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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, l8!i2
493
Maintain subordination: it will inspire confidence.- If we have a war, prudence and. confidence will be of more importance than enthusiasm. They wear well and can never fail to ensure victory and success. Sam Houston. 1 Executive Recorcl Boole, No. 40, pp. 47-48, Texas State Library. :!Alexander Somervell (also found spelled Sommervill, Somerville, Somer- vill) was born in Maryland, June 11, 1796. In 1817 he moved to Louisiana and entered the mercantile business. He came to Texas in 1832 and was granted land in Austin's second colony on. .April 29th of that year (See Applicatior:i Book, Austin's second .colony, Spanish Archives, General Land Office of Texas). In 1833 he became a partn~r with James F. Perry in the mercantile business at San Felipe; but at· the o·utbreak of the Texas revolu- tion in 1835, he was one of the first to hurry to Gonzales. There he was elected major in Edward Burleson's regiment, -but at the reorganization of the army in March, 1836, he was elected lieutenant colonel of the first regiment of Texas Volunteers, succeeding· Sidney Sherman, who was elected colonel of the second regiment. He participated in the battle of San Jacinto, and remained with the army until June 7, 1836, when he was discharged to take up .the .duties of Secreta1·y of War, in Burnet's cabinet. His service certificate ( Comptroller's Military Service Records, Texas State Library) shows service from March 12, 1836, to June 6, 1836. Somervell was elected senator from Colorado and Austin counties to the first and second congresses (October 3, 1836-May 4, 1838). Shortly after the adjournment of the Second Congress, Somervell moved to Fort Bend County. On November 12, 1839, he was elected bridagier general of the First Brigade, in 1842 he commanded the "Sommervell Expedition" to the Rio Grande, being author- ized to do so on March 22 of that year, by President Houston. Upon his 1·eturn from the Rio Grande, Houston appointed him (December 13,· 1842) collector of customs for the port of Calhoun. Upon the annexation of Texas to the United States, ·he was reappointed to the same position and held it until his mysterious death in 1854, a death of which no satisfactory explanation has ever been given to the public. The statement ·that·he started in a small boat from Lavaca to Saluria, carrying a considerable amount of money, has been accepted as .authentic: The boat never .reached Saluria, and search was made for it. Finally, it was found floating bottom side up, and with Somervell's body lashed to its timbers. No doubt Somervell had been robbed and then murdered. The money was never found. See E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Jom'1lals of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1896-1845, 231-232; Thrall, A Pictorial Hfato1iJ of Texas, 622; E. C. Barker (ed.), ,'.1.ustin P_apers, III, 40, 218, 229, 243; Wooten (ed.), A Co mprchr11 sit:tJ History of Texas, I, 387-396; Yoakum, History of Texas, II, 361-353, 3G7- 370; Lamar Papers, I, 402-404; II, 421; V, 238; Dixon and Kemp, Hero()S of San Jacinto, 126; William C. Binkley (ed.), O/ficia.l Correspo11dc11ce of the Texan Revolution, I, 128-129, 507, II, 810-812, 871, 912, 925.
To GAIL BORDEN, JR. 1
Galveston, March lQh., 1842. To Gail Borden,2 Jr., Esq., Collector of Customs, Gnlve. ton Sir - You will forward by steamboat, as soon as practicable,
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