The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 82, July 1978 - April, 1979 Page: 67
496 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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"I Am Already Quite a Texan"
approach of an Indian-this may be it. Quick-step out of the fire
light and crouch stealthily in the shade of the bush. Now handle your
rifle: see that it is capped and its fire certain: feel for your pistol-all
right-now go creeping into the woods for while you are sentry you
must visit the animals &g see they are safely tied by their halters. Here is
one safe. He[re] is one missing! Look for him. Think always that the
next bush may hold an Indian and you step toward it with gun ready.
Something springs from the ground and your gun comes to its aim with
a jerk. Something-precisely-it is the mule which has been sleeping!
You take a long breath[,] bring your rifle to a shoulder and march back
to your fire. Yet you do not stand too much in its light for many a man
has been shot by the light of his fire.
11/2 P.M. Aug 14, 1855
I had intended to send you eight pages but the mail is in two days
earlier than expected and leaving in an hour. I have only time to send
a few lines to Miss Kate. I hope to continue this on the 26[th]. Please
hand the enclosed to her.
Very truly Yr friend
Albert J Myer
In camp Wild Rose Pass. Near Fort
Davis, Texas. Aug. 21. 1855-
I am writing to you from my tent. I am lying upon my coverlet upon
the ground. It is raining a dull drizzling rain. Colonel Bomford is lying
beside me reading aloud from the N.Y. Times & on a roll of blankets
sits Lt. Taylor.24 So much for our introduction. We reached this spot
last evening on a Scout after Indians. The rain commenced during the
night &c today is to be passed in camp. I wish you could see our tent. It
is one of the small pattern &c over its floor are strewn saddles, Blankets,
24James Voty Bomford, a native New Yorker, graduate (1832) of West Point, was in 1855
a captain in the Eighth Infantry, stationed at Fort Davis. Myer calls him "Colonel" Bom-
ford in these letters, his "Diary," and his "Journal," an acknowledgment of his brevet rank
of lieutenant colonel granted for exceptional service in the Mexican War. Oliver Hazard
Perry Taylor, a native of Rhode Island, graduate (1846) of West Point, also breveted (to
captain) during the Mexican War, was in 1855 a 1st lieutenant in the First Dragoons; in
1858 he was killed in action during a battle with Spokane Indians in Washington Terri-
tory. Heitman, Historical Register, I, 229, 948.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 82, July 1978 - April, 1979, periodical, 1978/1979; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101206/m1/87/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.