Sam Houston and the war of independence in Texas

Front matter

4 ^

,G r^

^? ^IfreU Pi. ©MiUiamfi

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Boyhood and Youth ...... 1

II. The Young Soldier 11

Chapter I

Samuel, or as he called and signed himself, and as he is known in the familiar language of history, Sam Houston, was born on the 2d of March, 1793, at a place called Timber Ridge Church, about seven miles east of Lexing-ton, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. He came from that strong and sturdy Scotch-Irish stock which has given so many notable names to American history and exercised so powerful an influence in the formative period of the nation. There was a good deal in Sam Houston's character and temperament to indicate a Celtic admixture in the somewhat dour and sober strain of the Presbyterian Scotch-Irish, but there is no name in the records of the family genealogy to indicate it, and it must have been from very remote atavism or the accident of individual constitution. The Houston family was of Lowland-Scotch origin, of sufficient rank to have a coat of arms, and representatives of its branches have occupied positions of provincial importance. There is a family tradition that its representative took part in the defense of Londonderry, but as there is also one that John Houston, the founder of the American branch of the family, came to this country in 1689, the year of the siege, this may be considered as doubtful so far as the immediate ancestor of Houston is concerned. The name of James Huston is, however, to be found attached to the loyal address to King William by the defenders of Londonderry signed the 29th of July, 1689. John Houston, who was possessed of considerable means and was apparently the leader of an emigrant colony of his compatriots, settled in Philadelphia, and left a numerous family of children. His grandson Robert Houston removed to Virginia, purchased a considerable tract of land in Rockbridge County, and married a lady of the Scotch families of Davidson and Dunlop. He also left a numerous family, who became connected with the representatives of the gentry of the neighborhood. His son Samuel inherited the estate and married a Miss Elisabeth Paxton, whose family had been associated with his own in the emigration from Ireland and its subsequent life in America. The position of the family in Virginia was evidently not that of the manorial gentry of the seaboard and eastern river valleys, but that of the wealthier farmers of the interior, who lived in rude plenty mainly by their own labor, and formed a class of substantial and independent yeomen. Samuel Houston served with credit, if not with great distinction, in General Daniel

Morgan's brigade of riflemen during the Revolutionary War, and at its close was appointed Major and Assistant Inspector - General of the frontier troops. He died while on a toui' of duty in the Alleghany Mountains in 1806, leaving his widow with a family of six sons and three daughters. Tradition describes Major Houston as a man of large frame, command- 1, ing presence, indomitable courage and a passion for military life. Mrs. Houston was also remarkable for her magnificent physique, and was a woman of great force of character, respected and beloved in the neighborhood for her benevolence and helpfulness, and impressing her individuality and influence deeply upon the mind and memory of the most distinguished of her children, who always spoke of her with reverence and affection. After the death of her husband, with the vigor and energy characteristic of that pioneer age, she determined to remove to the new settlements in Tennessee ; and with her young family, Sam being then thirteen years of age, she crossed the Alleghany Mountains, and settled in Blount County at a point eight miles east of the Tennessee Eiver, then the boundary between the tribe of Cherokee Indians and their white neighbors. Here a cabin was built, a clearing was opened, and the family lived in the rude and toilsome frontier fashion, while wresting a living from the wilderness.

Houston's reminiscences of his boyhood included a few months of schooling in what was called the " Old Field School," kept in a dilapidated building in the neighborhood, once occupied by Washington 4M^vern-via^ -^i^? which had been removed to Lexington ; and that ' he used to run from his work in the fields to take his place in the spelling class. Only the simplest rudiments of an education could have been given in a country school in a thinly peopled agricidtural neighborhood like that of Rockbridge County, and in a pioneer settlement like that in East Tennessee the opportunities must have been even less. Whatever education Houston acquired in his early youth must have been due to his active mind and fervid imagination, eagerly feeding upon what books came in his way and possessing them with a fullness and reality unknown to those whose minds are satiated and dulled with an abundance and variety of reading. Among the few books which had come to the frontier settlement in the pack-saddles and in the corners of chests among the homespun garments and household implements, and which were read by the light of the fat pine fire, was Pope's translation of the Iliad, and this was devoured by the boy with all the fervid appetite of vigorous youtliful imagination, until he knew it nearly by heart. The artificiality of Pope's style, which is an offense and an obstruction to the refined literary taste that requires the purest flavor for its fastidious palate, was no drawback in the eager appetite of the boy to the appreciation of the reality of the heroic figures and the fresh and immortal drama "of human life behind it ; and the battles on the windy plains of the Scamander, the camp-fires, the ships, and the walls of Troy were as visible and real to him as the woods and fields of the Tennessee valleys. Such a book was an education in itself in all that relates to human life, in the elevation of the spirit and the kindling of the imagination. Throughout his life Houston was a man of few books. When commander of the Texas army he deeply studied Caesar's Commentaries for their simple and sagacious lessons of war, which he assimilated with a native intuition, as well as for the severe fascination of the narrative. He read and appreciated Shakespeare and had some familiarity with the standards of English classical literature ; in his later years, after he became " converted," he read the Bible thoroughly and constantly, so that its phraseology tinged his oratory. But his reading was always limited. His wisdom and knowledge came from contact with men ; and his literary gifts, his power of vigorous and impressive writing on great subjects, and his persuasive and figurative eloquence were due to native faculties, to the power of his mind compelling appropriate words, and the kindling force of his genius elevating and illuminating common speech, and not to any training in the arts of rhetoric or the study of masters of language and expression.

