WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1857
454
two Colonels, three Lieut. Colonels, and one Major. The Secre- tary of War was also present, but of course, not a field officer. The question propounded to the Council was, "shall we attack the enemy in their position, or shall we await his attack?" Major Lysander Wells and Colonel Joseph L. Bennett promptly replied, "Let us attack the enemy." Colonel Sherman says in his late letter, "I replied, and others did the same, that we ought to allow them to attack us; if they would not, we should ourselves make the attack that day." He then proceeds to state that "Houston made a pretext for leaving us for a moment, and did not return." Now, out of his own mouth I will condemn him. He acknowl- edges that there was but one, Wells, in favor of attacking the enemy, and if the enemy dicl not attack us, we were to attack them that day. Now, day would last until sunset; then, between 12, M., and sunset, at what time were we to attack the enemy? He does not say. The truth is that two to one of the Council were opposed to attacking the enemy, and the moment that their opinion was expressed, Gen Houston said, "Gentlemen, you are adjourned," when the members walked off, and that was the la.st and only time that I spoke to Gen. Sherman that day. Now as to what Gen. Sherman and Mr. Lamar have asserted about their inte1·views and dialogues with Gen. Houston, I am constrained to regard them as very jocose, or that they have made up these statements, or got Judge Burnet to do it for them, at a time when they were laboring under a fit of hallucination, for in them there is not a word of truth. In my life I never heard one word in relation to the least dissatisfaction in the army.-They have shown that they were privy to conspiracies and 1nutinies, if such things existed in the army. And how far they contributed to create discontent, I never cared. As to Mr. Lamar's various statements, only one is correct! He states that I asked him to take command of the Artillery. This is true. Col. Neill was wounded, and Capt. Poe, the next in command, was not in Camp; therefore, I proposed the honor of the command to Col. Lamar.- What were his reasons for declining he did not state. That was the last incident that occurred between us that day! He posi- tively refused my offer for him to command the Artillery. He may have thought as the command was small-only eighteen all told-that he would have to go on foot, and as he had a fine horse, he possibly did not wish to dispense with him, for in the event of disaster, a fine horse might facilitate his escape from misfortune. At the moment it did not occur to me, but since,
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