[2696] (LAMAR to LAMAR]
Harrisburg 10th April 1836
Dear Brother
I leave this in the morning for the army; a dreadful Batlle is lo be fought in three or four days on the Brazos, decisive of the fate of Texas; I shall of course have to be in it. Wm. D. Redd of Columbus is with me. Texas is in a dreadful stale of confusion; the Mexicans thus far are prevailing. St antonio has been retaken by them and every man in the fort murdered- Crocket was amoung the number. Fannin's army is entirely destroyed. After fighting four or five hours, the enemy held out the white flag and proposed terms of capitulation to which Fannin yeilded. The terms of surrender was that. they were all to be transported to New Orleans, not again to engage in the war; they were about four hundred, including Ward's men, and Capt. Miller's first arrived & taken at Copano. They were kept prisoners 9 days, then marched out and fired upon & all butchered with the exception of two or three who escaped by flight. Almost the whole of the Americans from Georgia and Alabama have perished. The citizens of Texas are flying in every direction; houses farms & c. are deserted and every thing left behind. Houston's Army has retreated from the Colorado to the Brazos: the Mexican army is in San Felipe, ours 20 miles from them; they will come together in a few days. I shall reach Houston day after tomorrow, a distance from this place about 50 miles-In the event of my falling in Battle, you will find my trunks, papers &c in the possession of Mrs. Jane Long who has temporarily fled from Brazoria to ~oliver point at Galveston Bay. The money brought by me to he laid out in Lands, I have of course, in the present confused state of things, not been able to lay out. Govt has no authority to sell lands, and from individuals no purchase can be yet made with safety. I have therefore been much embarrased to to know what to do with so large a sum of money; it is too damgerous to keep it about me, especially as I am going into Battle. After due consideration, I have placed it in the hands of Lorenzo Zavala, the vice President of the Government, the most responsible and probably the most honest among them. His receipt for the money, I know not how to dispose of other than lo keep it about me with instructions to Wm D. Redd lo lake it to you in the event of my falling & his escaping- The amt placed in Zavalo's hand is six thousand dollars; Redd the president of D. G. Burnet, Poller & others saw me give the money to him, and can be evidence of the
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