FORT BROWN (Houston County). Fort Brown was built around 1834 in northeastern Houston County by Reuben Brown for his wife Sarah (Parker) Brown and family and for others of the Daniel Parker family. Sarah was one of Daniel's daughters. Around 1833 the Parker family group had started from Illinois for Texas with the intention of organizing the Pilgrim Church there. The congregation settled for a time at the Reuben Brown Fort before moving on to the north and west, settling in what was still at that time Houston County (near what is now Elkhart in Anderson County).
| REPUBLIC OF TEXAS WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
Our Veterans
1835 - 1836 |
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Below are the three known ancestors / veterans that served in the Army of the Texas Republic; Stephen White Sr, his son Levi W White, and son-in-law, Sion Pritchard. |
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Stephen White Sr (son of Robert & Milly White) Born: 28 Apr 1786 Caswell Co NC Died: abt 1868 Houston Co TX (Last known residence) Click to View Original Records
Enlisted: Also in the Sep enlistment was his son Stephen is on the list of veterans who
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 The Alamo
At Stephen's peak he had 5244.00 acres |
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Pvt Levi
W White 2nd Regt 7th Infantry Company Capt Benjamin Franklin Bryant's Co Lieut's John C Hale & Archibald S Lewis
View Wm Pate's record - served with Levi Levi is on the Roster's at the Battle of San Jacinto TX
View Summary of
Levi's War Records and Grants
Victory for Texas
April 21, 1836, this tells me that Levi Enlisted: |
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Sion
Prichard
(Pritchard) (Married Stephen Sr's daughter Milly) Born: Unknown Died: 1848/1852 Houston Co TX Click to View Original Records
Enlisted: July 1st, 1836, in Austin County Texas Horatio's unit also served at San Jacinto, so Listed on the Military Rolls for Texas |
 Massacre at Goliad Texas |
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About the Unit and Officer CLAPP, ELISHA (ca. 1803-1856?). Elisha Clapp, soldier and farmer, was born in Tennessee about 1803 and immigrated to Texas in 1822; he settled at Nacogdoches. He enlisted in Capt. Henry Wax Karnes'sqv cavalry company on April 7, 1836, and participated in the battle of San Jacinto.qv Afterward he was detached to guard Mexican prisoners. He was discharged from the army on May 28, 1836. For his service Clapp received a labor of land in Houston County. On September 10, 1836, he was elected captain of a company of mounted rangers at his home at Mustang Prairie. Sam Houston, as commander in chief of the Texas army, ordered his company to "range from any point on the Brazos to Mr. Hall's Trading House on the Trinity" to intercept parties of raiding Indians. Clapp organized an expedition against the Ionie Indians, who, according to one settler, "have been committing some depredations in the horse stealing way" on the frontier. |
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| Levi W. White - Texas Revolution Records & Grants | |
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Note: Click her to View a comprehensive study of Levi's Time Line History Below is Information from
a Florida Researcher that claims that her Levi W White "Warning 'DO NOT EMAIL
THIS PERSON BELOW', unless you enjoy being scorned... *********************************************************************** B. Bryant Captain ======================================================== ======================================================== End of Deborah Biesbrock research. |
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| Sam Houston | |
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Here's a little quote From Sam Houston before the battle of San Jacinto...
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for this War - Independence from Mexico Become its own Country and Republic (1835-1836) 'Three Major Battles' Alamo - Goliad - San Jacinto |
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The Battle that Won Independence - April 21st, 1836 Levi W. White - Present at the Battle ".........waving his hat and shouting "San Jacinto! San Jacinto! The Mexicans are whipped and Santa Anna a prisoner." The scene that followed beggars description. People embraced, laughed and wept and prayed, all in one breath. As the moon rose over the vast flower-decked prairie, the soft southern wind carried peace to tired hearts and grateful slumber. As battles go, San Jacinto was but a skirmish; but with what mighty consequences! The lives and the liberty of a few hundred pioneers at stake and an empire won! Look to it, you Texans of today, with happy homes, mid fields of smiling plenty, that the blood of the Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto sealed forever . Texas, one and indivisible!-- Ms. Kate Scurry Terrell describing the scene among refugee families on the Sabine River. |
