USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 28
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war between the States ), was the officer who mustered out the old company and remustered them in the new. 1
Of this second company (the sixth and last one in the service of the United States commanded by the same gentle- man), Henry E. McCulloch was unanimously elected captain, Milburn Howell first and William C. Mckean second lieuten- ant; Oliver H. P. Keese, orderly sergeant ; the other sergeants being Houston Tom, Thomas Drennan and James Eastwood ; the corporals were John M. Lewis, Abner H. Beard, Thomas F. Mitchell and Archibald Gipson ; Wm. J. Boykin and James E. Keese, buglers ; John Swearinger, blacksmith ; Thomas Sappington, farrier. There were seventy-four privates and a total in rank and file of eighty-nine.
In the meantime Gen. Brooke died in San Antonio and Gen. Wm. S. Harney had succeeded to the command. He directed Capt. McCulloch to take such position in the moun- tains, covering the headwaters of the Guadalupe, Piedernales, Llano and San Saba, as, by a system of energetic scouting, would enable him best to protect the settlements inside, in reality covering most of the country between the Upper Nueces and the Colorado. About the first of June Capt. McCulloch established his headquarters on the north branch of the Llano River, about ten miles above the forks, and thenceforward had daily reports from a long [line of obser- vation. This active service, without any important action or discovery, continued until early in August, when the scouts reported a considerable and fresh Indian trail to the west of the encampment bearing from the lower country in a northerly direction.
Capt. McCulloch with a detail of twenty-one men started out in immediate pursuit. These men were Oliver H. P. Keese, Houston Tom, Archibald Gipson, Thomas Sappington, William W. Ashby, Alex Brown, Jeremiah Campbell, Henry Dillard, B. Harris, Montreville Howell, Edward Hall, William A. Keese, Christopher McCoy, William L. ( Brack) Mitchell,
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John L. Mckean, Herman L. Raven, William G. Rector, John B. Slack, Abraham Vanderpool, Karl Walter and William Williams, in all twenty-one men.
Following the trail, rendered very plain by the number of stolen horses driven by the Indians, it became manifest that the robbers apprehended no danger and were traveling leisurely. On reaching the south branch of the San Saba, not far from its source, it became certain that the enemy was near by. Capt. McCulloch, halting the company, with Chris. McCoy, went forward, soon to discover the Indians encamped on a deep branch, evidently feeling secure, and their horses grazing at some distance from them. A plan of attack was at once adopted. A charge was so made as to cut the horses off and the Indians took position in the branch, but betrayed more of a desire to escape than to fight. The rangers, inspired by their captain, crowded upon them when- ever and wherever it could be done without reckless exposure to their invisible shots. Some of the squaws with bow and arrow, fought as men and two would have been killed in the deadly melee but for the discovery of their sex, upon which they were overpowered and disarmed, this being the highest manifestation of chivalry possible under the circumstances, including of course the safe custody of the captured ladies. Herman L. Raven was wounded by one of the squaws. Jeremiah Campbell's horse was killed by a rifle ball. The Indians were closely pressed as they retreated down the branch until they found security in the thickets on its borders.
Seven or eight warriors were left dead on the ground. All the horses and other property of the Indians were captured. It became evident that the raiders had been robbing Mex- icans on the Rio Grande. On reflection Capt. McCulloch furnished the two squaws horses and outfits, telling them to find their people and say to them that if they would come into Fort Martin Scott (two and a half miles east of Fred- ericksburg, and on the Piedernales), bring in any prisoners
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they might have and pledge themselves to cease depredations on the frontier, their horses and effects would be restored to them. This offer was accepted and carried into effect. Ketemsi, chief of the defeated party, contended that he had been warring on Mexicans only, and it was not right for Texians to attack him - a position untenable while he passed over and occupied Texas soil in his hostile movements against people with whom we were at peace. But in truth he was ready to rob and slay Texians as well as Mexicans.
The company continued in active service till the expiration of their period of enlistment, when, on the 5th of November, 1851, they were mustered out at Fort Martin Scott. As previously stated, they were mustered in at Fort Merrill by Capt. Gordon Granger, afterwards a distinguished Union general in the civil war. They were mustered out by Captain James Longstreet, an equally distinguished general on the Confederate side in the same war.
