This Day In Texas History - March 16

[joe817]

1684 - San Clemente Mission was established near present day Ballinger.

1758 - Some 2,000 Comanches and allied North Texas Indians descended on Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá, on the San Saba River near the present site of Menard. The mission had been established the previous year to Christianize the eastern Apaches. The attackers killed two priests, Fray Alonso Giraldo de Terreros and Fray José de Santiesteban Aberín, and six others, then looted and set fire to the log stockade. In late summer 1759 Col. Diego Ortiz Parrilla, commander of the nearby Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas, undertook a military campaign to punish the Norteños but suffered an ignominious defeat near the site of present-day Spanish Fort(in northern Montague county,between Gainesville & Wichita Falls). With French firearms and Spanish horses, the northern tribes now constituted a stronger force than the Spaniards themselves could muster. The attack on the mission marked the beginning of warfare in Texas between the Comanches and the European invaders and signaled retreat for the Spanish frontier.

1836 - The ad interim government of Texas operated from March 16 to October 22, 1836. The Convention of 1836 declared independence and framed the Constitution of the Republic of Texas, but the advance of the Mexican army made immediate ratification and establishment of constitutional government impossible. The last act of the convention was the selection of an ad interim government with David G. Burnet, president; Lorenzo de Zavala, vice president; Samuel P. Carson, secretary of state; Bailey Hardeman, secretary of treasury; Thomas J. Rusk, secretary of war; Robert Potter, secretary of the navy; and David Thomas,attorney general. This temporary government, without any legislative or judicial departments, fled with the people in the Runaway Scrape and was located successively at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston Island, Velasco, and Columbia; nevertheless, it continued to function until regular elections could be held and the constitution ratified. One of its major concerns was controlling the revolutionary army and dealing with low supplies and morale.

1836 - William Bryan, an agent of the Republic of Texas in New Orleans, took official possession of two cannons and their attendant equipment for Texas. [Note: This is a fascinating piece of history of what became known as the "Twin Sisters", and will be described in a later post]

1861 - Following a 3-1 vote by Texans to secede from the Union, Governor Sam Houston is forced to resign. He has consistently resisted the efforts to secede and refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America. Houston left Austin, and returned to Huntsville where the lived out the rest of his life.

1894 - John Wesley Hardin was pardoned, and admitted to the bar. He had served 16 years of a 25 year sentence at Huntsville for the murder of Charles Webb. One year later, in 1895 in El Paso, Hardin himself would be killed by a man Hardin hired to kill his lover's husband. It seems the man was never paid for the hit.

1903 - Judge Roy Bean took the train to San Antonio and drank himself almost into a coma. Friends of the Judge carried him back to his makeshift courthouse, the Jersey Lilly, and put him to bed. Judge Roy Bean died peacefully in his sleep on this date in 1903.

1916 - Gen.John J. Pershing's 50,000 man army punitive expedition crossed the Rio Grande at Columbus and entered Chihuahua in search of the border bandit Pancho Villa.

1939 - Carol O'Brien Sobieski, television and film writer, was born in Chicago, Illinois. When she was five the family moved to the Frying Pan Ranch in the Texas Panhandle near Amarillo. In 1964 she was hired as a scriptwriter for the television series "Mr. Novak." She also wrote scripts for "The Mod Squad" and "Peyton Place." Her writing credits for television movies included The Neon Ceiling, Sunshine,Sunshine Christmas, Amelia Earhart, and Harry Truman: Plain Speaking. In the 1980s Sobieski became known for her film screenplays, which included Annie, Winter People, Honeysuckle Rose and Fried Green Tomatoes.

[joe817]

The Saga of the "Twin Sisters"

On November 17, 1835, after Francis Smith convinced the people of Cincinnati, Ohio, to aid the cause of the Texas Revolution, the Ohioans began raising funds to procure two cannons and their attendant equipment for Texas. Since the United States was taking an official stance of neutrality toward the rebellion in Texas, the citizens of Cincinnati referred to their cannon as "hollow ware."

