To all whom it may concern:
Having received instructions from General Leavenworth to take
possession for the United States, for the purpose of supplying fuel
for the garrison, of all public land within three miles of the
flagstaff of Fort Jesup; all persons having a “donation or
pre-emption” claim are hereby ordered to vacate the said premises
immediately, or at the earliest possible date, otherwise they will be
dealt with according to the law.
Signed: Francis Lee
Acting Assistant Quartermaster
U. S. Army
Fort Jesup, Louisiana, 7th November, 1831.
XVI
TEXAS AND INDEPENDENCE
1831-1836
James Bowie, David Crockett and Sam Houston were entertained at Fort
Jesup by Colonel Many while en-route to cast their lot with the Texans.
To greet these men in Nacogdoches were Thomas J. Busk, Frost Thorn,
Adolphus Sterne, Charles S. Taylor, Henry Raguet, Doctor Irion, John
Drust and William C. Logan, all of whom were to have a hand in winning
the Texas independence.
The municipality of San Augustine was organized in 1833, and was the
first town in Texas to be laid out on the American plan of forty-eight
blocks, consisting of three hundred fifty-six feet with streets forty
feet wide, and two lots in the center for the Courthouse.
The history of San Augustine dates back to the very earliest Texas
history, with its location astraddle the El Camino Real, previously the
Buffalo Trail and then part of the Caddo Indian trail system. Cabeza de
Vaca passed this spot and later a scouting party of the Hernando de Soto
expedition. The Ais (Ayist) Indians were there to greet the Domingo
Teran Del Rios Expedition and then the Domingo Ramone Expedition. The
Ais Indians of San Augustine were the first Texas Indians to establish
trade agreements with the French, when in 1708 the Frenchman, Bejoux,
began trading with them for horses.
San Augustine became a most important port of entry, second only to
Galveston. It may very well be called the Cradle of Texas Independence
for it is said that any man entering San Augustine, be he French,
Spanish or American, became a Texan. Ninety percent of the men who
engaged in the strife for Texas independence had walked the streets of
San Augustine.
[Illustration: Fort St. Jean Baptiste Des Natchitoches.
Restoration of Colonial Natchitoches, Inc.
BUTLER & DOBSON, AIA
ARCHITECTS NATCHITOCHES
This interpretation of how Fort St. Jean Baptiste looked was drawn
by the architects, Butler and Dobson of Natchitoches, for the
Committee for the Restoration of Colonial Natchitoches, Inc.
It is my sincere hope that this restoration will be executed by the
year 1964 when Natchitoches will in that year celebrate her 250th
anniversary.
To the Frenchmen of that period, the title, Fort St. Jean Baptiste
des Natchitoches, meant that the Fort or Post was named for St. John
The Baptist and that its location was among the Natchitoches
Indians.
It was this Fort which St. Denis defended against the Natchez
Indians in 1731.]
[Illustration: Old Kitchen of Fort Jesup—only remaining building of
the original fort]
The progress of the struggle for Texas independence was watched with
keenest interest throughout the United States, but the interest south of
the Mason-Dixon line was greater as most of the Texas settlers came from
the Southern states.
Louis Cass, the Secretary of War, on January 23, 1835, sent instructions
to Major General Edmund P. Gaines, ordering him to move to a position
nearer the western frontier of Louisiana, and to assume personal command
of the troops near the Mexican (Texas) border. Blockhouses were erected
to protect the supplies of the personnel of the camp. General Gaines
took personal command of the troops there.
The Red River by the year 1835 had changed its course and taken the
Bayou Rigolet de Bon Dieux as its main channel, leaving Natchitoches
high and dry except during the spring and winter months. The river port
of Grand Ecore then became the most important shipping port for the
southwestern area of Louisiana and eastern Texas. The Texas trail now
by-passed Natchitoches some four miles to the west, connecting it with
Grand Ecore.
General Gaines wrote of the decaying condition of the buildings at Fort
Jesup, and acquired a twenty-five thousand dollar appropriation for
their repair through the help of Thomas S. Jesup, Quartermaster General
of the United States, who had been given the honor of having Fort Jesup
named after him.
General Gaines possessed a war-like nature and he nourished the idea of
annexing Texas in one blaze of glory for himself. Further, he knew that
President Andrew Jackson wanted Texas as a part of the United States.
Gaines, in a letter to Cass, stated that B. F. Palmer and William
Palmer, living near Fort Jesup, had informed him that a Spaniard had
arrived at the house of one of their neighbors, saying he had been
commissioned by Santa Anna to go among the Caddos and other upper Red
River tribes of Indians and stir them up into attacking the upper
settlements of Texas. Gaines had sent Lieutenant Bonnel with Eusebia
Cartinez, to gain the good will of the Caddos without success. But they
were successful among the Indians further to the west of the Caddos.
They learned that Manuel Flores, who had established at Spanish-Town
between Fort Jesup and Natchitoches, won alliances with the Caddos.
Enclosed in the letter were communications from Henry Raguet, Chairman
of the Committee of Vigilance at Nacogdoches and A. Hotchkiss, Chairman
of a similar committee at San Augustine, both declaring that Indians had
moved into the area along El Camino Real and requesting an
investigation.
Cass was informed that the Alamo had fallen and many of the troops,
including Fannin, were killed near Goliad on the Madina River and that
Sam Houston was in full retreat toward the Louisiana border.
Gaines now received orders to use his own judgment about the affairs on
the frontier, and that if he had to go into the Texas territory to
insure the peace of the frontier, he could go no further than
Nacogdoches.
Gaines was still at Sabine Blockhouse when word came that on April 18,
1836, Sam Houston had defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto Bay. Thus
Gaines’ chance for glory was gone. However, he must be credited with a
timely move, when a few weeks before he had ordered troops to
Nacogdoches, thus spoiling the counterpunch attempted by Santa Anna to
stir up the Indians. This, without a doubt, quelled the prospective
uprising of the Indians.