The tide of war never really rolled near to East Texas. For a time
General Sam Houston was accused of intending to flee through Nacogdoches
to the Sabine, where an American army was supposed to be expecting him,
but he had other designs, which were consummated on the field of San
Jacinto, and the danger was dispelled. East Texas, however, did suffer
the throes of a paroxysm of panic. It was known that Mexican agents were
dispersed among the Cherokee and other Indians north of the settlements.
Reports, highly colored no doubt, were disseminated that these Indians
were about to move in an overwhelming body on the unprotected
settlements, whose men were in the field against the Mexican army, and
wipe out town and countryside alike. Fugitives from the devastated West,
passing through, helped to spread the terror, and so it happened that
the “Run-Away Scrape” came to include both Nacogdoches and San Augustine
in the frantic flight to safety beyond the Sabine.