ED. BURLESON'S FIGHT IN 1851.
In 1850-51, Edward Burleson, son of the distinguished general of that name, was a lieutenant of Texas rangers, stationed at Los Ojuelos, in the lower Rio Grande country. On the 27th of January, 1851, in charge of a small detach- ment of men, he was returning from San Antonio, to his camp, when on the Laredo road, not far from the Nueces, on the west side, three mounted Indians were discovered. Directing the remainder of his men to continue the march, Bur- leson selected eight men and pursued the enemy. After a chase of about three miles, the Indians suddenly halted and faced about, when eleven warriors appeared on foot, all pre- pared for a fight, which proved to be desperate. Burleson charged up almost among them, when, by some misapprehen- sion, all of his men dismounted. The Indians then charged them ; a desperate hand to hand combat ensued. They fought
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around and under the horses, with guns, pistols, arrows and knives - nine white men, fourteen Indians. Each man became his own commander, fighting single-handed for life. As tersely expressed by the noble old veteran, Col. John S. Ford, to whom I am indebted for a large portion of the facts, " it was a trial of skill, strength and courage," and " a few moments decided it," though " victory trembled in the bal- ance." Baker Barton, thrice mortally wounded, was the first to fall, but died standing and holding the pommel of his sad- . dle. William Lackey received three wounds, one being mortal. James A. Carr, also thrice severely wounded, fought like a tiger, killed one warrior as he was in the act of lancing him, and as he fired at another an arrow gave him a fourth wound; but he survived them all. Burleson, in single com- bat, killed a warrior across his horse. Alfred Tom, severely wounded, fought gallantly. So of James Wilkinson - Leach fought with the heroism of his comrades. John Spencer was assaulted by three warriors at the same time, and though severely wounded, by using his horse as a breastwork, held them in check until relieved by others. Warren Lyons, who had been a prisoner among the Comanches from 1837 to 1847 (from his fourteenth to his twenty-fourth year), not only repeated to his comrades all the Indians said among themselves, but fought them in their own style of gyrating, dodging and bounding. He sang out to Burleson, " They are whipped, but do not know how to escape." Yet, the war- riors took the chances and retreated, as best they could.
The result was, four Comanches dead upon the field and eight wounded. Of the rangers, two killed and seven woun- ded - showing that every man spilled his blood.
As the fight ceased Samuel Duncan reached the scene. It was soon ascertained that the Comanches were laying in wait to ambuscade an unarmed train of Mexican carts, and hence had not observed the approach of the rangers.
They were without water. Duncan was dispatched to a
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water hole twenty miles ahead. The wounded were borne along till Duncan met them with water. Barton was buried on the way. Lackey died in Laredo eight days after the fight. The whole party, aided by a vehicle sent for the wounded, reached Laredo in a day or two, where medical attention was bestowed in Fort Bliss, by the authority of Capt. Sydney Burbank, U. S. A., commander of the post.1
ANOTHER INDIAN FIGHT.
In September, 1852, during Gov. Bell's second term, a com- pany of State rangers under Capt. Owen Shaw, was stationed at Camp Bee, fifteen miles above Laredo, on the Rio Grande. On the 15th Capt. Shaw received an express from Hamilton P. Bee, then a merchant in Laredo, informing him that a band of Indians had crossed the Rio Grande for Mexico into Texas, twenty miles below the place, and had plundered the ranches below as far as Roma. Several [days having inter- vened, Capt. Shaw immediately struck for the upper Nueces, where he hoped to intercept them. On the 16th, he struck a trail on the head of the Raices, leading up the country, on which he encamped for the night, satisfied from all the indica- tions that the Indians believed themselves entirely safe and were moving without any precaution ; and in this he was cor- rect, as he overtook them the next morning at eight o'clock encamped on the Arroyo San Roque, thirty miles north west from Fort Ewell on the Nueces.
The action was commenced by the Indians themselves by coming out of the Arroyo in which they were en- camped, forming in front of it, defiantly waving a red
1 This was not the first achievement of young Burleson. He had seen much service before, and won many laurels afterwards. He was major in the first year of the war between the States in Henry E. McCulloch's regi- ment, stationed on the frontier, and filled numerous other positions. He served in the Constitutional convention of 1875, and died in 1877, greatly lamented. He died at his home near San Marcos.
