WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
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not know. The records, however, attest that Captain Charles E. Travis 2 accepted a commission in the second regiment of cavalry, on the 5th day of April, 1855-four days after he was mustered out of the volunteer service of the United States, from which it is fair to infer that there must be some mistake in charging the Government with payment of any services rendered by him at the head of a company in the State service on the 28th day of Feb- ruary, 1855, as is done in the statement furnished by the authori- ties of Texas." As if April preceded February. It was in February that the services were rendered; and on the 1st of April Charles E. Travis was mustered out of this service; and on the 5th of April, he accepted a payment from the United States. The Secretary places February behind April; that is the objection to the recognition of the claim! [Over his strenuous objection Houston was finally compelled to yield to the decision of the chair that he was out of order.] 1 Congressional Globe, 1857-1858, Part 3, pp. 2800-2801. 2 Charles Edward Travis was the son of William Barret Travis and Rosanna E. (Cato) Travis. He was born in Alabama, August 1, 1829 [see W. B. Travis's Bible, Texas State Library], and died in 1860. At the time of his death at the Alamo, March 6, 1836, William Barret Travis had divorced his wife, whom he left in Alabama in 1831, when he came to Texas. They had two children, Charles Edward, and Isabella, who was born in 1831. The boy was given to his father's custody, and, 'in 1836, was living at the home of David Ayres at Montville, later known as the old Fuller place, in Washington County, Texas. The boy attended a school kept by Miss McHenry. His father visited him on the way to the Alamo in February, 1836. After the fall of the Alamo and the death of his father, the boy was returned to the authority of his mother, who in 1840 married a Mr. Cloud, of Mississippi. They made their home in New Orleans, where both children were given the best available advantages, so far as schools and social circles were concerned, until 1848, when both mother and step-father died of yellow fever. The children were then placed in the care of their mother's relatives in Alabama, and no further information has been fou_nd concerning them until about 1850, when the girl married John Grissett, a well-to-do young planter of Washington County, Texas, and the ·family came to live at Bren- ham. There the Grissetts, in whose home Charles Edward Travis lived, were considered leaders of the community. (See Mrs. Rebecca Fisher's papers and letters, in the Museum of the Daughters of the Texas Republic, Austin, Texas.) From November, 1852, to March, 1854, Charles E. Travis -represented District No. 64 (Caldwell and Hays counties) in the Texas Legislature. He was at the time a licensed lawyer, and was regarded as having a promising career in his profession. In 1854, he went on an expedition against the Indians, serving as captain of a company of Texas Rangers (see the Ranger
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