Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/67

Rh as they transpired. In directing the campaign on Matamoras, the only object of the Council was to control the revenues of the place. Matamoras possessed by an enemy, cut off from all intercourse with the interior, and communication with the sea prevented, could afford no revenue to the captors. If seven hundred men could reach Matamoras without opposition, they could not keep it a single week. With no means of transportation, with not three days of breadstuffs, with men unprovided in every respect for a campaign, with an area of several hundred miles to cross, it was not likely that they could ever reach the walls of Matamoras. Discovering the absurdity of such a plan, Houston remonstrated with the officers in a friendly way, pointing out the futility of the project, the great difficulties to be encountered, and the disasters inevitably attendant upon a failure. Governor Smith highly disapproved of the plans of the Council, and on that account incurred their hottest displeasure. Gen. Houston obeyed the Governor's orders, and reported to him at San Felipe. Receiving orders to repair to Refugio, where a junction of the troops of Grant and Fannin was to be effected, after he had returned to Washington, and arranged pressing matters at headquarters, he proceeded to Goliad, about the middle of January, 1836, and made known to the troops his orders, and enjoined obedience on his authority. Grant and his troops were on the eve of marching to Refugio. They refused obedience to the orders of the Governor submitted to them by Gen. Houston, Commander of the Regular Army. He, unable to account for their extraordinary conduct, ignorant of the counsels and plans of the Council, knowing that the troops at San Antonio de Bexar would be unable to maintain the place against the advancing army of Santa Anna, sent Colonels Bowie and Bonham with an escort, to San Antonio de Bexar, on the 15th of January, with orders to Col. W. B. Travis to blow up the Alamo and fall back to Gonzales, on the Guadaloupe River, at which place he intended to establish his line of defence. Notwithstanding the refusal of Grant and Morris to obey orders, Gen. Houston marched twenty-five miles with them to Refugio, leaving a few regulars at Goliad to maintain the post, with nothing but the cattle of the country for subsistence. When the troops reached Refugio, they received no intelligence of the landing of Fannin at Copano, whence he was to march to Refugio. Unable to influence the leaders by regular authority, or by friendly remonstrance, and unwilling to excite sedition among troops, reluctant to bow to the command of any other general, accompanied by a few of his staff. Gen. Houston set out at night, from Refugio, to return to San Felipe de Austin. On the road he received startling intelligence. Under the organic law, a certain number constituted a quorum in the Council to transact