Two guns, probably six pounders, were manufactured at the foundry of Greenwood and Webb in Cincinnati and then shipped down the Mississippi to New Orleans. William Bryan, an agent of the Republic of Texas in New Orleans, took official possession of the guns on March 16, 1836. From New Orleans the guns were placed on the schooner Pennsylvania and taken to Galveston Island. For some reason they were not accompanied by their limbers and ammunition, perhaps because the dangerous military situation in the republic did not allow for any delays. The cannons arrived in Galveston at the beginning of April 1836.

On board the Pennsylvania was the family of Dr. Charles Rice, who was moving to Texas. Upon arrival in Galveston the guns were presented to representatives of Texas under the sponsorship of Dr. Rice's twin daughters, Elizabeth and Eleanor. Someone in the crowd made notice of the fact that there were two sets of twins in the presentation, the girls and the guns, and thus the cannons became the Twin Sisters.

After several unsuccessful attempts to get the Twin Sisters to the Texas army under Sam Houston, which was retreating toward the Sabine before the forces of Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Twins finally reached the army on April 11, 1836. A thirty-man artillery "corps" was immediately formed to service the guns, the only artillery with the Texas army, and placed under the command of Lt. Col. James Clinton Neill. Only nine days later the Twin Sisters saw their first action during a skirmish between the armies of Houston and Santa Anna on April 20. In this fight Neill was wounded, and command of the guns passed to George W. Hockley.

The next day, April 21, 1836, saw the battle of San Jacinto and the securing of fame for the Twin Sisters. That afternoon near the banks of Buffalo Bayou the Texas army struck at Santa Anna's unsuspecting troops. The Twins were probably near the center of the Texans' line of battle and ten yards in advance of the infantry.

Their first shots were fired at a distance of 200 yards, and their fire was credited with helping to throw the Mexican force into confusion and significantly aiding the infantry attack. During this battle the Twins fired handfuls of musket balls, broken glass, and horseshoes, as this was the only ammunition the Texans had for the guns. Among the crews serving the guns were several men who later made prominent names for themselves in Texas history, including Benjamin McCulloch, a future Confederate general who helped bring the Twins back from oblivion in 1860.

In 1840 the Twins were reported to have been moved, along with other military stores, to Austin, where on April 21, 1841, they were fired in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto. When Sam Houston was inaugurated as president of the republic that year, the twins were fired as Houston kissed the Bible after taking the oath of office.

Little is known about them after this. In 1845 Texas was annexed by the United States. Under the terms of annexation the state was to cede to the federal government "all fortifications, barracks, ports and harbors, navy and navy yards, docks, magazines, arms, armaments, and all other property and means pertaining to the public defense." Historians have questioned whether the Twin Sisters, which were by 1845 considered to be historical relics with little military value, were in fact turned over to the United States. But evidence indicates that they were, and certainly the government of Texas and its citizens believed that they had been. All Texas military stores were removed to the federal arsenal at Baton Rouge, including the Twins, and there they remained unnoticed and neglected for fifteen years.

Then came the election of Abraham Lincoln and the secession crisis. Even before Texas called the Secession Convention, men were beginning to think about preparing for war. McCulloch, recalling his service with the Twin Sisters at San Jacinto, thought that these guns should once again be on Texas soil. He wrote to Governor Houston informing him of the current status of the Twins. Houston agreed and wrote to the United States secretary of war asking for the return of the Twins. Before action could be taken on this matter, however, Texas had seceded from the Union.

The Texas Secession Convention appointed a commission to ask Louisiana for the return of the Twin Sisters, but inquiries showed that the cannons had been sold to a foundry in Baton Rouge as scrap iron some years before. George Williamson, commissioner for Louisiana to the state of Texas, discovered that one of the guns was still at the foundry, although in poor condition, and that the other had been bought by a private citizen in Iberville Parish. Having found the cannons, Williamson asked the Louisiana legislature to purchase and repair them before presenting them to the state of Texas. The Louisianans passed an appropriation of $700 to "procure the guns, mount the same in a handsome manner," and forward them to Texas. The guns arrived on April 20, 1861, the twenty-fifth anniversary of their original firing.

