Houston v1

WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1836

399

To DAVID THOMAS 1

Camp West of Brasos, April 6, 1836.

To David Thomas,2 Acting Secretary of War: Sir: Your letters of the 4th and 5th instant have this moment been received by express. Colonel Rusk arrived in camp on the evening of the 4th instant, and will probably remain for a few days longer. I am pleased to learn of the supplies being for- warded for the use of the army. They will be particularly ac- ceptable. The present position of the army is one of strength and security, and from which the movements of the enemy can be vigilantly watched. My spies are remarkably active and intelli- gent, and shall be kept in constant action. They are m~ch in want of good horses. A deserter from the enemy was brought into camp last night. He confirms the report previously received, of the miserable con- dition of their troops; and adds, that much dissatisfaction prevails in their ranks, from: the severity of treatment and deprivation of the necessaries of life. He shall be closely looked to, and the first favorable moment seized with avidity to effect his total defeat. Intercepted documents received last winter, showed that Ed- ward Gritton 3 was a spy of Santa Anna, but that he had lost their confidence in part. These papers were seem by me after their seizure and translation. Sam Houston. 1 Yoakum, History of Texas, II, 492. 2 David Thomas (----, 1801----, 1836) was born and reared in Tennessee, and was a lawyer by profession. He and Houston had been warm friends during Houston's political career in Tennessee. Thomas came to Texas in 1835 and settled at Refugio in the Hewitson-Power Colony. He was a delegate to the Convention £rom Refugio and became one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and he was a member of the committee appointed to draft the first Constitution of Texas. He .was appointed Attorney General of the ad inte1·im government, but after Rusk left the Capital to join Houston's army, Thomas became the Acting Secretary of War. While the President and his suite, hard-pressed by the Mexican army, were fleeing on board the steamboat Flash from Hous- ton to Galveston, they stopped for supplies to be loaded on the steamboat Cayuga which lay alongside of the Fla~~h. A gun was carelessly discharged on board the Cayuga; the ball struck Thomas's leg; blood poisoning set up in the wound, and Thomas died three days after the fatal shot. See Wortham, History of Texas, III, 224-227. Yoakum, II, 74. J. J. Lynn, Fifty Yea1·s in Texas, 261. S. H. Dixon, il-fen Who Mada Texas Freo, 319-321. 3 See Texas ·Hi$to,-ical Qua,·terly, XIII, 145-153.