It was during his early residence in East Tennessee that occurred the first of his recorded escapades, that breaking out of the wild blood, the longing for adventure and the free life of the wilderness in the companionship of its children, which characterized his whole career and was a part of his nature. He had been placed by his elder brothers as a clerk in a trader's store, but his restless spirit revolted at the tame life behind the counter and the drudgery of the boxes and barrels, and one day he absconded across the Tennessee River to take up his abode with the Cherokees. He was received into their cabins as a friend and a brother, whose natural tastes and instincts were their own, and acquired that knowledge of and sjanpathy with the Indian character which he manifested through life. It is in a great measure an instinct, a kindred element in the blood, the inheritance of primitive nature, which enables men like Houston and many other pioneer adventurers and soldiers to be thoroughly at home in the Indian camps, to share the emotions and thoughts of their savage friends, and to govern and be trusted by them through the community as well as the superiority of their powers. The records of history and of travel are full of the examples of men of civilized training and scholarly culture who were never so much at home as when in the company of the children of the desert and the forest, whose simple natures they appreciated, and whose wild and free life had an irresistible touch of sympathy with their own instincts ; and the rule of inveterate hostility and antagonism between the white settlers of America and the aborigines has often been broken by cases of natural attraction and the adoption of savage life and companionship by the members of the civilized race.

Houston had many of the characteristics of the Indian in his nature : his hot blood, his strong passions and appetites, his fondness for adventure and the untrammeled freedom of the wilderness, liis solemnly childish vanity and turn for histrionic effect; as well as the higher qualities of the native chief, a commanding personal power and impressiveness, a shrewdness like that of Ulysses in managing men and affairs, an eloquence of original power and impressiveness, a loftiness of spirit and the dominant quality of determination and courage. All these qualities were doubtless visible in the youth as in the man, and Houston was made welcome to the Cherokee villages and adopted into the family of one of the sub -chiefs of the tribe. He thoroughly acquired the Cherokee language, which is so difficult that it is said never to have been learned by an adult, wore the native dress, and was to all intents and purposes an Indian. It is to be said that the Cherokees were among the most intelligent and civilized of the North American Indians, lived in cabins instead of wigwams, cultivated fields, and in some instances at this time owned negro slaves, had a written language of their own invention, and were not greatly different in their habits and manners of life from their pioneer neighbors. But they were Indians, and the flavor of wildness was as distinct among them as among the gypsies, and this was what attracted Houston and made him at home among them. When the place of his retreat was discovered he was visited by his brothers, who endeavored to persuade him to return home ; but he replied, with that touch of grandiloquence which always distinguished him, that he . preferred measuring deer-tracks to measuring tape, and that they might leave him in the woods. He remained with the Cherokees until his eighteenth year, occasionally returning to the white settlements for the supplies wanted for himself and his friends.

At this time, finding himself in debt for the ammunition and trinkets which he had purchased, he resolved to return to civilization, and wipe off the debt by opening a country school. The standard of qualification could not have been beyond the most rudimentary elements, or, with all his courage and self-confidence, Houston would not have attempted to fill it. It is recorded through his reminiscences that he / ♦ raised the price of tuition from six to eight dollars per annum, one third payable in corn at thirty-three and one half cents per bushel, one third in cash, and one third in variegated cotton goods, such as made the teacher's hunting shirt. Houston's popular attributes were illustrated in the success of his school, which soon included most of the children of the neighborhood, and enabled him to pay off his not very formidable debt.

