Texas Almanac, 1859 Page: 48
[224] p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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46 TEXAS ALMANAC.
when Roberts raised his hand, and elevating his voice, cried out: " That right hand
road will carry you to Harrisburg just as straight as a compass." A shout was
then raised: "To the right, boys, to the right." The whole line was fast closing
up, as the music had stopped; but upon hearing the shout from the men, the
music proceeded to the right. The advance-guard, then a quarter of a mile ahead,
between the two roads, seeing the music take the right, wheeled also to the right;
and then loud and joyous shouts followed in succession, and the band of music for-
getting itself in its enthusiasm, distanced all the rest, a small squad only keeping
up with them, when Maj. Wells galloped by me, ordering them to halt till the
wagons, cannons, medicine-cart, etc., could come up.
MRS. MANN AND HER OXEN.
Here I first discovered my medicine-cart was missing, when I learned that,
owing to some difficulty with Mrs. Mann about her oxen, it had been left behind.
Riding back, I reached the spot just in time to see Mrs. Mann driving off her yoke
of oxen, declaring they should go no further that way.
The driver was now left with but a single yoke of miserable small oxen; but I
found him laughing at the ridiculous scene of having been compelled by a woman
to stop and give up the best part of his team, though he excused himself for hav-
ing made the surrender by declaring that she was a man after all, and that it was
no easy matter to find another to match her. "How did this happen?" said I.
"Why, said he, she said she had loaned her oxen to Gen. Houston to go as far as
the ferry on the Trinity, but as the army had changed its course, she said she
would be d-d if the General should have her oxen any longer." "But how,
said I, could you give them up ?" "Why, said he, she showed fight when I re-
sisted, presenting her pistol, and then I thought it most prudent to surrender."
MARCH CONTINUED TO HARRISBURGH, ETC.
Some six miles further on our march, I observed " Three-legged Willie" gallop-
ing up to Gen. Houston, dressed in buck-skin and with a coon-skin cap ornamented
with some half a dozen old coons' tails that were dangling on his shoulders. Gen.
Houston then ordered him to go with all possible speed to the Red Land Company
with directions that they should join the army, as it had now changed its course to
Harrisburgh. That night the army camped at the head of a bayou, and some time
that night the Red Land Company arrived. By request of its commander, the
next morning his company was allowed to rest till 11 A.M., with orders then to
follow on as a rear guard and join the army that night. We arrived opposite Har-
risburgh about noon, when the smoke at the town told us too plainly to be mis-
taken, that the enemy had been there before us, and set fire to its buildings. After
camping a little below, our spy, Deaf Smith, found means to cross the Bayou with
a few others; and about 8 o'clock, that night, he came back bringing captive a
Mexican Express carrier with a pair of deer-skin saddle-bags full of documents for
Santa Anna. These saddle-bags had belonged to Travis, and had his name upon
them. He had come from Mexico by way of San Antonio. That night Col. Sher-
man was ordered to cross the cavalry over the Bayou at that place, thinking the
enemy was still lurking in the neighborhood. He took one of the cannon and
placed it upon the bank of the Bayou to protect his men, while crossing. He had
succeeded in crossing Capt. Karnes' company, by swimming his horses and sending
over his baggage on a raft which had been constructed for the purpose, when he
received orders through Col. Rusk, to discontinue crossing the men, as it was ascer-
tained that, by crossing at Harrisburgh they would have another difficult Bayou
(Syms') to cross, on the march to Dynchburg. Accordingly the balance of the
cavalry joined the main army next morning and crossed Buffalo Bayou below the
mouth of Syms'. The next day, at'Bray's Bayou, a flat-boat was found loaded with
corn-meal, etc., intended for the division under General Cos, but we found those
supplies quite as acceptable to us as they could have been to Cos. By dusk that
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Texas Almanac, 1859, book, 1859~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123765/m1/49/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.