The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 519

Notes and Documents

A Settler's Report (1896 ) on Santa Ala's
Defeat and ard Prospects in Zexas
Edited by ROBERT PARTIN
ON MAY 15, 1836,1 from his "place" eleven miles from
the Sabine River, A. M. Grinage wrote a letter to his
brother, Alexander Grinage, Upatoi, Muscogee County,
Georgia, giving some vivid realistic details of "our last disturb-
ance" and a glowing picture of the future prospects of farming
in "the Country."
This letter is in the George Petrie Memorial Collection of The
Alabama Polytechnic Institute Library. It is the only Grinage
letter in the collection. No additional information has been dis-
covered about either of the Grinage brothers. The letter is writ-
ten in a clear bold hand and every word is legible. For the sake
of ease in reading, the editor made paragraph divisions and added
a few marks of punctuation; otherwise, the letter is reproduced
as written.
TEXAS 15th May 1837 [1836]
MR. ALEXANDER GRINAGE
DEAR BROTHER
I have delayed for a long time writing you for a want of something
favorable to write. Things are now approaching a favorable crisis.
The army of Texas have now taken Sante Anna 35 officers 606
soldiers prisoners and killed as many more.2 Sante Anna proposed
to Govr. Houston the Commander in Chief to keep himself and the
lAlthough this letter is plainly dated May 15, 1837, its contents indicate that
it was written much earlier. For instance, Grinage writes about Houston's holding
Santa Anna prisoner, when in fact the Mexican commander actually had been
released by the Texas authorities in the later part of 1836 and was, on May 15,
1837, at his country estate of Mango de Clavo near Vera Cruz, Mexico. Other items
indicate that the letter was written soon after the victory of San Jacinto. There-
fore, the editor concluded that Grinage carelessly misdated the letter 1837 instead
of 1836. For an account of the defeat, capture, and return of Santa Anna to Mexi-
co, see Henderson Yoakum, History of Texas from Its First Settlement in 1685 to Its
Annexation to the United States in 1846 (2 vols.; New York, 1855), II, 143-204.
2"The Mexicans lost six hundred and thirty killed, two hundred and eight
wounded, and seven hundred thirty prisoners. ... The Texan loss was only eight
killed and twenty-five woundedl"-Ibid., 146.

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