The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 13, July 1909 - April, 1910 Page: 293

The Bexar and Dawson Prisoners.

293

Mier prisoners surrendered December 26, 1842, and remained in
confinement until September, 1844. The Bexar prisoners suffered
the same hardships and endured a period of captivity only two
months shorter than that undergone by the Mier prisoners. When
they were relased it was upon their oath that they would not bear
arms again in the contest between Texas and Mexico.
Their case is stated as follows by one of the Mier prisoners:
"An unoffending and peaceable class of citizens, engaged in the
prosecution of civil and domestic pursuits, they had been surprised
in their distant homes by a cowardly and marauding banditti, and
torn from their families and fireside-altars to grace the triumph
or their craven captor. Since they have been detained by the dic-
tator in his dungeons for sixteen months, without other warrant
than his own love of tyranny and inhumanity. For every pound
of fetters we wore, a Mexican soldier's life had already atoned.
But no widow or orphan's wail appealed to the vengeance of their
country against a solitary individual of this unfortunate corps.
They had scarcely resisted when assailed, been submissive and sub-
ordinate on their march, and during their imprisonment, and yet
had been made to endure enormities which the pen recoils from in-
diting." (Stapp, Prisoners of Perote, 122.)
The fact that some of Captain Dawson's men were made pris-
oners is almost forgotten. The news of the capture of San An-
tonio by General Woll was a call for the gathering of companies of
frontiersmen in the valleys of the Guadalupe and the Colorado.
They united under the leadership of Colonel Caldwell, "Old Paint,"
who had only recently returned from imprisonment in Mexico,
having been a member of the Santa F6 expedition. He planned to
punish the Mexican invader and to liberate the Texan prisoners
at San Antonio. On Sunday, September 18, General Woll was
led to attack the Texans in their position on the Salado, and was
repulsed with severe loss. Unfortunately, about the time the Mex-
ican force was withdrawing, Captain Dawson with his company
from Fayette county came upon the Mexicans on the side farthest
from Colonel Caldwell's position. The company was entrapped;
two-thirds of their number were slain, fifteen made prisoners, and
only two escaped. From what they saw of the enemy's vengeance
those who escaped concluded that nearly if not quite all were