WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1857
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Teal's company of Regulars, not a full company, and Capt. Weir's of Montgomery, not exceeding twenty-seven men. Men were furloughed, less or more, every day to go and see their families. The halt at Colorado was to await the artillery, for which I had sent Major W. T. Austin, my Aid-de-Camp, to the mouth of the Brazos. I will not in vindication of the Commander-in-Chief, state the reasons why the Artillery did not arrive, but I will say that it· was owing to no fault of Major Austin. Were I to render the reasons for that failure, it might be thought unkind to the dead. In the "History" to be to be written, that we hear is intended by Mr. Lamar, the facts may be explained. Six hun- dred and thirty-two men was the precise rank and file on the Colorado, and this I know to be true. I will now remarkt after I have shown what the force actually was on the Colorado, that if it was as my maligners charge, why not get the proof, name the companies, and the strength of each, and in that way show that my statement is wrong. They assert it, and "Publius" reproduces it. It is now their duty to prove it. I object to all certificates in proof, as persons are liable to make mistakes, which have been corrected, some ten or fifteen years after they were given. I do not mean Gen. Sherman, for if he had certified "the horse was seventeen feet high, he would not fall an inch." I wish to have no more to do with the author of "Pub- lius," and if he has not exhausted his vocabulary of epithets upon me, and chooses to continue his habit, I will feel that I am not bound to respond to anything he may hereafter write, until he answers a question some yea,rs since p?·opounded to him by a gentleman of Galveston on whom the Judge had made a very coarse attack in the newspapers. I will now advert to matters of the Council of War. I recol- lect that Col. Wharton came to me and said, "Some of the officers are anxious that a Council of War should be called," to which I had no objection. At the same time, or about the same time, a floating bridge across Buffalo Bayou was proposed to me. I ordered Cols. Hockley and Wharton to see if there were materials sufficient to build one.-After some time they returned, and Col. Wharton reported tha,t they thought sufficient -ma,teria.ls could be got by pulling down Gen. Zavala's house. My reply was, that I could see no urgent necessity for it, u:nless it wa~ certa,:n that the material would be sufficient for its completion. At 12 o'clock, M., the Council of War met, composed of all the Field Officers;
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