The Twins next appeared during the battle of Galveston, January 1, 1863. Lt. Sidney A. Sherman, son of Texas revolutionary hero Sidney Sherman, was killed while in command of one of the Twin Sisters at that battle. After the recapture of Galveston the Twins once again disappeared until November 30, 1863, when Maj. A. G. Dickinson, commander of the Confederate post at San Antonio, reported that they were in the rebel arsenal at Austin, although in very poor condition. On February 8, 1864, Lt. Walter W. Blow wrote to Col. John S. (Rip) Ford, who was preparing an expedition to recapture the Rio Grande from invading federal troops, that he was preparing to send the Twins to San Antonio so that they could accompany Ford's command.

However, there is no certainty that the cannons actually accompanied Ford on his campaign. Blow's February 1864 report is the last official and certain mention of the Twin Sisters. There are various stories as to their fate at the end of the war. One of the most intriguing and plausible is that a group of Confederates led by Henry North Graves buried the guns to prevent their removal by Union forces in August 1865 somewhere in either Houston or Harrisburg. Graves's story is backed up by the diary account of a Union soldier, M. A. Sweetman, who reported having seen the Twins near Market Square in Houston on July 30, 1865.

He recognized them by the presentation plaques attached to them by the state of Louisiana when they were returned to Texas in 1861. However, this report, like all others regarding the final fate of the Twins, has never been conclusively proved. To this day the Twin Sisters' final resting place remains a favorite Texas mystery.

[from The Handbook of Texas Online]

[ELB]

Very interesting, about the Twin Sisters. If they were buried anywhere near the 19th century Houston, they've probably been long paved over by the 20th century Houston.

Speaking of the fate of cannons, does anyone know the fate of the "Come and Take It" cannon of Gonzalez? I was visiting Gonzalez yesterday and got to thinking about the flag and the cannon. I didn't see it on display anywhere, and can't recall reading about its disposition after Gonzalez defied the Mexican military...

??

[joe817]

From the Handbook of Texas Online:

"Although what happened to the "Come and Take It" cannon is not known, still another, and probably more likely scenario, resulted from actions of the Mexican army after the fall of the Alamo, when Antonia López de Santa Anna's troops melted down an unknown number of bronze guns. The Gonzales cannon may have been one of these."

For another fascinating read:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/onli ... /qvg1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you use the "search" function you can google and find just about anything that has anything to do with Texas.

[cougartex]

Thanks for posting, very interesting.

[LaserTex]

Not at all - the fate of the Gonzales Cannon is very well known. A frined and I visited the museum last month. The curator will show you all the proof you need. "The" cannon is where it needs to be...in the Gonazales Texas Musuem. (NEEDs you to visit...and donate. A LOT!)

Re: This Day In Texas History - February 16
by LaserTex » Tue Feb 16, 2010 5:15 pm

Because of your Texas History column, I finally took the trip to Gonzales. Folks, that place needs the help so if you find you have time and can shot over to spend a hour listening to the curator tell his tales, drop a $1, $5, or $10 in the bucket. He's got A LOT of work to do..

Doug

And Happy Birthday Oldgringo!!

Doug

[ELB]

Not at all - the fate of the Gonzales Cannon is very well known. A frined and I visited the museum last month. The curator will show you all the proof you need. "The" cannon is where it needs to be...in the Gonazales Texas Musuem. (NEEDs you to visit...and donate. A LOT!)

Aha. The Museum is closed on Mondays, so I didn't stop in.

[LaserTex]

True dat! I saw that. It is smaller than I thought. 400 lbs for the cannon with a ton of wod to carry it. Tactically - mule to carry cannon and find a huge log to strap to when you get somewhere.

Doug

[LaserTex]

Either way - THE cannon has been proven found.

Doug