This Day In Texas History - August 13

[joe817]

1836 - Henry Mason Morfit wrote the first of a series of ten letters about Texas to President Andrew Jackson. Morfit, a State Department employee, had been sent to Texas to report on the strengths and weaknesses of the new republic. Texas officials knew that U.S. recognition of Texas independence was vital to the republic's survival. That recognition hinged, however, upon the new country's ability to stave off possible Mexican efforts at reconquest. Morfit was doubtful that Texas would be able to do this, and he reported to Jackson accordingly. He stated that the Texas population was small, that the new republic was in serious debt, that there was a vast area of disputed jurisdiction, and that independence was far from secure. In December, Jackson referred to Morfit's pessimistic report as he handed the decision over to the U.S. Congress. The following spring, however, Powhatan Ellis, U.S. minister to Mexico, reported to the U.S. Congress that Mexico was suffering from anarchy, revolution, and bankruptcy, and that the Mexicans could not possibly invade Texas. Whereupon, on March 1, 1837, the United States sent a "diplomatic agent," Alcée Louis La Branche, as chargé d'affaires to the Republic of Texas. This diplomatic recognition was but one step leading eventually to annexation.

1870 - Limestone and San Jacinto counties are chartered by the State legislature.

1906 - Black soldiers of the Twenty-fifth U.S. Infantry allegedly attacked citizens of Brownsville. The event resulted in the largest summary dismissals in the history of the United States Army. On November 5 President Theodore Roosevelt discharged "without honor" all 167 enlisted men garrisoned at Fort Brown. This action fueled political and "due process" arguments for more than sixty years. In 1972 the Nixon administration awarded honorable discharges, without back pay, to the soldiers involved.

1912 - Future golf legend, Ben Hogan was born in Stephenville, Texas.

1995 - Baseball legend, Mickey Mantle dies of cancer at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. Following his retirement, Mantle eventually settled in Dallas, where the Mickey Mantle foundation is currently located.