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blanket and opening a heavy fire with muskets, rifles, six- shooters and arrows. Shaw immediately formed in front of them, about seventy-five yards distant, with A. Gatliff and J. D. Scott a little in front on his extreme right, and ordered his long-range riflemen to open fire - slow but sure. Gatliff commenced the action by killing the chief; not a man moved or fired without an order from the captain, and, as the Indians had decidedly the advantage of position, being covered by the Arroyo, he ordered Scott, with a small party, to cut off the caballada (the horses ) of the Indians; and Gat- liff, with another party, to get to the rear of the enemy, so as to cut off his final retreat, while Capt. Shaw, with fifteen men on foot, leaving J. Bott, with a small detachment to guard the horses, charged the Arroyo about one hundred yards below the encampment. The dismounted men gallantly charged the enemy and a severe conflict ensued. The Indians were forced out of the Arroyo, when they were met by the mounted men, who continued a running fire upon them, while Shaw remounted his immediate followers and followed until stopped by a tremendous rainfall.
The Indians numbered nineteen men and two women. Of this number but one is certainly known to have escaped. Nine were left dead on the ground. Twenty-three horses and mules, with their accoutrements and many other articles, were captured. It seems almost incredible that Shaw's only loss was one wounded horse. In his report, Capt. Shaw says : "Sergeant E. Foster Calhoun was by my side while we were acting as infantry, and I bear cheerful testimony to his gallantry. Herman L. Raven, Mac Anderson and George H. Logan of Austin, are reported to me in the highest terms." [Herman L. Raven, one of the young soldiers thus compli- mented, was the same who was wounded in June, 1851, in Capt. Henry E. McCulloch's fight with Ketemsi's party of Indians, on the San Saba. ]
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DEATH OF GOVERNOR HENRY SMITH.
Governor Henry Smith had accompanied two of his young sons to the gold mines in Los Angeles County, California, leaving home about the first of June, 1849. He died suddenly at their camp on the night of March 4th, 1851, where his remains lie buried beneath the trees, on one of which his sons engraved his name, age and country.
Governor Smith's father was Rev. James Smith of Vir- ginia, his mother, Magdalene Woods, originally of Bottetort County, Va. In 1827, his veins full of pioneer blood, he came to Texas, at a period when the services which he soon after rendered could not be overestimated. Before the revolution he filled the office of Secretary of the District of Brazoria, Alcalde of the same jurisdiction, member of the conventions of 1832 and again of 1833 ; Political Chief (Vice Governor ), of the department of the Brazos (the only American ever appointed ) ; member of the Consultation in 1835, Provisional Governor in 1835-6, Secretary of the Treasury under Pres- ident Houston, in his first term, and member of Congress from Brazoria County, after which he refused any public position.
Governor Smith was never connected actively with the army except at Velasco, where he was wounded; but at a period when Mexican misrule was too heavy to be borne, and the public sentiment of the country was in a state of fer- ยท ment as to the remedies to be adopted, he declared himself in favor of independence from that country, and, as far as possible, so shaped his course as a statesman, that his every public act should be a step in that direction. His pen fur- nished for the press of that day much that strengthened the views of the wavering and gave coherency to the Independence party.
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GOVERNOR BELL.
