Hello fellow Texans and friends of Texas. Today is Saturday, March 29, 2014. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Houstons army was stuck in the mud in 1836< On March 29, 1836, Sam Houstons army was mired in mud at a location above Mill Creek, a tributary of the Brazos River near San Felipe. The day-by-day diary of Alexander Horton, Sam Houstons aide-de-camp said the general slept last night in his saddle, feet on a log and wrapped in a wet blanket. Horton said travel is very slow and the crossing of Mill Creek was very difficult. The General has written Secretary Rusk with the admonishment Let no troops march with baggage-wagons, or wagons of any kind. And the torment is aggravated with increasing cases of measles in camp. Horton also said Houston was depressed with the removal of the Government to Harrisburg. This event has caused more panic than is appropriate. The number of the enemy continues to be greatly exaggerated. Perhaps this is because of the large number of civilians and noncombatants traveling with the Mexican army. But the fact remains, we need more volunteers. Horton said Capt. David Burke and Edward Conrad were dispatched to New Orleans to assist William Christy of that city in raising more troops. He also said correspondence had been received from William H. Wharton saying that the ladies of Nashville have fitted out, at their own expense, no less than 200 men. We need more angels like those if we are to win this war. Moseley Baker, left in San Felipe to obstruct the passage of the enemy prevent its capture by the enemy, may have burned the town but most believe the town was destroyed on March 30, 1836. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Battle of Rosillo fought on prairie southeast of San Antonio< In 1813, the battle of Rosillo was fought on a prairie near the confluence of Rosillo and Salado creeks, nine miles southeast of San Antonio. The engagement was between the Republican Army of the North led by José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara and Samuel Kemper and a Spanish royalist force under Texas governor Manuel María de Salcedo and Nuevo León governor Simón de Herrera. The republican army, variously estimated at 600 to 900 men, was advancing along the road from La Bahía to San Antonio when it was confronted by a royalist force variously reported to be 950 to 1,500 men.The ensuing battle was bloody and brief, lasting no more than an hour but resulting in the complete rout of the royalists and the capture of most of their arms and ammunition, six cannons, and 1,500 horses and mules. Royalist losses were heavy, estimated to be 100 to 330 men, while the republicans lost only six men. The battle of Rosillo resulted in the capture of San Antonio and the establishment of a first republic of Texas, but the rebellion was eventually crushed at the battle of Medina in August 1813. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Sam Houston lost out in attempt to court Anna W. Raguet< In 1840, Anna W. Raguet, who was once courted by Sam Houston, married Robert A. Irion. The eldest child of Texas pioneer Henry Raguet, Anna was born in Pennsylvania in 1819 and lived in Cincinnati until she was brought to Nacogdoches by her father in the spring of 1833. There she became acquainted with Houston. He evidently contemplated marrying her. In 1833, he engaged the services of Jonas Harrison to secure a divorce for him from his first wife, Eliza Allen. As divorces were not granted under Mexican law, nothing came of the application, but Houstons courtship continued. Soon after he became president of the Republic of Texas, Houston issued a proclamation giving his authority to Judge Shelby Corzine to try his application for divorce in the district court of San Augustine County, although Congress was supposed to have exclusive jurisdiction of such matters. Houstons attorney, W.G. Anderson, used the same petition that had been drawn up by Jonas Harrison. The divorce was granted on April 8, 1837, but did not satisfy the scruples of Anna Raguet, who apparently abandoned any plans she might have had for marrying Houston. Robert Irion, secretary of state under Houston, bore many messages between Anna and the president. When Irion learned of the final rift between the two, he persuaded her to marry him. Anna and Dr. Irion were the parents of five children. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Also on March 29 in Texas: • In 1790, John Tyler, 10th president of the United States, was born in Virginia. Tyler signed the Texas annexation bill on March 1, 1845, three days before leaving office. • In 1862, Camp Llano, at the junction of Rock Creek and the Llano River in Mason County, was established by James M. Norris as a ranger station for the Frontier Regiment. It was manned by members of the ranger company of Capt. H.T. Davis and engaged in scouting duty, probably until the consolidation of the Frontier Regiment in March 1864. • In 1878, Krug, located in southernmost Washington County on Williams Creek four miles southeast of Brenham changed its name to Pleasant Hill. Kenney Krug operated a store and served as the first postmaster when a post office was established there on March 4, 1878. By the early 1890s the town was beginning to decline, due in part to competition from nearby Phillipsburg, Muellersberg and Brenham. The post office was closed in 1896. • In 1899, James V Allred, Texas jurist and governor, was born in Bowie. The V was a name, not an initial. Allred was elected governor in 1934 and became a federal district judge at the end of his second term as governor. He resigned in 1942 to seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. He lost that race and returned to private law practice in Houston. In 1949 President Harry Truman returned Allred to the federal bench, where he remained until his death on Sept. 24, 1959 in Wichita Falls. • In 1904, a post office was opened by Zachariah R. Guess in his general store under the name of Zack. In 1906, Guess sold his store to Cyrus Koontz, who owned the land on which the store stood. Koontz operated the store until 1932, when it was closed and boarded up. The population of the community was estimated at 25 from 1925 through 1950. The Brazos County town was gone from highway maps by 1988. • In 1943, William Theodotus Capers, second bishop of the Diocese of West Texas of the Protestant Episcopal Church, died in San Antonio. Upon the retirement of Bishop James Steptoe Johnston in 1914, Capers became bishop of the diocese and served in that capacity until his death. • In 1965, the deliberate impoundment of water began at Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Construction began on Sept. 7, 1956. The reservoirs name was changed from McGee Bend to Sam Rayburn, in honor of the congressional leader, in 1963. The dam serves two hydroelectric plants. The lake has a drainage area of 3,449 square miles. It is also a favorite resort destination. • • • • • • Texas History Day-by-Day is compiled by retired newspaper journalist Bob Sonderegger (anglebob61@yahoo). A primary source of information is Handbook of Texas Online. Your comments or additions are welcome.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 13:24:25 +0000