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No. 107 LETTER FROM JAMES S. GILLETT TOP. H. BELL (Copy.)
Adjutant General's Office, Austin, October 10th, 1852
To His Excellency
P. Hansborough Bell, Gov. of the State of Texas Sir:
In obedience to your orders bearing date August 2nd, 1852, I proceeded to San Antonio, where Captain Owen Shaw presented himself and desired to be mustered, with the men un- der his command, at that place. As it would necessarily be some weeks before I could possibly reach Laredo, the point designated in your orders for his muster, and deeming it for the general good, both of his command and the country, that he shoulc,I enter as soon as possible upon the duties assigned him, & complied with his request, and on the 18th of August, 1852, mustered into service of the State his company, for the period of six months if not sooner discharged. I am happy to state that the citizens of San Antonio met us in a spirit of great kindness, an.d offered ev- ery facility in their power, or that we required to further the object for which the Volunteers were called out. On my arrival in San Antonio, I was informed that General Smith had left for new Orleans; I called on Maj. Deas, Asst. Adjt. Genl. 8th Military Department, who informed me that there was no one in command in the absence of General Smith except for purposes connected with the post. I submitted for his perusal the instructions received from you, and allowed him to take a copy for the use of General Smith on his return. Maj. Deas kindly furnished me with the number and dispo- sition of the U. S. troops west of San Antonio; also with the organization of a company of rifles in U. S. service ,the aggre- gate of which is 79. I have adopted this organization. From San Antonio I hastened to Corpus Christi, where I found Capt. G. K. Lewis and informed him of my mission; as he had not received any order from you he had taken no steps to raise and organize a company, but went to work energetically to do so. He met with some difficulty owing to the great scarcity
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