A glimpse of Houston at this time was given by himself in conversation with Colonel Peter Burke, an old comrade of the Indian wars, who had emigrated to Texas after the annexation. He met Houston, then a senator of the United States, on the steamboat going up the Buffalo Bayou from Galveston to the town of Houston. There was a warm greeting between the old comrades, and they sat long on the deck exchanging reminiscences. Finally, the conversation turned upon Houston's successful career, and Colonel Burke said, "Now, Houston, you have been Commander-in-chief of the Texan army, President of the Kepublic, and Senator of the United States. In which of these offices, or at what period in your career, have you felt the greatest pride and satisfaction ? " " Well, Burke," said Houston, " when a young man in Tennessee I kept a country school, being then about eighteen years of age, and a tall, straj)ping fellow. At noon after the luncheon, which I and my pupils ate together out of our baskets, I would go out into the woods, and cut me a ' sour wood ' stick, trim it carefully in circular spirals, and thrust one half of it into the fire, which would turn it blue, leaving the other haK white. With this emblem of ornament and authority in my hand, dressed in a hunting-shirt of \ flowered calico, a long queue down my back, and the ; sense of authority over my pupils, I experienced a higher feeling of dignity and self-satisfaction than from any office or honor which I have since held."

After teaching for a time Houston attended a session or two of the Academy at Maryville, which completed all the education that he was ever to receive from the schools.* The war between the United States and Great Britain had broken out, and the drum was beaten on the frontier for recruits. In 1813 a recruiting party visited Maryville, and

Houston enlisted as a private soldier, being then in his twentieth year. He replied to the remonstrances of his friends at the supposed degradation of his enlistment with his customary grandiloquence and self-confidence, that he would sooner honor the ranks than disgrace an appointment, and that they should hear of him. According to his reminiscences in later life his mother admonished him in the spirit and almost in the language of a Roman matron of the melodramatic stage, handing him his musket at the cabin door, and saying, " There, my son, take this musket, and never disgrace it ; for remember, I had rather all my sons should fill one honorable grave than that one of them should turn his back to save his life. Go ; and remember, too, that while the door of my cabin is open to brave men, it is eternally shut to all cowards ! " These words show that Mrs. Houston was remarkably like her son in the use of inflated language, or that he supplied what he considered the proper expression to a more plain-spoken but vigorous and spirited admonition.

Chapter II

Haying taken the silver dollar from the head of the drum, which was the recognized token of enlistment in those days, and put on a uniform, Houston was made a sergeant the same day, and marched with his detachment to join the Thirty-ninth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteers. He was stationed with his regiment at various cantonments in Alabama and Tennessee, and by his active zeal and devotion to duty acquired the reputation of being the best drill officer in the command. He was, however, not left long in the ranks. His friends made application to President Madison for an appointment, and he received a commission as ensign, which reached him while the regiment was stationed atKnoxville.

It was the period of the Creek war. That powerful tribe had been aroused by the eloquence of Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, as well as by the sense of the constant aggression of the whites, and the knowledge that only a desperate struggle could save them from being crowded out of their lands and home. They broke out into a sudden attack upon the white settlements, and perpetrated the massacre at Fort Minis in Alabama, August 10, 1813. They were defeated by the troops under General Jackson and General Coffee at Talladega and Taluschatchee, their country ravaged, and their villages burned. But the spirit of the tribe was yet unbroken, and the war smouldered and spluttered along the border in the burning of cabins and raids upon the outlying settlers. It was determined to put an end to it by a decisive and exterminating campaign, and the volunteer troops were again called out under Jackson and Coffee. Houston's regiment joined this army, and marched to the scene of hostilities. The fighting remnant of the tribe had rallied for a last stand at To-ho-pe-ka, or the Horseshoe, a bend on the Tallaj)oosa River in Alabama, which they had fortified by breastworks across the neck of the peninsula. Here were gathered some seven hundred warriors, the flower of the fighting men of the nation, and three hundred women and phildren. At this place Jackson's army, numbering about two thousand men, arrived on the 27th of August, 1814.

The battle of To-ho-pe-k^ was one of the most hotly contested and desperate which has ever been fought by the Indian race against civilized arms and discipline. The Indians had been wrought up to a high pitch of enthusiasm and desperation by the fervent appeals and predictions of their prophets and chiefs, and the natural strength of their position gave them additional confidence. The inclosure, about a hundred acres in extent, was trenched with ravines, and thickly wooded with trees and bush. Across the opening, which was about three hundred and fifty yards in width, was built a breastwork of three rows of heavy pine logs, set upright in the ground, and arranged with some military skill in zigzags for a raking as well as a front fire. The rest of the peninsula was protected by the steep banks of the unfordable river.

