The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 291
574 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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John S. "Rip" Ford
in 1858.6 When war clouds gathered in 186o, his patriotism to
the United States was overcome by a more powerful devotion to
Texas and the slaveholding South. He became a leading figure
at the Secession Convention, helping to fashion the ordinance
that Texans claimed took their state out of the Union." Because
of his varied military experience, he was a logical choice as colonel
of cavalry. Because he was a man of action, Rip Ford had won a
Southern victory long before Fort Sumter and the opening of the
Civil War.
On February 22, 1861, Ford left Lieutenant Colonel Hugh
McLeod7 in command of Brazos Island and went to the mainland
to negotiate with the United States force that held Fort Brown
just below Brownsville. He was accompanied by Major Edward
Waller and E. B. Nichols, commissioner and disbursing agent for
the state. At Brownsville the Texans sent the Union commander
a communique outlining their objectives and requesting imme-
diate capitulation.8 They received a belated reply: "You have
raised a question upon which my government will doubtless take
action in due season." But until then United States troops would
not surrender without spilling blood-Texan blood.9 Such action,
1One can learn of the details of Ford's many activities up to 186o by reading the
first four volumes of his Memoirs. Short biographical sketches may be found in the
State Gazette (Austin), January 30, 1858; The Handbook of Texas (2 vols., Austin,
1952), I, 617; Sidney Smith Johnson, Texans Who Wore the Gray (Tyler, 1907),
o109-1o; and Martin, "Last of the Ranger Chieftains," Texas Magazine, IV, 33-41.
Walter P. Webb's The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense (Boston and
New York, 1935), 151-161, 175-193, is the most vividly written account of Ford's
Ranger service in the 1850's. See also, W. J. Hughes, "'Rip' Ford's Indian Fight on
the Canadian [1858]," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, XXX (1957), 1-26.
6Ford, Memoirs, V, 940-995; Anna Irene Sandbo, "The First Session of the Se-
cession Convention of Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XVIII (October,
1914), 162-194. For the documents pertaining to the Texas Secession Convention
and its agents, see E. W. Winkler (ed.), Journal of the Secession Convention of
Texas, r86s (Austin, 1912).
7A native of New York, McLeod had come to Texas in 1836. He was a West Point
graduate with a reputation as a first-rate engineer. He commanded the ill-fated
Santa Fe Expedition in 1841 and served as Adjutant General in the Mexican War.
Like Ford, he was a firm secessionist and played a conspicuous part in the secession
movement in Texas. Later in 1861 he became colonel of the First Texas Infantry.
He died of pneumonia on January 3, 1862.
SFord to J. C. Robertson, February 25, 1861, Official Records, ser. I, vol. LIII,
655; Nichols to B. H. Hill, February 22 and 23, 1861, ibid., vol. I, 538-540.
oHill to Nichols, February 23, 1861, ibid., vol. I, 540.291
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961, periodical, 1961; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101190/m1/323/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.