“Any news from Fannin?”
“No. But the convention’s quit. Elected David Burnet president of the Republic of Texas and Lorenzo de Zavala [that was the Mexican patriot] vice-president; and on the seventeenth, as soon as they heard about the Alamo, they all moved out, down to Harrisburg, near Buffalo Bayou, in the Galveston Bay country of the coast. Wasn’t that awful, about the Alamo, though?”
“It certainly was,” agreed Jim and Ernest, sobering.
“All Texas acts scared out of its boots,” complained Sion. “The government’s as bad as the rest—retreating like that. If half the men who are tending to their families would join the army their families would be a great deal safer. We’ve got to do something pretty quick. The Mexicans are close.”
“How do you know?”
“Because some of their patrols are right west of here. People saw ’em yesterday. Old Sesma’s behind ’em with six hundred men.”
That was true. The scouts under Henry Karnes, who had been stationed across the river, above, brought in a Mexican soldier and three horses, and Scout Secrest showed the sword and pistols of another soldier whom he had killed. Three more prisoners were captured, by a detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Sherman. They said that General Sesma and General Woll were now on the west bank of the Colorado, only three miles above Beason’s. The Deaf Smith Spies, on falling back from Burnam’s, had set fire to the ranch buildings and to the Dewees place, below.
General Houston posted strong guards up along the river; and according to reports there would be a battle. If Generals Sesma and Woll had only 600 men, the Texan army ought to be able to thresh them. Sherman, it was said, would have ambushed them—only that one of his men disobeyed orders and fired too soon, and spoiled the whole plan. If the artillery only would come from the mouth of the Brazos! The little army were in great excitement—although some of the men managed to leave, in spite of the sentries. They reasoned that if there was a fight and the army was whipped by the Mexican artillery and cavalry, they ought to be at home with their families.
General Houston looked ill. He was carrying a great load. The news that the government had fled also, as if it did not trust him or the army, worried him. He said to one of the officers: “That removal from Washington to Harrisburg has done more to increase the panic than anything else that has occurred in Texas, except the fall of the Alamo, sir.” And from Beason’s he wrote to Colonel Rusk, the secretary of war: