The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 12, July 1908 - April, 1909 Page: 62
332 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
side." My captain and his company were the first to cross the
line, and history tells the result.
It would be hard to give the heroic deeds of all of our men, for
they were all heroes, but one deserves special mention. When we
had taken the north row of houses and were firing on the outside
of the doors and windows, Sylvester ran across the Plaza, right
through the Mexicans, and spiked their cannon, then turned and
ran back; just as he jumped in a door, he turned to look, and as
he did so, he had one of his eyes shot out.
After the surrender of Cos to Burleson and Johnson, I returned
with my captain to Nacogdoches, and the same teacher was teach-
ing a little school in my father's field, so I started to school again;
but in less than two months my teacher and I volunteered to go
and meet General Santa Anna with his host. By this time a man
by the name of Henderson, his brother, and a cousin named Jones
had come from Tennessee. They came to my father, and said that
if I would raise a company, they would join it, and go with us to
the army. I told them if they would go, we would elect the elder
Henderson captain, his cousin lieutenant, and his brother second
lieutenant. They agreed to this, and I raised the company; we
elected them, and made my school-teacher orderly sergeant. In
March we left for Washington on the Brazos, where about three
hours after our arrival a courier came with the intelligence that
the Alamo had fallen, and every man had been killed. I was
standing in the door of the hall, where our statesmen were in coun-
cil, when the dispatch was read. The news spread like fire in
high grass. In less than two hours news was circulated that
Ugartechea was within ten miles of Washington with 2000 cavalry,
and intended to cross the river at that point.
Then what is known as the "Run away Scrape" commenced.
Men, women and children began to cross the river in the ferry-
boat. My captain came to me and said, "What shall we do ? We
can't keep a thousand cavalry from crossing." I said I did not
believe the report. I told him there were one hundred bales of
cotton on the west bank, and for him to press the ferry-boat, and
we would go over, and bring the cotton over to the east bank, and
make breast-works of it, so that if the Mexicans came we could
by that means prevent their crossing the river. He agreed to it,
and we soon had a fine breast-work.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 12, July 1908 - April, 1909, periodical, 1909; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101048/m1/70/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.