The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 243
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Notes and Documents 243
Kemper,31 Ross,s2 Perry,a Slocum,34 and Dr. Forsyth,3 the guests of
Col. Davenport.36 They comprised the regimental officers and medical
staff of the expedition-Bernardo having the title of General and
harshly. He resigned his commission on June 22, 1812. Francis B. Heitman,
Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army (2 vols.; Washington,
1903), I, 144, 682; George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and
Graduates of the United States Military Academy (2 vols.; New York, 1868), I, 113;
Garrett, Green Flag Over Texas, 140-142.
alSamuel Kemper was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, was trained as a
carpenter, and migrated with his father to Ohio in 1800. The Kemper brothers,
Nathan, Reuben, and Samuel led an abortive revolution against the Spanish in
West Florida in 1804. Samuel operated a tavern in Pinckneyville, Mississippi
Territory, until he joined the expedition and was elected major. He led the advance
guard on Nacogdoches and occupied the village on August 12, 1812. After the
murder of Salcedo, he returned to Louisiana. Later efforts were made to interest
him in other expeditions but he refused. About thirty-five years of age at the time,
he died in St. Francisville of measles in 1814. Gaines says he was a good officer but
Shaler describes him as "a man of much courage and firmness an excellent executive
officer, but of no education and of doubtful capacity for chief command." Shaler
to Monroe, January lo, 1813, Shaler Papers; Warren, The Sword Was Their
Passport, 24n.
S2Reuben Ross, a native of Virginia, had served as sheriff of Washington County,
Virginia. After the failure of the expedition, he served for a while as an army
quartermaster and returned to Lexington, Virginia, where Henry S. Foote knew
him. He received a colonization grant in central west Texas but was killed by
robbers or his Mexican servant while on a trip into Mexico endeavoring to get
recompense for his services. Henry Stuart Foote, Texas and the Texans (2 vols.;
Philadelphia, 1841), I, 186n; Warren, The Sword Was Their Passport, 24n;
Virginia H. Taylor, The Spanish Archives of the General Land Ofice of Texas
(Austin, 1955), 55-
8SHenry Perry, a native of Connecticut, had served as an army quartermaster.
He returned to New Orleans after the expedition and served as a captain in the
United States Army from December, 1814, to June, 1815. In 1816 he was with
Louis-Michel Aury and in April, 1817, with Francisco Xavier Mifia. He left Mifia
and with fifty men tried to seize La Bahia. Failing to take the fort, Perry and his
men fled toward Nacogdoches. They were overtaken by the Spaniards and all but
four were killed or wounded. Perry committed suicide to avoid capture on June
19, 1817. Warren, The Sword Was Their Passport, 24n; Virginia H. Taylor, Letters
of Antonio Martinez, Last Spanish Governor of Texas, 1817-1822 (Austin, 1957), 11.
34Thomas Slocum, reported missing after the Battle of the Medina. Harris Gaylord
Warren, "Southern Filibusters in the War of 1812," Louisiana Historical Quarterly,
XXV, 295; Niles' Register, V, 104.
85Samuel D. Forsythe was appointed surgeon's mate in the United States Army
on April 21, 1807, and resigned on June 30o, 1808. In 1811 he was practicing medicine
in Rapides, Louisiana, and contemplating moving to Nacogdoches. He commanded
the artillery at San Antonio, left the expedition with Gutierrez, when the latter
was supplanted by Toledo, and arrived safely at Natchitoches. Heitman, Register,
I, 43o; Forsythe to Shaler, July -, 1813, Shaler Papers; Sibley to Randolph,
September 23, 1811, in Garrett, "Sibley Letters," Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
XLIX, 399-
88Peter Samuel Davenport, born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, about 1764, set out
at the age of sixteen for Louisiana, following the death of his parents. In 1798,
he joined the firm that was to become the House of Barr and Davenport and
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963, periodical, 1963; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101196/m1/265/?rotate=270: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.