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nship of our frontier-men are most extraordinary. I saw one of them pick up from the ground three dollars, each fifty yards apart, at full speed, and pass under the horse's neck at a pace not much short of full speed. On the 8th of March, 1846, General Taylor made a forward movement to Point Isabel, which commanded the mouth of the Rio Grande. In spite of a protest and some acts of hostility committed by the Mexicans, a fortification was erected opposite Matamoras, afterward known as Fort Brown. On the 12th of April General Ampudia addressed a letter to General Taylor, requiring him to withdraw to the left bank of the Nueces, or that arms alone must decide the question. A little later, the Mexicans captured Captain Thornton and 60 men, and committed other overt acts of war; and, finally, threatened General Taylor's communications with Point Isabel, his base of supply. To reestablish his communications and secure his base, General Taylor marched with his army to Point Isabel,
re as I expect in a few days, they will be compelled to attack me here with my force thus considerably increased. I do not think they will attempt to turn my position. General Hindman, with his brigade of Hardee's division, is at Bell's, on the railroad and pike, with Swett's battery; his front is covered with the Texas and Arkansas Cavalry. Breckinridge, with his brigade of Buckner's division, is at Oakland, ten miles in rear of Hindman's, with Morgan's cavalry, in the direction of Brownsville. Helm, with his regiment of Kentucky Cavalry, has been ordered back to Skegg's Creek bridge and the Barren bridge, on the route from Scottsville to Glasgow. His scouts keep the country under observation toward Woodsonville and Columbia. Should the enemy move in force on this route, the bridge across the Barren and other streams toward Glasgow will be burned. The remainder of the divisions of Hardee and Buckner, and the sixty days State troops from Mississippi, recently arrived, under
e task of recounting his services. Braxton Bragg was born in Warren County, North Carolina, in 1815. Members of his family attained eminence in politics and at the bar. He was graduated at West Point, and entered the Third Artillery in 1837. He saw service in the Seminole War in Florida, and was promoted to first-lieutenant in 1838, Bragg served under General Taylor in the Mexican War, and was brevetted captain in 1846, for gallant and distinguished conduct in the defense of Fort Brown, Texas. He was brevetted major for gallant conduct at Monterey, and lieutenant-colonel for his services at Buena Vista. The mythical order of General Taylor to him on that field, A little more grape, Captain Bragg, made a popular catch-word, which gave him great notoriety. An attempt was made to assassinate him in camp in 1847, by the explosion of a twelve-pound shell at the foot of his bed. After the Mexican War, he became a sugar-planter in Terre Bonne Parish, Louisiana, and his meth
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Flight and capture of Jefferson Davis. (search)
ndoned Hungary, and left an army behind him. I may also mention that after this General Breckenridge and myself proposed that we should take what troops we had with us and go westward, crossing the Chattahoochie between Atlanta and Chattanooga, and get as many of them across the Mississippi as we could, and in the meantime keep up the impression that Mr. Davis was with us, and for him to go to the coast of Florida and cross to Cuba, and charter a vessel under the English flag and go to Brownsville, Texas, and thence return and meet us to the west of the Mississippi. He refused to assent to this plan, on the ground that he would not abandon Confederate soil. I ought to add that we were influenced to make this suggestion, because we thought him so exhausted and enfeebled that we did not think he could make the trip by land to where it was hoped to embody the troops west of the Mississippi. I know, too, that it was Mr. Davis' purpose to try to get to the west of the Mississippi before
Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Chapter 2: birth.-career as officer of Engineers, United States army. (search)
to be a brigadier general in 1837, three years thereafter he was assigned to the command of the Southern Division of the Western Department. He was in place, therefore, to defend Texas against the Mexicans, to insist on the Rio Grande boundary line, and to prevent Mexican authority from being extended to the River Nueces, which was claimed as the proper line. He was the right man in the right place, and when Arista, the Mexican general, crossed the Rio Grande with six thousand men, near Fort Brown, Taylor, being in the vicinity, promptly attacked with two thousand men and defeated him, assumed the offensive, crossed the Rio Grande, and war with Mexico became an accomplished fact. Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Matamoras, Monterey, and Buena Vista are the stars in the military crown on the brow of Old rough and ready, as he was called. Calm, silent. stern, possessed of military genius, this soldier at once became a favorite with the American people, and for his services was after
Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Chapter 3: a cavalry officer of the army of the United States. (search)
