This Day In Texas History - February 7

[joe817]

1836 - Col. James Fannin learned that Santa Anna's threatened movement to overwhelm Texas and suppress the rebellion was already under way and wrote that "It is useless to controvert the fact that our true strength and geographical situation are well known to Santa Anna."

1836 - Warren Jordan Mitchell was promoted to the rank of major in the Georgia Battalion as regimental surgeon. Mitchell was captured after the battle of Coleto and killed in the Goliad Massacre on March 27, 1836. His brother, Edwin T. Mitchell, died at the Alamo.

1837 - Brig. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was wounded in a duel by Brig. Gen. Felix Huston. Johnston had been sent by President T. J. Rusk to replace Huston as commander of the Texas army. Huston considered the lack of confidence in his leadership such an affront that, in spite of his esteem for the senior officer, he challenged Johnston to a duel. Johnston's wound was so severe that he was unable to take command.

1853 - The town of Seguin was officially incorporated. This South Texas seat of Guadalupe County saw settlement as early as the 1830s, and founders originally called the site Walnut Springs before changing the name to Seguin in honor of Tejano revolutionary and Texas Republic senator Juan Nepomuceno Seguín in 1839.

1855 - Charles Siringo was born in Matagorda County. Beginning in 1870, he worked as a cowboy, part of the time for Shanghai Pierce, and later helped establish the LX Ranch. While working as an LX cowboy, he met Billy the Kid and led a posse into New Mexico in pursuit of him. In 1884, while working as a merchant in Caldwell, Kansas, Siringo began writing his first book, A Texas Cowboy; or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony (1885), which established him as the first cowboy autobiographer and became a range literature classic. Siringo met such varied celebrities as Pat Garrett, Bat Masterson, Clarence Darrow, William S. Hart, and Will Rogers. He helped to romanticize the West and to create the myth of the American cowboy.

1862 - Brig.General Henry Hopkins Sibley, with his detachment of 2,500 Texans, fifteen pieces of artillery, and an extensive supply train, started up the Rio Grande toward Fort Craig(a Federal bastion in south-central New Mexico), seventy miles distant. Thus began the Confederate Texan invasion of New Mexico Territory in 1861–62 was the westernmost campaign of the Civil War. It became known as the Sibley Campaign.

1866 - The date for an election of delegates to The Constitutional Convention of 1866 in Austin was announced by Andrew Jackson Hamilton, provisional governor of Texas. The number of delegates was to be equal to the number of members in the Texas House of Representatives, and no person excluded from President Andrew Johnson's general amnesty proclamation was eligible as a delegate unless pardoned by the president. Few former secessionists were barred from voting for constitutional delegates. When the delegates assembled, it became apparent that there were two strong factions in the convention-radical Unionists and radical secessionists-with the extremes of each group holding most power.

1908 - Fred Gipson, who writes Old Yeller and other children's books, is born in Mason.

1976 - The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame was dedicated along the Brazos River in Waco. It will be home to artifacts from over 100 years of the Texas Rangers including memorabilia from Bonnie and Clyde.

[joe817]

Letters From The Past: Feb. 7, 1836. Letter from Fannin To Robinson(Governor of Texas)

"Mission of Refugio, February 7th, 10 o'clock, P. M. I have to communicate to you, and through you to the people of Texas, the enclosed express just received from the advance Division of the volunteer army.

You will readily discover the great difference between this information and that contained in my report of the 3d instant. The first was then supposed to be entitled to credit, and accordingly made the subject of a communication:-I cannot now question the correctness of the last. Not the least doubt should any longer be entertained, by any friend of Texas, of the design of Santa Anna to overrun the country, and expel or exterminate every white man within its borders. May I be permitted to ask of them in sober earnestness, "Why halt ye between two opinions. Your soil is again to be polluted by the footsteps of the hirelings of all unprincipled Despot! Will the freemen of Texas calmly fold their arms. and await until the approach of their deadly enemy compels them to protect their own firesides? Can it be possible that they-that any American-can so far forget the honour of their mothers wives, and daughters, as not to fly to their rifles, and march to meet the Tyrant, and avenge the insults and wrongs inflicted on his own country-women on the Rio Grande? What call be expected for the Fair daughters of chaste white women, when their own country-women are prostituted by a licensed soldiery, as an inducement to push forward into the Colonies, where they may find fairer game?

