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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
To JOHN S. FORn 1 Executive Department, Austin, March 24, 1860.
Captain John S. Ford Sir: You will upon receipt of orders from George McKnighV Commissioner, bearing instructions from me, march the men under your command in company of those under the command of Captain John Littleton 3 to Goliad, there to await orders. You will be particular to maintain discipline among your men on the march and will permit no stock, other than that belonging to the State, to be driven off. You will give no man under your command a discharge after the receipt of this order, unless he be a · citizen of Brownsville and Goliad. If any act of insubordination is committed by the men of your command, or any depredations committed by them on the in- habitants, you will dismiss such from the service without honorable discharge and report the same to the Executive. Sam Houston. 1 Execu,tive Reco1·ds, 1859-1861, Texas State Library.· For some data on John S. Ford, see Houston to Ford, December 30, 1859, in Volume VII. ~George McKnight was born in Tennessee. From 1850 to 1852 he was president of Irving College; resigning from school work, he practiced law at Murfreesborough till the latter part of 1854; he then removed to Texas and settled in Rusk, Cherokee County. He was elected representative of that county in 1857. He was also a delegate ·from that county to the Secession Convention. See DeRyee and Moore, Album of the Eighth Lcgis- lafo1·e of Texas, pp. 123-125; E. W. Winkler (ed.), Jounwl of the Te;1.:as Secession Convention, p. 14. 3 John Littleton was a ranger captain under John S. Ford's command. When the Civil War began he became a cavalry captain and served, for the most part, on the Texas frontiers. He was a delegate from Karnes County to the Secession Convention. See E. W. Winkler (ed.), Jo11r11al of the Texas Secession Convention, 22, 86, 402, 406, 447; Ranger Papers, Texas State Library.
To ROBERT E. LEE 1 Executive Department, Austin, March 24th, 1860.
Brevet Col. Robert E. Lee, U.S.A. Sir: Hon. George McKnight, Bearer, is commissioned on the part of the State of Texas to confer with you in relation to the Texas Volunteers now on the Rio Grande, and to make such
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