In the autumn elections of 1853, Governor Bell, having served nearly two terms, was elected to the United States Congress, and in order to take his seat, resigned the office five or six weeks before the expiration of his term.1
During Gov. Bell's second term, (December 26th, 1851), Texas was called upon to mourn the death of Gen. Edward Burleson, one of her best loved citizens and trusted chieftains. Their sorrow was universal. He was born in North Carolina in 1789, lived for a time in Virginia, and thence, in 1824, removed to Tennessee. He visited Texas in 1830, and in 1831 settled on the Colorado River, twelve miles below Bastrop, when but few families lived in that part of the country and they were constantly exposed to the depredations of the hostile Indians. He at once became a leader of the people in defense against the savages. When the revolution began in 1835, he was promptly in the field, was made colonel of the troops at Gonzales, and in that capacity marched upon San Antonio, Austin being in the chief command; but he only so remained a few weeks, retiring on the 24th of November, to become one of the three commissioners to
1 Peter Hansborough Bell was born and reared in Virginia, and de- scended from a prominent family of that State. He was a man of splendid physique, and, combined with true courage, was distinguished by kind and genial characteristics. It is believed he had not a personal enemy in Texas. He arrived in the country in March, 1836, when he had little more than at- tained man's estate. He proceeded on foot from Velasco to Gen. Houston's retreating army, then on the Brazos, and enlisted as a private soldier, in which capacity he bore himself with such gallantry as to win the admiration of his comrades at San Jacinto. Thence up to annexation he was almost constantly in some military position; for several years filling the office of inspector-general, afterwards captain of rangers in the southwest, then lieutenant-colonel of Hays' second regiment in the Mexican war, and contin- ued in the frontier service after the war until a short time before his election as Governor in 1849. He was re-elected in 1851 -- then served four years in Congress - 1853 to 1857 -then married and settled in North Carolina. He was a colonel in the Confederate army from that State and still resides there.
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the United States. Burleson succeeded him in the chief command and so remained until after the capture of San Antonio, which occurred on the 10th of December. In March, 1836, he joined Gen. Houston at Gonzales and became colonel of the first regiment. On the 21st of April, at San Jacinto, he led his regiment in such a man- ner as to win imperishable renown. Under Gen. Rusk, a little later, he commanded the advance in following the retreating army of Filisola out of the country. At the second election under the Republic in 1837, he was elected to the Senate and served one session, when he was elected by the Congress as a brigadier-general of militia. During 1839 he fought the Indians in what is now Williamson County, de- feated Cordova, a few miles from Seguin, and on July 16th and 17th, in command of volunteers and regulars, he won dis- tinction in the victorious battles with the Cherokees in east Texas. From the beginning of 1839 to the autumn of 1840 he was colonel of the only regiment of regulars in the service, those troops being scattered at intervals along the frontier, so that he often commanded bodies . of volunteers. On the 12th of August, 1840, he commanded the right wing in the victorious battle of Plum Creek, where one hundred and eighty-seven men, including thirteen Toncahuas, overwhelm- ingly defeated about one thousand Indians. In 1841 he was elected vice-president of the Republic and presided over the Senate for three years. He was in the field in 1842 to repel the Mexican invasions of March and September. In 1846 as a volunteer, serving on the staff of Governor Henderson, he maintained his well-earned reputation in the sanguinary battle of Monterey. He was elected to the first State Senate after annexation, and re-elected until his death at the close of 1851, all the time serving as president pro-tem of the Senate. He died during the session of that body, and received from the members of both houses of the legislature eulogies worthy of his fame as a citizen, soldier, statesman, patriot and as a Christian gentleman.
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CHAPTER XXXI.
More of the Governors and Chiefs of Texas.
Elisha Marshall Pease was born in 1812 and reared near Hartford, Conn. In the spring of 1835, when twenty-three years old, he came to Texas, locating in Mina, since known as Bastrop. In September of that year he was among the first volunteers to arrive at Gonzales under the leadership of Burleson. After the fall campaign he repaired to San Felipe and became assistant secretary to the General Council ; and, at Washington, March 3 1836, he was assistant secretary to the convention which declared independence. In 1837 he was comptroller under President Houston. In 1838 he located as a lawyer at Brazoria, and for many years he enjoyed a large practice at the bar. He was elected to the first legislature in connection with annexation. In 1847 he was re-elected. In 1849 he was elected for four years to the State senate. In his legislative career of eight years he was justly regarded as one of the best lawmakers in the State, and was author in whole or in part of many of the elementary laws, enacted after annexation, the principles of which yet remain on the statute books. In 1853 he was elected as the successor of Governor Bell - and re-elected in 1855, Hardin R. Runnels, being elected Lieutenant-Governor. That he made a wise and conservative Governor was verified by public sentiment.