t be obtruded on them. Two months later Lieutenant-Colonel Lee was at Fort Brown, Texas, with thoughts filled with the approaching Christmas and his family's ha at the Pilgrim Fathers, and his personal Christmas doings, was written: Fort Brown, Texas, December 27, 1856. The steamer has arrived from New Orleans, bringingsed the afternoon in my room. God bless you all. From the same place-Fort Brown, Texas, January 7, 1857-writing to Mrs. Lee, whom he hears has been sick, he say Her ears of jet and emerald eyes, She saw and purr'd applause. From Fort Brown, Texas, February 16, 1857, he tells Mrs. Lee: Tell your father Mrs. Colonel Waite can't part from him. He must go to Florida. I have seen some fine cats in Brownsville in the stores kept by Frenchmen, but no yellow ones; the dark brindle is theim. Colonel Taylor informs me that his two women servants married soldiers at Fort Brown without his knowledge about a fortnight after his arrival. It seems we have
Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Index. (search)
Court House, 195. Fair Oaks, battle of, 146, 148. Falling Waters, 303, 304, 306. Ferrero, General, mentioned, 359. Field, Charles, mentioned, 54. Fitzhugh, Major, mentioned, 182. Floyd, John B., 113, 117-119, 123, 125, 134. Fort Brown, Texas, 65, 66. Fort Donelson taken by Grant, 131. Fort Fisher, fall of, 368. Fort Hamilton, 30. Fort Henry captured, 131. Fort Monroe, 75, 135, 137, 308. Fort Moultrie, 87. Fort Sumter, 86, 87, 101. Fourth United States Infantry, 32's comrades, 47, 48; returns to Virginia, 49; Superintendent United States Military Academy, 51; becomes Lieutenant Colonel, SecondCavalry, 54; his qualifications, 56; court-martial duty, 57; in Texas, 59; at Ringgold Barracks, 61; Christmas at Fort Brown, 63, 64; letters to Mrs. Lee, 66 ; president of a courtmartial, 69; returns to Virginia, 70; in command of regiment, 70; visits Comanche chief, 73; appointed executor, 74; leave of absence, 74; John Brown raid, 74- 76; return to Texas, 77; summ
Lt.-Colonel Arthur J. Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, April, 1863. (search)
med Mongomery, they had left on the road to Brownsville; by the smiles of the other officers, I couded that his boys meant well. We reached Brownsville at 5.30 P. M., and Mr. Ituria kindly insisters, and I slept at Mr. Ituria's again. Brownsville is a straggling town of about 3,000 inhabitby four gay mules. At noon I crossed to Brownsville, and visited Captain Lynch, a quartermasterColonel Luckett declared I should not leave Brownsville until General Magruder arrives. He is expehonor to British officers, they would scour Brownsville for the materials for cocktails. At 3 Prow, it is invariably caused by Texans from Brownsville. These turbulent spirits are at once seize the deep sand. The country, on leaving Brownsville, is quite flat, the road, a natural one, sa and become a citizen. The distance from Brownsville to San Antonio is 330 miles, and we have bey share of the expenses of the journey from Brownsville. Mrs. McCarthy was thrown into a great sta[20 more...]
Lt.-Colonel Arthur J. Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, May, 1863. (search)
es. The loss of coffee afflicts the Confederates even more than the loss of spirits; and they exercise their ingenuity in devising substitutes, which are not generally very successful. The same sort of country as yesterday, viz.-large forests of pines and postroaks, and occasional Indiancorn fields, the trees having been killed by cutting a circle near the roots. At 3 P. M., we took in four more passengers. One of them was a Major , brother-in-law to ----- , who hanged Mongomery at Brownsville. He spoke of the exploit of his relative with some pride. Ie told me that his three brothers had lost an arm apiece in the war. We arrived at Rusk at 6.30 P. m., and spent a few hours there; but notwithstanding the boasted splendor of the beds at the Cherokee Hotel, and although by Major ----‘s influence I got one to myself, yet I did not consider its aspect sufficiently inviting to induce me to remove my clothes. 7th may, 1863 (Thursday). -We started again at 1.30 A. M. in a
Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Advance of the Army-crossing the Colorado-the Rio Grande (search)
ing the number of animals in it; I have no idea that they could all have been corralled in the State of Rhode Island, or Delaware, at one time. If they had been, they would have been so thick that the pasturage would have given out the first day. People who saw the Southern herd of buffalo, fifteen or twenty years ago, can appreciate the size of the Texas band of wild horses in 1846. At the point where the army struck the Little Colorado River [a small stream and canyon just north of Brownsville], the stream was quite wide and of sufficient depth for navigation. The water was brackish and the banks were fringed with timber. Here the whole army concentrated before attempting to cross. The army was not accompanied by a pontoon train, and at that time the troops were not instructed in bridge building. To add to the embarrassment of the situation, the army was here, for the first time, threatened with opposition. Buglers, concealed from our view by the brush on the opposite side