Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/88

 meal before independence was won. The sun shone with no intervening cloud in the face of the hero, and waked him to battle. He surveyed his men under arms, ready for battle, " the sun of Austerlitz has risen again." No shade of trouble marred the dignified repose of his calm face. Col. John Forbes, his Commissary General, was ordered to provide two good axes. Sending for Deaf Smith, and taking this faithful and fearless man aside, he ordered him to conceal the axes safely in some place, where at a minute's warning he could lay his hands upon them. The General enjoined Smith not to pass the lines of the sentinels that day without specific orders, and not to be beyond his call.

About 9 o'clock a powerful force which had come to join the Mexicans was seen to be moving over a swell of the prairie in the direction of Santa Anna's camp. The Texan lines were not a little excited by the spectacle. Apprehending the effect upon his men of the appearance of this reinforcement of the enemy, Houston coolly remarked " that they were the same men they had seen the day before—they had marched round the swell in the prairie, and returned in sight of the Texan camp to alarm their foe—with the appearance of an immense reinforcement, for it was very evident Santa Anna did not wish to fight. But it was all a ruse de guerre that could be easily seen through—a mere Mexican trick." Meantime, he sent Deaf Smith and a comrade with confidential orders to reconnoitre in the rearward of this force and report to him. Soon the spies returned, and reported publicly " that the General was right—it was all a humbug." Deaf Smith reported a different story in the private ear of the commander a few minutes afterward. Gen. Cos, with 540 men, having heard Santa Anna's cannon on the Brazos on the day before, had come by forced marches to reinforce him. The secret was not revealed until it did no harm to divulge it. A council of war, comprising six field officers, at their instance was called at this apparently critical juncture. Seated on the grass beneath a post oak tree, the General-in-Chief submitted alternative propositions—whether the Texans should attack the Mexicans in their position, or whether the Texans should wait for the Mexicans to attack the Texan forces in their chosen position. Two junior officers favored attack, but four seniors objected that it was an unheard-of thing for raw soldiers, with only two hundred bayonets, without cover of artillery, to cross an open prairie to charge a disciplined army. The council was dismissed. Ascertaining with certainty that the men were favorable to an attack. General Houston determined on his own responsibility to give battle. It was proposed to construct a floating bridge across Buffalo Bayou, to be used in the event of danger. Inquiry was