During his administration of four years much of our earli- est railroad legislation was inaugurated. The matters in issue between the United States and Texas, in regard to the public debt of the late Republic, so far as the United States had retained the $5,000,000 was concerned, was finally ad- justed. The United States, by a special act, proposed to
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GOV. ELISHA M. PEASE
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Texas to pay off that portion of the debt to which the cus- tom house revenues had been pledged and for which the creditors held the United States responsible, at a scale differ- ing and somewhat higher than Texas had adopted with refer- ence to the remainder of her revolutionary debt. It became known as the public debt bill, requiring the action of Texas, and was an issue in the elections of 1855. There was power- ful opposition to its acceptance, led by some of the ablest men in the State. When the legislature met in November of that year, the friends and opponents of this measure were so equally divided that the result remained long in doubt, but the measure finally carried. Among the debaters pro and con, in the house, were Ben E. Tarver, John Sayles, Wm. B. Ochiltree, Ashbel Smith, Stephen S. Tompkins, James W. Throckmor- ton, Jacob Waelder, Charles S. West, Charles L. Cleveland, and other speakers of ability.
A portion of the money received from the United States was used in the erection of a new State capitol and other public buildings, including inexpensive buildings for the deaf and dumb, insane and the blind, some of which were com- pleted during the next administration.
During Gov. Pease's first term, Thomas J. Jennings, and during his second term, James Willie, was attorney-general ; and, during both terms, Edward Clark was Secretary of State, James B. Shaw, Comptroller, James H. Raymond, Treasurer, and Stephen Crosby, commissioner of the land office.
In the senate were Mark M. Potter, Isaiah A. Paschal, A. Superville, Edward A. Palmer, Wm. T. Scott, Malachi W. Allen, Wm. M. Taylor, M. D. K. Taylor, Robert H. Taylor, Elisha E. Lott, James Armstrong, Jesse Grimes, Matt G. Whitaker, Johnson Wrenn, S. Addison White, Rufus Doane, James McDade, Wm.S. Day, Isaac L. Hill and others, consti- tuting as able a senate as has ever sat in Texas.
The proposition of the United States was finally accepted, passing the house by a majority of only one or two.
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It also contained clauses adjusting the claims of Texas against the United States for frontier defense. For the four previous years Texas had relinquished the State taxes to the counties for the purpose of erecting court houses and jails, and had defrayed the expenses of the State government from the $5,000,000 bonds previously received. In his message Gov. Pease said :
" The amount of these bonds now remaining in the treasury is $1,575,000, and if we continue to rely upon them to meet the expenses of the government, they will, with the interest accruing on them, pay these expenses for about eight years, but these bonds, having been received as the consider- ation for our relinquishment of the right of soil and juris- diction over a portion of our territory acquired by our revolution, ought not to be expended for temporary purposes ; they ought rather to be husbanded, and used for objects of public utility, permanent in their character." *
" I am opposed to any future relinquishment of the State tax to the counties, and think it (the State tax) should be relied on to meet the ordinary expenses of the government."
These wise suggestions of Governor Pease were followed by the legislature, the United States bonds both present and prospective being subsequently set apart as a part of the endowment of the permanent free school fund.
Thus there remained in the treasury of the State, at the close of 1855, $1,575,000, while a plurality of the people, directly voting on the question, had voted against the propo- sition; but the public mind, relieved of all anxiety from this source, overwhelmingly concurred in the action taken.
In the year 1854, there was introduced into Texas a secret political organization which, in 1855, became known as the Know-nothing or American Party. It transacted its business in secret sessions and put forth a full ticket for State officers. Prior to this time there had never been in Texas, party or- ganizations for such purpose. It was notorious, however,
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that, as the result of annexation, about three-fourths of the people belonged to the Democratic party. The principles of the new party were designed to put restrictions on the rights of foreign emigrants, in acquiring the rights of American citizenship, and imposing restraints upon those professing the Catholic religion. For Governor, in 1855, the Democratic party re-elected Governor Pease by a vote of 26,336 to 17,- 968, cast for David C. Dickson, the candidate of the new party. On the ticket with Pease, Hardin R. Runnels was elected Lieut .- Governor. The Democratic majority in the two houses of the legislature was so great that the new party died in its infancy. The most intelligent and patriotic ele- ment composing it speedily became satisfied that its princi- ples, though in some respects commendable, were as a whole proscriptive, un-American and dangerous to the cause of constitutional government. All such resumed their former political status as members of the Democratic party, while foreign emigrants continued to arrive and fill up the waste places of the land, and the State to prosper as never before.
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