“That’s right. He’s thrown in with Texas, for liberty and the constitution of ’24; and he was governor of the State of Mexico, too—until Santa Anna chased him out and put a price on his head. That means we’ll probably get a lot of Mexican patriots, as soon as they understand we’re fighting for state freedom. But this camp’s so cocky, doesn’t seem like it’ll wait for Austin or Houston or reinforcements or anything.”
“What man do you want for commander-in-chief, Dick?” queried Ernest.
“Houston,” promptly answered Dick. “Sam Houston. Didn’t I go clear up north to find him, for Texas? But I don’t reckon he’ll be elected. They’re most all West Texas men hyar, yet, and he’s of East Texas. How about it, Henry?” and he hailed Henry Karnes, the red-headed Arkansas trapper and Apache “big medicine,” who on moccasined feet was striding by. “Do you figger we can elect Sam Houston?”
Henry Karnes scratched his fiery thatch.
“Wall,” he drawled, “if he was on the spot he might be elected. Or if we-all were thar he might be elected. But he’s away out yonder, recruitin’ the Redlanders. I think a heap of Houston, myself, but I reckon Austin stands a better show. Everybody knows Austin. He’s got some folks, though, that hold he’s too sort of mild, for a fightin’ man. Fact is, I don’t see how anybody can be elected; this hyar camp’s so split up, with every company shoutin’ for its own separate candidate.”
And that was true. The election had been ordered for to-morrow, and the camp and the town were in a perfect buzz of electioneering. Texas was so large, and the settlements were so widely divided off, that each locality formed a clan, eager to have a man from among themselves as the leader.
On this day 110 volunteers under Captain Allen and Captain Benjamin Fort Smith were detached to march south and seize Victoria and Goliad, so as to cut off the Mexicans’ line of communication with the Gulf. Now there were not enough men left at Gonzales to capture San Antonio, and if Colonel Ugartechea and his Mexican regulars arrived, for that cannon, before reinforcements came in, Colonel Moore’s riflemen certainly would have their hands full.
However, amidst the wild rumors, scouts brought word that Ugartechea had not yet marched out of the Alamo mission of Bejar, but that General Cos was nearing Bejar with his 500 soldiers. Something therefore must be done soon.
Ernest was a strong Sam Houston “man.” But when he tried a little electioneering, himself, for his candidate, he found, as Trapper Karnes had said, that the camp was all “split up.” He could not swing even Leo and Jim.
“Aw, who’s Sam Houston?” opposed Leo. “He may be a right smart of a man, but we’ve got a lot as good one’s who’ve been in Texas longer than he has. We Lower Brazos fellows aren’t going to vote for anybody we don’t know. We’ve got a man of our own.”