This Day In Texas History - March 4

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1792 - John William Smith, christened William John Smith and also known as El Colorado, the last messenger from the Alamo and the first mayor of San Antonio, was born in Virginia on March 4, 1792, the son of John and Isabel Smith. In 1826 Smith followed the empresario Green DeWitt to Texas. When his wife refused to join him, he parted from his family, after extracting a promise for a divorce. He lived in Gonzales, then in La Bahía, and by 1827 had moved to San Antonio, where he changed his name to John William Smith because it was easier for Spanish speakers to pronounce. In December 1835 he escaped the occupying Mexican army of Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos and joined Gen. Edward Burleson and the Texas army in besieging San Antonio.

Smith used his familiarity with the town and his surveying skills to draw the detailed plat that made possible the successful house-to-house attack; he also acted as a guide for one of the assaulting parties. In early 1836 he joined William B. Travis in defense of the Alamo; he was sent by Travis as the final messenger to the Convention of 1836. Subsequently Smith continued as an army scout and participated in the battle of San Jacinto. He died on January 12, 1845, after a brief illness, possibly pneumonia, at Washington-on-the-Brazos and was buried at the site of the current Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site. His remains were later relocated to the Washington City Cemetery, where they are marked by a stone monument.

1836 - Sam Houston is appointed Major General of the Army of the Republic of Texas including regular, volunteer, and militia. Houston takes command immediately and begins to organize the army.

1846 - A vanguard of sixty men under Maj. William Graham from Gen. Zachary Taylor's army of occupation, was dispatched to the crossing on Santa Gertrudis Creek to establish a supply depot for the main army which would follow. Called Taylor's Trail, it was one of the most important paths of conquest used by an American army on American soil. Composed of nearly 4,000 troops, Taylor's army marched 174 miles in twenty days during March 1846, along a route from Corpus Christi to the bank of the Rio Grande opposite Matamoros.

1846 - William H. McCulloch, stage line owner, was born on November 6, 1819, in Montgomery County. McCulloch had arrived in Texas before 1842 and applied for a 320-acre headright as a single man, which he received on March 4, 1846, but sold on March 31, 1846. William and his wife, Sarah Ann McCulloch, settled in Grimes County on 300 acres. They had one daughter. McCulloch became a partner with his brother-in-law, John S. Harrison (who had married his sister Martha Jane McCulloch in 1847), in the Harrison & McCulloch Stage Lines, and, probably in 1848, the McCullochs moved to Victoria, where Harrison operated the Victoria Hotel. Harrison & McCulloch advertised a newly-established stage line from Indian Point to Victoria in November 1848. McCulloch ran the following advertisement announcing a new stage line in Victoria’s Texian Advocate on January 11, 1850:

Wm. H. McCulloch informs the public that he has commenced running a good four-horse stage between Indianola and Victoria, for the accommodation of the traveling community. His stage is strong and comfortable and being well covered, passengers will be securely protected from rain and cold. He will leave Indianola immediately after the arrival of the steamer and arrive at Victoria in time to connect with the stage for San Antonio. Returning will leave Victoria after the arrival of the stage from San Antonio. A liberal share of the traveling custom is respectfully solicited.. By 1851 Harrison & McCulloch had added a postal route (Route 6285) in New Braunfels; the United States Post Office had awarded them the contract for Route 6285 on May 11, 1850. Their enterprise ran a total of three routes—6285, 6154, and 6155—from Austin through San Antonio to Port Lavaca and back up through Victoria to Gonzales to New Braunfels. McCulloch had moved to San Antonio by 1851. The Harrison & McCulloch Stage Stop which sits on the access road along Interstate 35 at Evans Road in Selma, Texas, northeast of San Antonio, was declared a State Archeological Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission in October 2000.

1855 - The Second United States Cavalry, one of four new regiments approved by Congress, was organized specifically for service on the Texas frontier. It was an elite organization. The troopers rode the finest horses and were issued the latest equipment and firearms. The officers were handpicked by Jefferson Davis, secretary of war for President Franklin Pierce. Thus the regiment was known as "Jeff Davis's Own." Most of the officers, like Davis, were West Point graduates and southerners. The regiment was known for the outstanding quality of the sixteen general officers it produced in the 6½ years of its existence. Eleven of these became Confederate generals, and the Second Cavalry supplied one-half, or four, of the full generals of the Confederate Army-Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Edmund Kirby Smith, and John Bell Hood.

1904 - The Batson-Old oilfield, located on Pine Bayou in southwestern Hardin County, reached its peak daily production. That day the field yielded more than 150,000 barrels of crude. Along with the Spindletop, Sour Lake, and Humble fields, Batson helped to establish the Texas oil industry. Batson field was first drilled in 1903 and was still producing in its tenth decade when its cumulative production reached more than 45 million barrels in 1993.

1933 - John Nance Garner of Texas left his position as speaker of the House to become vice president of the United States. Garner was born in 1868 in a log cabin near Detroit, Texas. He was admitted to the bar in 1890 and moved to Uvalde.

1941 - The Texas legislature passed a bill legalizing the teaching of Spanish in public schools, which ended the state's English-only policy adopted in 1917.

1944 - Neel E. Kearby, Medal of Honor recipient, had just claimed his twenty-second victory, when he was shot down on March 4, 1944, over Wewak, New Guinea. He was born in 1911 in Wichita Falls.

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The Battle Of The Alamo - Siege Chronology -

Day Eleven – Friday March 4, 1836

Santa Anna gathers his officers for a council of war.

It is decided that when the final assault takes place, that they will take no prisoners. The time for the assault will be determined tomorrow.

Having been consolidated into two batteries, the Mexican artillery, is brought to within 200 yards of the compound.

More Texian reinforcements arrive in the late hours.