Jackson drew up his main body in a line fronting the breastworks, and the battle was begun at half past ten o'clock in the forenoon by the fire of his small cannon, a four and a six pounder, which had been planted on an eminence about eighty yards from the breastworks. These balls had no effect on the solid pine logs, and were saluted with whoops of derision by the Indians, as they replied through the port-holes to the rifle fire of the besiegers. In the mean time General Coffee with the mounted troops and the bands of Cherokees who had joined the whites against their neighbors, the Creeks, had invested the peninsula on the opposite side of the river. Some of the Cherokees swam across the stream, and brought away the canoes, which the Creeks had hidden under the bushes of the bank. By these canoes General Coffee's troops were taken across, and the crack of their rifles and the smoke from the burning cabins at the head of the peninsula announced to Jackson's army that the Creeks had been taken in the rear. It was then half past twelve. The long roll was beaten and the order given to charge the breastworks. The onset was made with all the vigor and fury of the fiery frontiersmen.

Houston at the extreme right of his regiment dashed forward in front of the line as it charged upon the breastworks, which were spitting fire at every crevice. With a spring and a scramble he gained the top of the palisade from which Major Montgomery of his regiment had just fallen dead with a rifle ball in his head. As he did so a barbed arrow struck deep in his thigh. He sprang down, and at the head of the rush of men who had followed drove the Indians back from the palisade to take refuge among the trees and brush. As the space was cleared and the battle paused for a moment Houston called upon the lieutenant of the company to pull out the arrow. Twice he made the attempt and failed, it was so deeply embedded in the flesh. Drawing back his sword over his head Houston roared to him to try again, and that he would cut him down if he failed. This time, exerting all his strength, the lieutenant pulled out the arrow, leaving a gaping and jagged wound from which the blood gushed in a stream. Houston recrossed the breastworks to have it stanched. While under the surgeon's hands he was seen by Jackson, who was watching the fight on horseback. Jackson ordered him to the rear. Houston made light of his wound, and begged to be allowed to rejoin the fight, but was peremptorily refused. He disobeyed after Jackson had moved off, recrossed the breastworks, and again engaged in the conflict. It was fought with all the fury of savage desperation. The Indians, driven from the palisade, took refuge in the ravines and behind the trees and bushes. From these they fired, and were shot by the quick rifles of the frontiersmen, or killed in hand-to-hand conflicts in which clubbed rifle crashed against clubbed rifle, and hunting-knife struck against tomahawk. Not a warrior asked for or received quarter. The fight raged over the hundredacre space all the afternoon, until the larger number of the Indians had been killed in their tracks, or shot while endeavoring to swim the turbid waters of the river.

A small band of the warriors bad, meanwhile, taken refuge in a deep ravine close to the river on one side of the breastworks. It was roofed with lieavy pine logs, and almost as impregnable to assault as a cave. The only way in which it could be taken was by a direct charge upon the narrow entrance. An interpreter was sent forward to summon them to surrender, but they replied with a shot, which wounded him, and with yells of rage and defiance. Jackson called for volunteers to storm the ravine, but the task was* so evidently desperate that no body of men gathered to respond to the call. Houston dashed forward, calling upon his men to follow him, but without looking back to see if they did so. When within a few yards of the entrance he received two bullets in his shoulder, and his upper right arm was shattered. His musket fell from his hand, and he was helpless. No one had supported his charge, and he drew back out of the range of the fire. It was not until the logs covering the ravine had been set on fire by blazing arrows, and the desperate warriors had been shot as they burst out of the smoke and flame, that the last refuge crumbled in ashes and blood. It was sunset when the battle was over, and the last hope of the Creek nation was crushed. In his report of the battle to his superior officer. General Pinckney, Jackson does not mention the exploit of Houston's, although it took place under his eye, but his name is contained in the list of the wounded of his regiment afterward forwarded to Governor Blount of Tennessee. It, however, gained for Houston Jackson's friendship and confidence, which he retained throughout his life.

Houston was borne from the field and put in charge of the surgeons. They considered his wounds necessarily fatal, although it does not appear why they should, unless they believed his lungs to be touched. They extracted one bullet, but made no attempt to probe for the other in an unnecessary torture. He lay all night on the damp ground, receiving none of the attention which was given to those whose wounds were not considered mortal. In the morning he was found to be alive, placed on a rude litter, and conveyed to Fort Williams, some sixty or seventy miles distant. Here he received only some rude surgery, the regular hospital for the wounded officers being at a place called the Hickory Ground. He was kindly cared for, however, a part of the time by Colonel Johnson and a part of the time by Colonel Cheatham, two volunteer officers from his State. At length he was removed to the Ten Islands, where there was a military post and hospital. General Dougherty, who commanded the East Tennessee brigade, had him conveyed by horse litter several hundred miles through the Cherokee country to his mother's cabin. The journey was intensely painful from the rough method of conveyance, and he could only be supplied with the coarsest food. It was nearly two months after the battle of To-ho-pe-ka when he reached his mother's house. He was emaciated to a skeleton by his wounds and privations, and so changed that his mother said that she would not have recognized him, except for his eyes.