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SAN JACINTO, birthplace of Texas liberty! ... San Jacinto, one of the world’s decisive battles! . . . San Jacinto, where, with cries of "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" Sam Houston and his ragged band of 910 pioneers routed Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, President and Dictator of Mexico and self-styled "Napoleon of the West," with his proud army, and changed the map of North America! Here is a story that has thrilled Texans for more than a century ... a story of desperate valor and high adventure; of grim hardship, tragedy and romance ... the story of the epochal battle that established the independent Lone Star Republic, on April 21, 1836, and indelibly inscribed the names of Texas patriots on history's scroll of American immortals. The actual battle of San Jacinto lasted less than twenty minutes, but it was in the making for six years. It had its prelude in the oppressive Mexican edict of April 6, 1830, prohibiting further emigration of Anglo-Americans from the United States to Texas; in the disturbance at Anahuac and in the battle of Velasco, in 1832; in the imprisonment of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas," in Mexico in 1834. Immediate preliminaries were the 'skirmish over a cannon at Gonzales'; the capture of 'Goliad'; the "Grass Fight," and the 'siege and capture of San Antonio' . . . all in 1836. The Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, officially signalized the revolution. THE MEXICAN PURSUIT Flushed with their Alamo victory, the Mexican forces were following the colonists. Houston's scouts reported that General Ramirez y Sesma and General Adrian Woll were on the west side of the Colorado with approximately 725 troops and General Eugenio Tolso with 600. By this time recruits and reinforcements had increased Houston's army to a strength estimated as high as 1200. The chilling news of Fannin's defeat, reaching the Texas forces on March 25, impelled many to leave the ranks, to remove their families beyond the Sabine. Those remaining clamored for action, but Houston decided to continue his retreat. On the 26th, keeping his own counsel, he marched his army five miles. On the 27th the column reached the timbers of the Brazos River bottoms, and on the 28th arrived at San Felipe de Austin, on the west bank of the Brazos. On the 29th the army marched six miles up the river in a driving rain, and camped on Mill Creek. On the 30th after a fatiguing tramp of nine miles, the army reached a place across the river from "Bernardo," on one of the plantations of the wealthy Jared E. Groce, and there camped and drilled for nearly a fortnight. ON THE EVE OF BATTLE (San Jacinto) At dawn April 20 the Texans resumed their trek down the bayou, to intercept the Mexicans. At Lynch's ferry, near the juncture of Buffalo Bayou and San Jacinto River, they captured a boat laden with supplies for Santa Anna. This probably was some of the plunder of Harrisburg or New Washington. Ascertaining that none of the enemy forces had crossed, the Texans drew back about a mile on the Harrisburg road, and encamped in a skirt of timber protected by a rising ground. That afternoon, Colonel Sidney Sherman (left) with a small detachment of cavalry engaged the enemy infantry, almost bringing on a general action. In the clash two Texans were wounded---one of them, Olwyn J. Trask, mortally---and several horses were killed. In this preliminary skirmish Mirabeau B. Lamar, a private from Georgia (later President of the Republic of Texas), so distinguished himself that on the next day he was placed in command of the cavalry. Santa Anna's blue-uniformed army made camp under the high ground overlooking a marsh, about three-fourths of a mile from the Texas camp. They threw up breastworks of trunks, baggage, pack-saddles and other equipment. Both sides prepared for the expected conflict. The Texans awoke to find Thursday, April 21, a clear fine day. Refreshed by a breakfast of bread made with flour from the captured supplies and meat from beeves slaughtered the day before, they were eager to attack the enemy. They could see Santa Anna's flags floating over the enemy camp, and heard the Mexican bugle calls on the crisp morning air. It was discovered at about nine o'clock that General Martín Perfecto de Cos had crossed Vince's bridge, about eight miles behind the Texans' camp, with some 540 picked troops, swelling the enemy forces to about 1265. General Houston ordered "Deaf" Smith and a detail to destroy the bridge and prevent further enemy reinforcements. This also would prevent the retreat of either the Texans or the Mexicans toward Harrisburg. In dry weather Vince's Bayou was about fifty feet wide and ten feet deep, but the excessive April rains bad made it several times wider and deeper. [With "Deaf" Smith in the detail that destroyed the bridge were Young P. Alsbury, John Coker, John Garner, Moses Lapham, Edwin R. Rainwater and Dimer W. Reaves.] General Houston disposed his forces in battle order at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Over on the Mexican side all was quiet; many of the foemen were enjoying their customary siesta. The Texans' movements were screened by the trees and the rising ground, and evidently Santa Anna had no lookouts posted. Big, shaggy and commanding in his mud-stained unmilitary garb, the chieftain rode his horse up and down the line. "Now hold your fire, men," he warned in his deep voice, "until you get the order!" At the command, "Advance," the patriots, 910 strong, moved quickly out of the woods and over the rise, deploying. Bearded and ragged from forty days in the field, they were a fierce-looking band. But their long rifles were clean and well oiled. Only one company, Captain William Wood's "Kentucky Rifles," originally recruited by Sidney Sherman, wore uniforms. [In his official report of the battle, April 25, 1836, Houston said 783 Texans took part. Yet in a roster published later he listed 845 officers and men at San Jacinto, and by oversight omitted Captain Alfred H. Wyly's Company. In a Senate speech February 28, 1859, Houston said his effective force never exceeded 700 at any point. Conclusive evidence in official records brings the total number at San Jacinto up to 910.] The battle line was formed with Edward Burleson's (photo left) regiment in the center; Sherman's on the left wing; the artillery, under George W. Hockley, on Burleson's right; the infantry, under Henry Millard, on the right of the artillery; and the cavalry, led by Lamar, on the extreme right |
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The
San Jacinto Battleground |
