WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1859
312
disconsolate, she would not consent to leave there until the rear- guard was leaving the place, but invoked the murderous hand of the Mexicans to fall upon and destroy her and her children. Though the news of the fall of the Alamo arrived at eight or nine o'clock at night, that night, by eleven o'clock, the Com- mander-in-chief had everything in readiness to march, though panic raged, and frenzy seized upon many; and though it took all his personal influence to resist the panic and bring them to composure, with all the encouragement he could use, he suc- ceeded. An example of composure himself, he at last got the excitement allayed, but not until twenty-five persons had de- serted and carried panic with them to the eastern section of the country, as far as the Sabine, announcing the fall and massacre of the Alamo, and the massacre of the troops. He fell back, but fell back in good order. An incident that I will mention, of the most unpleasant char- acter, occurred on leaving Gonzales. On that night, about twelve miles from there, it was announced to the general that the Mexicans would suffer; that a barrel of gin and a barrel of wine had been poisoned with arsenic, and that, as they came to consume it, it would destroy them. I presume no man ever had such feelings of horror at a deed being perpetrated of this kind, from which all the waters of the Jordan could not cleanse the reputation of a general. But, fortunately, the rear-guard, without direction, set fire to the place on leaving it, and at Peach creek, fifteen miles from that place, ere day dawned, explosions were heard which produced some excitement in camp, where it was supposed to be the enemy's artillery; but the general rejoiced in it, as he knew, from the difference in the explosion, that it was not adillery, but the poisoned liquor. That is one incident that occurred, among other distressing events. · At Peach creek, fifteen miles from Gonzales, he met a rein- forcement of one hundred and twenty-five men; but out of these one hundred and twenty-five men, ere morning, twenty-five had again deserted, owing to the terrible details that were brought of the massacre of the Alamo. With that addition, his force only amounted to four hundred and seventy-four men that remained with him. The next day he met a detachment of thirty-five men, and anticipating that he would make a stand at the Colorado, as he found it impossible to make a stand at Gonzales, appointed an aide-de-camp, Major William T. Austin, and dispatched him for artillery to the mouth of the Brasos, for the purpose of enabling him, on arriving at the Colorado, to
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