Details
[TEXAS, WAR OF INDEPENDENCE]. GREEN, Rawleigh B. Two autograph letters signed to his brother, William in Virginia, Vicksburg, 29 March and 3-4 April 1836. Together 12 pages, 4to, closely written in a clear hand, address panels on versos. Fine condition. NEWS OF THE FALL OF THE ALAMO: A VIVID CONTEMPORARY REPORT
Green moved from Virginia to the west to practice law; arriving in Texas at the beginning of the Texan revolt he sought but failed to obtain a commission in the Texan army, then returned to Mississippi. His two extensive and unpublished letters testify to the confused and often romanticized accounts circulating in the wake of the March 6 fall of the Alamo. 24 March: "...The condition of Texas is now calamitous indeed...unprepared for the army now invading her...& she has not the semblance of an army in the field. One division of the Mexican army marched upon San Antonio...Bexar was defended by not more than two hundred....However, the Americans repulsed the Mexicans on the first assault and killed five hundred of them...reinforcements came pouring in to the Mexicans who soon made a second attack on the place and carried it...they took no prisoners except one lady the wife of Lieut. Dixon...this lady is in the possession of a Mexican officer who I imagine has little respect for her chastity...The Mexicans hung out a red flag after their victory from the church...The Texians have lost their best man--big Jim Bowie, when the Americans were all slain except a very small remnant. Bowie who was sick and could take no part in the fight shot himself. Travis another of the best men of Texas stabbed himself, and Davy Crockett was killed fighting - so Davy is gone at last - all this information comes from a very authentic source...yet some of the particulars I fancy must be conjectural, such as the manner of Bowie's death and the others and what I omitted to mention...that Lieutenant Dixon leapt from the church steeple with his child in his arms and destroyed himself and his child...Genl. Houston maintains that he has received no official account of the...battle...but how did he...get his information[?]. The Mexicans spared no lives, no fugitive could escape...What now is the condition of Texas?..." Green goes on to consider the military prospects for the Texans, "not an army but a mob, a brave one," and reports that a friend in Washington has assured him negotiations for the sale of Texas by Mexico are still underway. Green is skeptical: "But if it be true that the Mexicans will sell Texas why do they war against it?..." He proposes various land speculation schemes to his brother. 3 April 1836: More on land deals on the Washita and Achefelaya: "the public lands...will be such as a capitalist could purchase to advantage"; these are "certainly a good investment unless the abolition questions should...affect it." In Texas, he thinks, lands can be bought very cheaply. "New Orleans is full of Texian refugees. Bowie did not kill himself, he was shot in his bed..." (2)
Green moved from Virginia to the west to practice law; arriving in Texas at the beginning of the Texan revolt he sought but failed to obtain a commission in the Texan army, then returned to Mississippi. His two extensive and unpublished letters testify to the confused and often romanticized accounts circulating in the wake of the March 6 fall of the Alamo. 24 March: "...The condition of Texas is now calamitous indeed...unprepared for the army now invading her...& she has not the semblance of an army in the field. One division of the Mexican army marched upon San Antonio...Bexar was defended by not more than two hundred....However, the Americans repulsed the Mexicans on the first assault and killed five hundred of them...reinforcements came pouring in to the Mexicans who soon made a second attack on the place and carried it...they took no prisoners except one lady the wife of Lieut. Dixon...this lady is in the possession of a Mexican officer who I imagine has little respect for her chastity...The Mexicans hung out a red flag after their victory from the church...The Texians have lost their best man--big Jim Bowie, when the Americans were all slain except a very small remnant. Bowie who was sick and could take no part in the fight shot himself. Travis another of the best men of Texas stabbed himself, and Davy Crockett was killed fighting - so Davy is gone at last - all this information comes from a very authentic source...yet some of the particulars I fancy must be conjectural, such as the manner of Bowie's death and the others and what I omitted to mention...that Lieutenant Dixon leapt from the church steeple with his child in his arms and destroyed himself and his child...Genl. Houston maintains that he has received no official account of the...battle...but how did he...get his information[?]. The Mexicans spared no lives, no fugitive could escape...What now is the condition of Texas?..." Green goes on to consider the military prospects for the Texans, "not an army but a mob, a brave one," and reports that a friend in Washington has assured him negotiations for the sale of Texas by Mexico are still underway. Green is skeptical: "But if it be true that the Mexicans will sell Texas why do they war against it?..." He proposes various land speculation schemes to his brother. 3 April 1836: More on land deals on the Washita and Achefelaya: "the public lands...will be such as a capitalist could purchase to advantage"; these are "certainly a good investment unless the abolition questions should...affect it." In Texas, he thinks, lands can be bought very cheaply. "New Orleans is full of Texian refugees. Bowie did not kill himself, he was shot in his bed..." (2)