Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 9, Number 3, September 1999 Page: 156

Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal

came, in a voice ringing over the plain, "fire!"
with deafening shouts of "charge! charge! for
your country: Pemember the Alamo!" they
rushed upon the foe, renting and scattering them
in utter and dire confusion. Texas was saved.
On this morning when our party of travelers stood
there, all was peaceful and serene. Spring had
covered over every mark of conflict with ver-
dant grass and blooming flowers. The air was
fresh and balmy. This spring just passed I com-
memorated this little episode of my childhood in
the following verses:
On the prairies's green vest, broidery of gold,
Gleams forth and entrances me quite,
For the past sweeps aside its curtain's deep fold,
And a scene rises fair to the sight.
A scene on the bank of a river, where sweeps
San Jacinto's broad plain, and where waves
The bright golden lupine, the flower which keeps
Its watch o'er the slain soldier's graves.
They were seven in number, the graves which
the sun,
In the early morn burnished with gold
One year from the battle its circle had run,
And I, only seven years old.
There I gathered one flower which grew o'er
the breast
Of a hero, and placed it on mine.
And I still hold it there in the place of its rest,
Blooming gaily, in memory's shrine.
We continued our journey alternately
sailing and rowing, and night found us at
Patterson's a few miles below Harrisburg where
we stayed, and the next day brought us to Har-
risburg. Here the passengers waited and rested,
for several days, when the little steamboat Laura
came puffing up the bayou, and we again started
for our final destination, Houston. This little boat,
narrow and propelled by only a wheel at the sternm,

was continually swept by the overhanging boughs
of trees and she seemed to be cutting her way
into the very heart of the forest, so dark and
dense was the growth, and so narrow and tortu-
ous the bayou on which she sped her course.
The trees and shrubs which were in season for
flowering, were in full bloom. The dog-wood,
flowering-ash, and red-bud swept low over the
guards of the boat, so that the passengers could
easily gather them, and once a great limb tore
away a part of the guards near which I was stand-
ing, and from which I was quickly drawn by my
father, in time to prevent my being carried over-
board. In a few hours we reached Houston, then
a city of tents and shanties, with the presidential
mansion, a double log cabin, where we rested,
and where for the present, dear reader, you and
I will rest also.
8. Reminiscences of Early Childhood in Texas
(published in Texas Prairie Flower, vol. 2, no.
9, March 1884 (part 1), and Texas Prairie
Flower, vol. 2, no. 10, April 1884 (part 2);
part 1 reprinted in Texas Division United
Daughters of the Confederacy Directory 1922
Minutes 1921 [alternate title: Proceedings of
the Twenty-Fifth Annual Convention (Report of
1921) of the Texas Division United Daughters
of the Confederacy]; this text incorporates
some variations which appeared the 1922
printing)
[Part 1]
Looking back through all the long years
which have intervened since my advent into
Texas, the scenes which rise to my view in all
their freshness, are fraught with mingled feel-
ings of pleasure and sadness. My recollections
are placed in that semi-quiet period between the
Texas revolution and the summer of '42, at which
time I returned to Alabama. The home of my
parents in Texas was, for the first three years, in
two places-in Houston during the winter, and
during the summer in Galveston. When our first

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