Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 6, Number 1, January 1996 Page: 50
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Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal
their army and hoping they would pursue. Apparently, the Mexican army was well-trained
to avoid such ambushes. For the third time, they passed up the opportunity to chase down
mounted men. Sherman's gambit drew no response at all from the Mexican encampment.21
Until at least the 24th, Houston had been determined to fight on the Colorado.
While he was camped on the river, his army grew and got better organized every day. His
men were eager for battle, and he had received fairly reliable reports on the strength of
Ramirez y Sesma's forces in the area. However, on the 26th, Houston rather suddenly
decided that a retreat to the Brazos was in order. Thomas Rabb, who had persistently
warned Houston that he and many others would leave to attend to their families if the army
retreated from the Colorado, did just that. He went to his home to evacuate his wife and
children, and left command of his company to Heard. William B. Dewees also left the army,
joining his family, which had been camped with some seventy-five others on the east side
of the river, awaiting developments. He helped evacuate the families to San Felipe and
beyond. Sherman, at Dewees' Crossing, received the order to retreat on the evening of the
26th, and immediately broke camp. His men marched six or seven miles before camping
for the night. The next day, they rendezvoused with Houston's men near the San Bernard,
and with them, crossed the river.26
More units of the Mexican army crossed the Navidad and entered what would
become Colorado County on March 24. It took them until the 27th, however, to reach the
old Atascosito Crossing on the Colorado. There, they began building rafts and ferrying
men, animals, and equipment across the swollen river. On April 4, they sent a unit upriver
to explore Beeson's and Dewees' Crossings. At Dewees', they found Robert J. Moseley's
house still standing and apparently took from it some cable and tools. That night, the
president, Antonio L6pez de Santa Anna, arrived at his army's camp at the Atascosito
Crossing. He crossed the Colorado on April 6 and the San Bernard on the 7th. He was
followed by the division commanded by Vicente Filisola, which arrived at the crossing on
the 10th and took three days to get across the river. Of course, Santa Anna and his men
pursued Houston's army to San Jacinto, where, with the defeat of the Mexican army on
25 Kuykendall, "Kuykendall's Recollections of the Campaign," The Quarterly of the Texas State
Historical Association, vol. 4, no. 4, April 1901, pp. 299; Nicholas Descombs Labadie, "San Jacinto Cam-
paign," in James M. Day, comp., The Texas Almanac 1857-1873 (Waco: Texian Press, 1967), pp. 146-147.
Labadie, who served under Karnes on his scouting expedition, seems to have the dates confused, and reports
that when he and the others returned to their campsite across the river, Houston had already abandoned camp.
Perhaps so, though other accounts disagree. Labadie, no fan of Houston, made every effort to disparage him.
Certainly, his statements that Houston abandoned Karnes' unit in the field to meet its fate must be evaluated in
this light.
26 Williams and Barker, eds., The Writings of Sam Houston, vol. 1, pp. 381-382, 384; Kuykendall,
"Kuykendall's Recollections of the Campaign," The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, vol.
4, no. 4, April 1901, pp. 299-300; Rabb, Travels and Adventures in Texas in the 1820's, p. 14; Day, comp.,
The Texas Almanac 1857-1873, pp. 648-649; Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas, pp. 192-193.50
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 6, Number 1, January 1996, periodical, January 1996; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151396/m1/50/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.