready, and on a pleasant November day, 22d, all the camps around the mission of Concepcion below San Antonio, took up the line of march on the road from San Antonio to El Presidio Rio Grande. They camped two nights and one day on the Rio Medina, then crossed that stream on the 24th, and, after following that road several miles, to the astonishment and mortification of almost every one, turned to the left southerly, and through chaparral, toward the Laredo road. The whole country was inundated with water, the weather was cold, and a few miles brought them into a sandy post oak country, where horses and mules sank to their bodies in quagmire. For three days they floundered through that sort of country, the men
abusing the country in general and General Somervell in par- ticular. There were seven hundred men, about two hundred pack mules and about three hundred beeves. The command embraced more than one preacher, many church members, a full array of Texas farmer boys, and almost every variety of the genus homo. At night, unable to sleep on the deluged ground, large campfires were built on little knolls, and all kinds of meetings were held, political, theatrical. and comical. That locality became known to the troops as "The bogs of the Atascosa," or " The devil's eight leagues." It was common to see pack mules sink until their cayacs (packs) stayed their further descent. A few men would lift them up and start them afresh. Thus by extraordinary efforts and great suffer- ing, they reached the Laredo road, as ancient as San Antonio and solidly packed down, so that man and beast could stand on firm ground. In fact they had passed the boggy belt. The comments passed on the commanding general were by no
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means complimentary either to his military or geographical knowledge. It was known that the Presidio route was firm, and that at that place - three miles beyond the Rio Grande- we would get a fight, for which most of the men were keenly anxious.
Thence the march was without interest to the Nueces River which, on the east side, was overflowed about two miles, to a depth of one to three feet ; on the west dry land approached the water's edge. Hays, with Bogart, being in front, swam across and sent back word that pioneers must be sent forward to construct a brush bridge. The companies of Fisher and Mitchell were sent forward for this purpose. The writer belonged as first sergeant to Mitchell's company, and was in that detail.
After wading about two miles they arrived at the bank of the narrow river, the water on this side being fully three feet deep and a keen norther in full blast. Some men with hatchets swam over and from both sides trees were felled into the stream, their tops meeting and interlapping. Then came large bushes worked in, getting smaller and smaller until finally the bridge was floored with layers of reed cane and long grass, so that next morning all the horses and pack mules passed safely over. Arrived on the west bank they spent the remainder of a clear day in drying baggage, while Hays' command went forward to reconnoitre, accompanied by Capt. Flaco, the brave young chief of the Lipan Indians, who, with a few of his tribe and one Apache, accompanied us. This Apache, Luis by name, had been smuggled out of prison at Perote by the released Santa Fe prisoners, and came to Texas with them during the previous summer. When night came on a rain with a cold wind set in, and about mid- night a general stampede of the horses and mules took place. It was a fearful time. Dark as pitch and nearly a thousand horses and mules rushing blindly, furiously over the men. The Rev. Edward L. Fontaine, a grandson of Patrick Henry,
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