“Sounds just like Houston,” remarked Dick Carroll. “Now if anybody in Texas thinks we’re through with Santa Anna, let him read this hyar proclamation. He says in it that ’cording to dispatches that have been captured, Santa Anna’s assembling ten thousand troops ag’in us. March first? We’re likely to be waked up before March first. And as for that Matamoros expedition, I don’t believe it will work. You can’t depend on the Mexican people helping any invasion. Look what happened down at Tampico.”
For when, this December, one General Jose Antonio Mexia, a Mexican officer opposed to Santa Anna’s rule, had disembarked a company from New Orleans at Tampico, on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, the citizens, instead of helping him, had cried “Hurrah for Santa Anna! Death to the strangers!” and twenty-eight of the party had been imprisoned and shot.
Ernest was very ready to enlist in the army called for by General Houston. Of course, he was only a boy; but he had been a soldier volunteer, and now if they thought he was too young to carry a gun in the regular army, he could at least be a drummer-boy—or something. However, the Gonzales people generally appeared not at all concerned. The men were busy and were enjoying their homes; they had threshed the Mexicans several times and had driven them all out of the country, and upheld the constitution of 1824, and this was enough for the present. So let those fellows who liked army discipline and who were not needed at home, go ahead and enlist; and let the other fellows with crops and families depending on them take things easy until the real call came. In fact, everybody expected somebody else to do the joining.
Nevertheless, at his headquarters in Washington on the Brazos, General Houston was doing the best that he could, to hurry matters along. James W. Fannin, the Georgian, had been appointed by the General Council colonel of the regular artillery. He also was appointed by General Houston inspector-general of the army. Colonel James Neill, and David Macomb, who had been the assistant adjutant-general, were the lieutenant colonels. Captain William Travis was appointed a major. Colonel Philip Sublett, who had commanded one of the divisions at the old mill camp before Bejar, was appointed the colonel of the regular infantry.
Captain Travis preferred not to serve in the artillery, and was made the lieutenant colonel of the cavalry, and Colonel Frank W. Johnson, who had commanded the columns in Bejar after the death of Ben Milam, was put in his place in the artillery. Colonel Sublett resigned, and was succeeded by General Edward Burleson, whom everybody knew.
The regular army was to consist of 1120 men, divided into a regiment of infantry and a regiment of artillery: composed part of actual regulars enlisted for two years, and part of “permanent volunteers” enlisted to serve until the end of the war. All were to be under the regulations and pay adopted by the army of the United States.
There was to be a corps of 168 Rangers, attached to the regular army, but to enlist for one year and to serve only when called upon; a kind of scouts. They were to receive pay, when on duty, of $1.25 a day; to furnish their own horses and arms and supplies, and to be “always ready armed and supplied with one hundred rounds of powder and ball.” Three-legged Williamson was elected major, commanding. This Ranger service looked rather attractive to Ernest.
But there also was the volunteer cavalry, under the gallant Captain, now Lieutenant-Colonel, Travis. Whoever followed William Barret Travis would certainly have excitement. The cavalry were to number 384 men, were to be armed with broad-swords and pistols, and double-barrelled shot-guns and smooth-bore yagers, half and half; and were to be “subject to regular discipline and the rules and articles of war.” For, said Lieutenant-Colonel Travis, “a mob can do wonders in a sudden burst of patriotism or passion, but cannot be depended on as soldiers for a campaign.” The pay was to be the United States cavalry pay, and there was to be a uniform of cadet-gray blouses and trousers, with yellow bullet buttons; fur caps, high black collars, and cowhide boots! This cavalry seemed the best of all.
And there was a corps of 5000 “auxiliary volunteers,” to enlist for three months or more, and be under the army regulations. An “Army of Reserve for the Protection of the Liberties of Texas” also was being talked of, to be recruited in the United States by the patriotic Judge T. J. Chambers, of Texas. Governor Smith advised a corps of engineers. Everybody between the ages of sixteen and fifty was invited to help form companies of home militia.
Colonel Fannin was stationed at Velasco, on the Gulf in Leo’s country, to open a recruiting station and to receive volunteers from the United States. Lieutenant-Colonel Travis was stationed on recruiting service at San Felipe. Colonel Jim Bowie was at Goliad. But out of all these plans very little resulted. General Houston’s proclamation even seemed to have scarcely any effect. The volunteers from the United States—from Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee—continued to arrive; but they said that they had not come to serve in any regular army. They had come to fight and to be subject to their own officers, and the majority opposed enlisting in the Texas army for even three months. By the middle of January, 1836, the regular army numbered scarcely fifty men; and taking volunteers and all, the great majority were from the United States.