The question would seem to be useless; but when I tell you, that out of more than four hundred men at and near this post, I doubt if twenty-five citizens of Texas can be mustered in the ranks-nay, I am informed, whilst writing the above, that there is not half that number;-does not this fact bespeak all indifference, and criminal apathy, truly alarming? We calculate upon the service of our volunteer friends, to aid in the defence and protection of our soil. Do the citizens of Texas reflect for a moment, that these men, many of whom have served since November last, have not received the first cent's wages, and are now nearly naked, and many of them barefooted, or what is tantamount to it? Could they hear the just complaints and taunting remarks in regard to the absence of the old settlers and owners of the soil, and total neglect in the officers of the Government, not providing them with even the necessaries of life, this our main stay would not be so confidently relied on! Will you allow me to recommend the issuing of general orders, to be sent by express to every part of Texas, commanding the civic militia, under their present organization, to turn out, and march forthwith to the seat of war? At the same time call upon all volunteers to do the same, taking care to apprise our friends in the United States of our true situation, that a sufficient inducement may be held out to draw them to our standard, in this hour of trial. It is generally believed in the United States that the war is over, and indeed our own citizens seem to have indulged the same hope. We are now undeceived, and unless a turn out in mass be made, and that speedily, the force now in the field cannot keep the invaders in check long enough to prevent the fury of the war's being felt in the heart of the country-if ever Santa Anna crosses the Guadaloupe with 5,000 men, we have to fight east of the Brazos. if not the Trinity! I feel certain that, even in that event, his army would inevitably perish or surrender. But, should we not prevent such a dreadful catastrophe, and rally, to the rescue, every freeman of Texas? Evince your determination to live free or perish in the ditch.

In order to provide for the wants of the men, appoint contractors, and have established on the different routes west, depots, for beef, cattle, salt, &c., and such provisions as may be obtained, that the men may be pushed forward without delay.. to such points as may be deemed most exposed. In the mean time, I would respectfully recommend such measures be taken, as to form a corps of reserve on Colorado, at or between Bastrop and Gonzales, and also the Navidad and La Baca, in order to protect the settlers, and cover the advance, in case an enemy with a superior force should leave them in the rear, and march forward, calculating much upon our weakness and unprepared state of defence, and expecting much from our inexperience and division of forces, which might be dispersed in detail, and leave the country an easy prey to the arch-Tyrant. It is useless to controvert the fact that our true strength and geographical situation are well known to Santa Anna. This expedition against Texas has long since been determined by Santa Anna; and Colonel Almonte was sent to Texas for the express purpose of ascertaining these facts, which you will see from his report he faithfully executed. In order to meet all the exigencies, allow me to urge you not to permit too many cavalry. But few horsemen will be requisite on the west side of Guadaloupe; and experience has convinced me that the service will not be promoted by having any number of them: and extensive frauds, practised upon the government, in remuncrating the owners for property never lost or destroyed in the service, and not unfrequently sold several times, on private account."

[ELB]

1853 - The town of Seguin was officially incorporated. This South Texas seat of Guadalupe County saw settlement as early as the 1830s, and founders originally called the site Walnut Springs before changing the name to Seguin in honor of Tejano revolutionary and Texas Republic senator Juan Nepomuceno Seguín in 1839.
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Interesting. I'm sitting in Seguin as I read this.

[pushpullpete]

Thank you for this, quite a bit of work involved but knowing history is a good thing.

[joe817]

Thank you for this, quite a bit of work involved but knowing history is a good thing.

Thanks for the kind words pushpullpete! It's a labor of love.

Glad you are enjoying this look into our past. There's always something fascinating that happened on this day here in Texas. My biggest challenge every day, is deciding what to include and what not to.

[pushpullpete]

You are welcome Sir. While I am a recent transplant to Texas (a little over 4 yrs) I have roots here from my fathers side of the family and have always enjoyed history in general.