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Silently and tensely the Texas battle line swept across the prairie and swale that was No Man's land, the men bending low. A soldier's fife piped up with "Will You Come to the Bower," a popular tune of the day. That was the only music of the battle. [Several veterans of the battle said the tune played was "Yankee Doodle."] As the, troops advanced, "Deaf" Smith galloped up and told Houston, "Vince's bridge has been cut down." The General announced it to the men. Now both armies were cut off from retreat in all directions but one, by a roughly circular moat formed by Vince's and Buffalo Bayous to the west and north, San Jacinto River to the north and cast, and by the marshes and the bay to the east and southeast. At close range, the two little cannon, drawn by rawhide thongs, were wheeled into position and belched their charges of iron slugs into the enemy barricade. Then the whole line, led by Sherman's men, sprang forward on the run, yelling, "Remember the Alamo!" "Remember Goliad!" All together they opened fire, blazing away practically point-blank at the surprised and panic-stricken Mexicans. They stormed over the breastworks, seized the enemy's artillery, and joined in hand-to-hand combat, emptying their pistols, swinging their guns as clubs, slashing right and left with their knives. Mexicans fell by the scores under the impact of the savage assault. General Manuel Fernández Castrillón, a brave Mexican, tried to rally the swarthy Latins, but he was killed and his men became crazed with fright. Many threw down their guns and ran; many wailed, "Me no Alamo!" "Me no Goliad!" But their pleas won no mercy. The enraged revolutionists reloaded and chased after the stampeding enemy, shooting them, stabbing them, clubbing them to death. From the moment of the first collision the battle was a slaughter, frightful to behold. The fugitives ran in wild terror over the prairie and into the boggy marshes, but the avengers of the Alamo and Goliad followed and slew them, or drove them into the waters to drown. Men and horses, dead and dying, in the morass in the rear and right of the Mexican camp, formed a bridge for the pursuing Texans. Blood reddened the water. General Houston tried to check the execution but the fury of his men was beyond restraint. Some of the Mexican cavalry tried to escape over Vince's bridge, only to find that the bridge was gone. In desperation, some of the flying horsemen spurred their mounts down the steep bank; some dismounted and plunged into the swollen stream. The Texans came up and poured a deadly fire into the welter of Mexicans struggling with the flood. Escape was virtually impossible. General Houston rode slowly from the field of victory, his ankle shattered by a rifle ball. At the foot of the oak where he bad slept the previous night be fainted and slid from his horse into the arms of Major Hockley, his chief of staff. As the crowning stroke of a glorious day, General Rusk presented to him as a prisoner the Mexican general Don Juan Almonte, who had surrendered formally with about 400 men. The casualties, according to Houston's official report, numbered 630 Mexicans killed, 208 wounded, and 730 taken prisoner. As against this heavy score, only nine Texans were killed or mortally wounded, and thirty wounded less seriously. Most of their injuries came from the first scattered Mexican volley when the attackers stormed their barricade. The Texans captured a large supply of muskets, pistols, sabers, mules, horses, provisions, clothing, tents and paraphernalia, and $12,000 in silver. THE CAPTURE OF SANTA ANNA Santa Anna had disappeared during the battle, and next day General Houston ordered a thorough search of the surrounding territory for him. In the afternoon Sergeant J. A. Sylvester spotted a Mexican slipping through the woods toward Vince's Bayou. Sylvester and his comrades caught the fugitive trying to hide in the high grass. He wore a common soldier's apparel round jacket, blue cotton pantaloons, skin cap and soldier's shoes. [With Sylvester in the capture of Santa Anna were Joel W. Robinson, Joseph D. Vermillion, Alfred H. Miles and David Cole.] They took the captive to camp, and on the way, Mexican prisoners recognized him and cried, "El Presidente!" Thus his identity was betrayed; it was indeed the dictator from below the Rio Grande. He was brought to General Houston, who lay under the headquarters oak, nursing his wounded foot. The Mexican President pompously announced, "I am General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, and a prisoner of war at your disposition." General Houston, suffering with pain, received him coldly. He sent for young Moses Austin Bryan and Lorenzo de Zavala Jr. to act as interpreters. Santa Anna cringed with fright as the excited Texas soldiers pressed around him, fearing mob violence. He pleaded for the treatment due a prisoner of war. "You can afford to be generous," he whined; "you have captured the Napoleon of the 'West." "What claim have you to mercy?" Houston retorted, "when you showed none at the Alamo or at Goliad?" They talked for nearly two hours, using Bryan, de Zavala and Almonte as interpreters. In the end Santa Anna agreed to write an order commanding all Mexican troops to evacuate Texas. Later, treaties were signed at Velasco, looking to the adjustment of all differences and the recognition of Texas independence. Thus ended the revolution of 1836, with an eighteen-minute battle which established Texas as a free republic and opened the way for the United States to extend its boundaries to the Rio Grande on the southwest and to the Pacific on the west. Few military engagements in history have been more decisive or of more far-reaching ultimate influence than the battle of San Jacinto. |
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