4.12
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1836
"Executive Department, Harrisburg, April, 1836.
"General Sam Houston: "Sir: The enemy are laughing you to scorn. You must fight them. You must retreat no farther. The country expects you to fight. The salvation of the country depends on you doing so. David G. Burnet" See Texas Almanac, 1860, 60. •See Houston to _Wyly Martin, November 24, 1835.
TO NATHANIEL ROBBINS 1
Headquarters, Camp at Groce's, April 13, 1836.
To Colonel Nathaniel Robbins : 2 Sir: You are hereby ordered and commanded to seize all arms and guns, and such weapons of war as may be useful to the army, or necessary to the defence of Texas, giving receipts for the same, and holding them subject to the orders of the govern- ment. You will arrest all deserters from the army, and pass them over to commands on their march to the army. All persons without furloughs or discharges, or whose furloughs have expired, are deserters, and as such must be registered and reported to the government, if not apprehended and sent back. Sam Houston. 1 Yoakum, History of Texas, II, 497-498. ~Nathaniel Robbins. came to Texas in 1828 and selected his headright on the Trinity River in Milam's Colony. His settlement was at a point above the mouth of Bidais Creek, where the old San Antonio road crossed the Trinity. Robbins constructed and operated a ferry at this point, and it became the be£t-known crossing on the Trinity for the upper routes across Texas. The old village of Randolph in Madison County is about the same place as the old Robbins Ferry. Nathaniel Robbins had great influence among the Indians, and was regarded by his contemporaries as an honest, patriotic man. His appointment as Indian commissioner (Novem- ber 8, 1836) was confirmed by the Senate on the same day that it received Houston's appointment. See E. W. Winkler (ed.), The Secret Journals of the Senate of the Re7mblic of Texas, 19-20; see also for location of the ferry, Austin's map in Bancroft, North Mexi:;a11, Stcites and Texas, II, 75.
To JOHN A. WHARTON 1 Head Quarters, Army of Texas 15th April 1836
Major E. H. Winfield has permission to absent himself from the Army for Fifteen days from this date, he will report himself
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