WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1836
331
wishes- they are such as every Patriot will feel. God speed you!!! I learn from Judge Hanks· 1 that you are about to make him a sutler! I have recommended him for one- there ought to be one to each Post where troops will be stationed. Wou'd you have thought that the juclge wou'd ask my recom- mendation? The age of wonders is not passed- I would like to know what is going on, but I know you, will guard my rights. So soon as I can proceed, and hold a Treaty with the Indians, I intend to detail a competent officer to command the Recruiting station, while I proceed to the frontier; and organize the army for a prompt movement in the Spring. Sam Houston (Rubric) Col D. C. Barrett. [ Addressed] : T'o Colonel D. C. Barrett San Felipe, Texas [ Endorsed] : Saml Houstons Letter Washington Jan 2, 1836. 1 Bcwratt Latte1·s [certified copies], Texas State Library. The originals are in the possession of Mr. D. B. Tilinghast, but are deposited in The University of Texas Library. 2 George Washington Hockley (1802-June 6, 1854) was born in Philadel- phia, and was reared and educated there. He went to Washington, D.C., in 1822, and accepted a clerkship in the War Department. In Washington he became acquainted with Sam Houston, a young Congressman from Ten- nessee, and between the two men a friendship developed that endured throughout their lives. In 1828, Hockley went to Nashville, Tennessee, Houston at the time being Governor of that State, and set up a mercantile business. In the fall of 1835, he went to Texas and joined the army of East Texas, of which Houston had been elected commander-in-chief. On March 4, 1836, when Houston war reelected commander-in-chief of all the Texas forces, he immediately made Hockley his chief of staff. Hockley entered the San Jacinto Campaign as inspector general of the army, but when James C. Neill was wounded on April 20, he took over the command of the artillery, and in the battle, personally conducted the charge of the "Twin Sisters." A few weeks later he was one of the commissioners appointed to escort Santa Anna to Washington City. On November 13, 1838, Houston appointed his old friend Secretary of War, but at this time Hockley's cabinet service was brief, for when Lamar came to the presi- dency, he appointed Albert Sidney Johnston as Hockley's successor. Three )•ears later, however, when Houston was again President of the Republir, he reappointed (December 23, 1841) his forme_r Secretary of War. In 1S43, Houston sent him with Samuel M. Williams to meet commissioners from Mexico to arrange an armistice between the two nations. Hockley made his home in Galveston, but he died in Corpus Christi, and is buried in the old Bayshore Cemetery at that place. In 1932 the state of Texas erected a monument at his grave. See Z. T. Fulmore, The History and Geography of Texa.s cts Told in Co1mty Names, 159-160; Thrnll, Hisfol"y
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