Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/596

 San Felipe. He remained in that position. A delegate from each municipality, or what would correspond to counties here, was to constitute a Government, with a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Council. They had the power of the country. An army was requisite, and means were necessary to sustain the revolution. This was the first organization of anything like a Government, which absorbed the power that had previously existed in committees of vigilance and safety in different sections of the country. When the general was appointed, his first act was to organize a force to repel an invading army which he was satisfied would advance upon Texas. A rendezvous had been established, at which the drilling and organization of the troops was to take place, and officers were sent to their respective posts for the purpose of recruiting men. Colonel Fannin was appointed at Matagorda, to superintend that district, second in command to the General-in-chief; and he remained there until the gallant band from Alabama and Georgia visited that country. They were volunteers under Colonels Ward, Shackleford, Duvall, and other illustrious names. When they arrived, Colonel Fannin, disregarding the orders of the Commander-in-chief, became, by countenance of the council, a candidate for commander of the volunteers. Some four or five hundred of them had arrived, all equipped and disciplined; men of intelligence, men of character, men of chivalry and of honor. A more gallant band never graced the American soil in defense of liberty. He was selected; and the project of the council was to invade Matamoras, under the auspices of Fannin. San Antonio had been taken in 1835. Troops were to remain there. It was a post more than sev'enty miles from any colonies or settlements by the Americans. It was a Spanish town or city, with many thousand population, and very few Americans. The Alamo was nothing more than a church, and derived its cognomen from the fact of its being surrounded by poplars or cotton-wood trees. The Alamo was known as a fortress since the Mexican revolution in 1S12. The troops remained at Bexar until about the last of December.

The council, without the knowledge of the Governor, and without the concurrence of the Commander-in-chief of the army, had secretly sent orders authorizing Grant and others to invade Matamoras, some three hundred miles, I think, through an uninhabited country, and thereby to leave the Alatno in a defenseless position. They marched off, and left only one hundred and fifty effective men, taking some two hundred with them. Fannin was to unite with them from the mouth of the Brazos, at Copano, and there the two forces were to unite under the auspices of Colonel Fannin, and were to proceed to Matamoras and take possession of it. The enemy, in the meantime, were known to be advancing upon Texas, and they were thus detaching an inefficient force, which, if it had been concentrated, would have been able to resist all the powers of Mexico combined. The Commander-in-chief was ordered by the Governor to repair immediately to Goliad, and if the expedition surreptitiously ordered by the council should proceed to Matamoras, to take charge of it. Under his conduct it was supposed that something might be achieved, or at least disaster prevented.

The council, on the 7th of January, passed an edict creating Fannin and Johnson military agents, and investing them with all the power of the country, to impress property, receive troops, command them, appoint subordinates throughout the country, and effectually supersede the Commander-in-chief in his authority. As I said before, he was ordered to repair to Copano. He did so.