The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 4, July 1900 - April, 1901 Page: 281
366 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The San Jacinto Campaign.
281
San Felipe. * * * My statement received full credit before
the auditorial court. * * *
You then sent down an officer of the line to bring up all below
your camp. * * * I believed you were running to the Red
Lands, and believed it my duty to use every attempt to depose you,
if you should take the road for the east; but on learning on the next
day that you were bound for Galveston bay, in accordance with the
orders of the Secretary at Washington, I overlooked the past and
followed cheerfully your command.
* * * It is true you were nominally the head of the army,
because you had been appointed by the Convention; but the govern-
ment existed now 'only in the imagination. Your retreating policy
had caused the inhabitants in a body to move in the direction of
the Sabine. The men with you were nearly all that remained of
the population; and our hopes of liberty, of homes, and of property
now depended on our -own exertions. * * * By calling to your
assistance the companies from below and letting it be distinctly
understood that you would fight the enemy on the Brazos, you could
have commanded two thousand men; with two pieces of artillery
and a steamboat to facilitate your 'operations. The enemy were
now situated as follows: Santa Anna and Siesma at San Felipe
with one thousand men; Gaona on the road from Bastrop to San
Felipe, distant at least seventy miles, Filisola between the Guada-
loupe and the Colorado, distant at least sixty miles; Urrea at Mata-
gorda, distant ninety miles; and the remainder of Santa Anna's
troops to the west of the San Antonio river. You could have fallen
upon Santa Anna with two to one in your favor, or you could have
attacked General Gaona, having in your favor the same odds, with-
out the possibility of any detachment giving assistance to the other.
You now had it in your power to have defeated in detail every
detachment of Santa Anna's army, with a large numerical superi-
ority on your part, and yet not a gun was fired at them, except what
was done from my camp and from the 'one at Fort Bend.
The necessity of doing something decisive was now apparent to
all, for the most sanguine spirits in your army now began to
despond. * * * You felt that the cause of Texas was forever
lost, and you determined to retreat at least to the very bosom of the
Red Lands. But immaterial what was the cause, the necessity for a
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 4, July 1900 - April, 1901, periodical, 1901; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101018/m1/313/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.