Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/155

 154 Southern Historical Society Papers.

men; and with these combined forces, to penetrate into Texas by its northeastern frontier.

The troops under Major- General Richard Taylor, who commanded in Western Louisiana, being inadequate to meet so imposing a force, General Magruder was ordered to dispatch all his available cavalry to join General Taylor. The order was promptly obeyed by Gen- eral Magruder; but Debray's regiment, to the disappointment of its members, was not comprised among the troops ordered off. The Colonel called on the General, who honored him with his confidence and friendship, to remonstrate against this oversight, but he found the General unwilling to part with a regiment on which he could implicitly rely for the faithful and prompt execution of orders in any emergency. At last, by dint of insistance, verging on impor- tunity, the General's reluctant consent was yielded.

On the i4th of March, in default of telegraphic communication, an express locomotive was dispatched to bear instructions to Lieu- tenant-Colonel Myers, then camped at Eagle Lake, to hasten with the regiment to Houston, where he arrived on the evening of the next day. The i5th was spent in shoeing animals and drawing sup- plies. On the i yth the regiment left Houston with its own transpor- tation and a brigade train, in all thirty- two wagons. The Colonel had resumed the command of the regiment, and Lieutenant-Colonel Myers was detached to assemble and bring up the sick and furloughed men. At the first camp, those men whose homes were at a short distance from the line of march, were permitted to visit them for obtaining fresh horses and clothing, on condition that they should re- join at a point not farther than the Sabine River.

It is proper to state that Captain Riordan, of company A, Mc- Greal, of company C, McMahan, of company D, and Armstrong, of company F, having resigned at different times and for various causes, First Lieutenants Whitfield, Murchie, Black and Peck had become the Captains of their respective companies.

The regiment moved on diligently, although much impeded by its train of wagons, which had to be crossed over five streams on wretched ferry boats, also losing one day in the execution of an order received from General Taylor, to deflect from the Alexandria road and take that to Pleasant Hill, where he had retired.

In the morning of the ist of April the Sabine was promptly crossed on an excellent and large ferry boat; and on the same day the regi- ment pushed on twenty miles farther, to the town of Manny. The men furloughed at the start had nearly all rejoined, and the regiment