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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
Officers to Command them = Wben James Bullock was elected Col. Mcl\Iahan was elected Lt. Col. Lewis l\Iajr. & -Saml. Looney l\Iajr. Adjutant Balily [Bailey] Anderson was Capt. of the Old Ayish Bayou Co. of l\Iilitia Saml. Davis of the Volunteers. These were the only Capts commands worth remembering though James Bradshaw had about 20 men from the Neches settlement J no. l\I Bradly about the same number from Tanaha and S Praeter [ ?] - the same number from Bevils Diggings so called = myself & Wyatt Hanks acted as Aids to our Col. in the field = Of these men Bullock was a brave man and a good militia bugleman but in other respects an ass and not capable of bearing the smallest particle of responsibility without hav- ing his brains turned upside down = l\Ic:Mahan & Lewis were perfect asses in every respect without even the brute qualification of personal courage Looney was a brave man and well qualified to fill the Post assigned him he was in other respects a man of rather superior abili- ties than otherwise and universally at that time thought to be a good man - Though after events has proven capable of even murder for which he has paid the forfeit = Anderson was a man of stirling bravery and an excellent heart but was. utterly ignorant of military science and :with all a man of very ordinary capacity = Davis was a man of mod- erate capacity but brave and possessing the ordinary knowledge of militia officers in reference to military matters = l\fy coadjutor Hanks was a sneaking cunning designing brave man not endowed with large capacity and that overloaded with vanity, but of unweried Persever- ance & industry = The Political rock that he has split on in Texas is his high opinion of his own & the underrating the abilities of his opponents and in fact of his friends = He will live and die disappointed aspirant to publick favour= These officers formed the People into a Battalion and on the first of August took up a position about one mile East of Nacog- doches = The ground was chosen by me = and in my choice of Posi- tion I endeavoured to combine only the advantage of Water Defence by troops exclusively riflemen and the means of secure retreat = Up to this time the troops had not expressed any thing like a disposition to interfere in the Politicks of the Nation their avowed object was to relieve the Court at Nacogdoches from the Domination of the troops But when organized in a military form they felt strong in themselves in the enthusiasm of the moment. they determined to declare for the Constition of 1824 and to make the troops & officers at the Post do the same = It was with difficulty that in the council of officers as- sembled on the m_orning of the 2nd. of august ·I pre_vailed on them not to demand the surrender of the troops of the Govt. as prisoners of War = I wished if possible to avoid a battle for in truth I dreaded, the high discipline of the l\Iexican Troops whom I had often seen in parade performing all the maneuvers of the Co. & Battalion drill with a precision and accuracy 2nd. only to the Cadets at W. :p. I could not imagine the possibility of men of any nation being brought to be excellent soldiers on parade and yet be destitute of mechanical courage the invariable result of discipline in the troops of other nations than the descendants of the Spaniards in America Under this Idea my efforts were considerable to bring the coun-
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