He did not recover at home under his mother's care, nor at Marysville, where he was taken for medical treatment. Finally he was removed to Knoxville, which he reached in so low a condition of vitality that the doctor said that he could live but a few days, and declined to take charge of his case. Finding at the end of that time that Houston was not only not dead, but actually somewhat better, he consented to treat him. He slowly recovered strength, and after a time was able to make the journey on horseback to Washington, which he reached shortly after the burning of the Capitol in the raid of the British troops. Being still unfit for active duty, he returned to Lexington, Ya., where he spent a portion of the winter with his relatives and friends. He continued to gain in strength, and returned to Knoxville, where he received the news of the battle of New Orleans, and was placed on duty at the cantonment of his regiment.

On the reduction of the army after the declaration of peace, Houston was assigned to the First Regiment of infantry in the regular army, having received his promotion to a lieutenancy for his gallantry at To-hope-ka, and ordered to report for duty at New Orleans. He made the journey down the Cumberland and the Mississippi in a skiff with only two companions, one of whom was E. D. White, afterward Governor of Louisiana. He has recorded that while voyaging down the vast and lonely stream of the Mississippi they saw, on turning a bend, a vessel pouring out a stream of smoke, which they supposed to be on fire ; but it proved to be the first steamboat which had navigated its waters. They left their skiff at Natchez and took the steamer, which conveyed them to New Orleans. In New Orleans, Houston's wounds were again operated upon, and, in his weakened condition, the operation nearly cost him his life. After shattering his right arm at nearly the junction with his shoulder, the bullet had passed around and lodged under the shoulder-blade. The wound never entirely healed, and constantly discharged until the day of his death. After a winter of weakness and suffering in New Orleans, he went to New York for medical treatment, and then reported for duty at the Adjutant- General's office in Nashville, where he was employed until November, 1817. At that time he was appointed a sub-agent of the Cherokees under General Return J. Meigs, at the request of General Jackson, and accepted the duty, although yet hardly fit for active service. General Jackson wrote to Assistant Secretary of War Graham, " He is a young man of sonnd integrity, wlio has my entire confidence, and in every way he is capacitated to fill the appointment. Moreover he has some claims upon the government for a severe wound received in the service, which may be , considered a disability." Jackson also wrote to Gen- / eral Meigs, " In him I have full confidence, and in / him you will have a friend clear of design and deceit, on whom you can rely under all and every circum- I stance, as capable to aid you in every respect." In the previous year the chiefs of the Cherokees had signed a treaty by which they agreed to surrender 1,385,200 acres of their best land in East Tennessee. A portion of the tribe were naturally indignant, and refused to remove from their homes. There were apprehensions of serious trouble when Houston was appointed, and his knowledge of the Cherokee language and acquaintance and friendship in the tribe doubtless made his influence very useful in subduing the hostility and ill-feeling. He received the thanks of Governor McMunn, who had succeeded General Meigs as agent, for the efficiency of his services.

He conducted a delegation of the Cherokees to "Washington to receive the funds for 'the sale of their lands and fix the bounds of their reservation, and while there had trouble with John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, which resulted in the termination of his service in the army, and doubtless intensified the antagonism to that wing of the Democratic party represented by Calhoun, which he manifested in later life. His first offense was in appearing before tlie punctilious Secretary dressed in the garments of an Indian, whicli lie habitually assumed when living with them. He received a rebuke for this which he did not relish. But a more serious charge followed. The Indian country was full of outlaws and desperate adventurers, who were engaged in all sorts of schemes of plunder and offense against the laws. One of these was the smuggling of slaves from Florida, then a province of Spain, who were taken through the Indian reservation to the border settlements. Houston interfered to break up this nefarious traffic, and naturally excited the enmity of those engaged in it. Some of them or their agents in Washington made charges against Houston affecting his official integrity and personal conduct. He appeared before President Madison and Secretary Calhoun, and successfully defended himself, and having concluded his agency business in Washington, conducted the Cherokee delegation back to the Hilli-bee towns. But his hasty temper had taken umbrage at the unwarranted attacks upon him, and the spirit in which the inquiry into his conduct had been instituted by the Secretary of War, and he resigned. May 18, 1818. He was then a first lieutenant,' and had served for &ve years.