Generals Vazquez and Woll bedevil Texas - 1842…and the Vindication of Juan Sequin Zaragoza

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Generals Vazquez and Woll bedevil Texas - 1842

…and the final vindication of Juan Sequin Zaragoza

     By 1842, a true hero of the Battle of San Jacinto, had to retire from Texas.   He had been regularly insulted by non-Mexican/Spanish newcomers, especially of German ancestry as well as Anglos and there had been hanky-panky in terms of some of the processing of his families' properties around Sequin.   That town, obviously, was part of the substance of Juan Sequin and his ancestry.  To this day, from Sequin to Floresville and Goliad, Texas one will find numerous people who can trace their ancestry to Juan Sequin, one way or the other.
     But great and strange things were going on between the Rio Grande and San Antonio.  In the Spring of 1842, General Vasquez rode up to San Antonio from Laredo, with between 700 and 900 effectives, almost all cavalry.   General Vasquez took over the city, "taxed" the inhabitants for feed, fodder, shodding by smiths, and supplies for his animals and soldiers, and returned to Laredo with only the feeblest of resistance by the Texians.

     Worse would come to the Texians later in the year.  General Adrian Woll, a Belgian military type who had arrived in Mexico during the 1820s and quickly "made grade" arriving at Brigadier rank in time to conduct an Army of Cavalry, Infantry, and considerable cannon up to San Antonio.   This was a late Summer event, and it occupied the Mexicans for about two weeks, before Woll gathered up his troops and returned to Matamoros.
     Sam Houston ordered his buddy, General Somervell, to pursue Woll and engage him…but not too roughly.   He wanted Woll, Vasquez, and scores of military officers from Monterrey to Matamoros, and Laredo to notice that the Somervell Expedition was not intended to be a punitive event.
    The Mexican Army officers would have liked nothing better than to destroy a Texian "punitive expedition".   But such was not to be.   Somervell proved to be an inept controller of untrained troops.   Frankly, about half of them were  vagabonds, adventurers, and slackers…not soldiers of any kind. Somervell was further held back by the stated preferences made by Samuel Houston that it would be preferable to not ignite a significant war-like atmosphere.   It was the old "show, but do not attack" military tactic.

     Actually, Col. Fisher and Col. Green took a path downriver from Laredo and Carrizales, and with 300 or so dubiously endowed "soldiers" went to a place named Mier…just a mile or so back from the Rio Bravo (Grande) and where the Rio Alamo makes conjunction with the Rio Bravo.   Mier was known to be a little jewel community with nice, well built homes and numerous processing mills, smithing masters, and a massive sheeps' wool packing and forwarding business.   Farming in the broadest banks of the Rio Alamo and Rio Bravo also provided a good source of produce and grains.
    The Texians had already sequestered and detained the mayor of the town as a bargaining chip, and the fight was on.   After twenty-four hours, though…the fight was over.  The Texians had been badly beaten by superior numbers, better commanders, and better execution.

     One of the Mexican Army's combatants at Mier handled reconnaissance at the beginning of hostilities. That combatant was a cavalry officer with experience in military matters, and who was somewhat familiar with the Texian methods of fighting.  It was, of course, Juan Seguin Zaragoza…recently Mayor of San Antonio, Texas for two different terms, member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas after the expulsion of Santa Anna and other great accomplishments as a Texian hero.

     We remember that it was Col. Seguin, as Charge d'Affairs (military) of San Antonio, immediately after his return from the Victory at San Jacinto, who   gave the Eulogy over the remains of certain identified officers and persons of importance who died in defence of the Alamo on 6 March 1836.  Further collections of remains were sought and found, there is considerable debate to this day about the whens and wheres…but we know that Seguin appealed to the Heavens thusly.  To wit;

Companions in Arms!!

These remains which we have the honour of carrying on our shoulders are those of the valiant heroes who died in the Alamo. Yes, my friends, they preferred to die a thousand times rather than submit themselves to the tyrant's yoke. What a brilliant example! Deserving of being noted in the pages of history. The spirit of liberty appears to be looking out from its elevated throne with its pleasing mien and point to us saying: "There are your brothers, Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and others whose valor places them in the rank of my heroes." Yes soldiers and fellow citizens, these are the worthy beings who, by the twists of fate, during the present campaign delivered their bodies to the ferocity of their enemies; who, barbarously treated as beasts, were bound by their feet and dragged to this spot, where they were reduced to ashes. The venerable remains of our worthy companions as witnesses, I invite you to declare to the entire world, "Texas shall be free and independent or we shall perish in glorious combat."

Colonel Juan N. Seguin
Commandant San Antonio, Bexar, Texas 
Army of the Republic of Texas

      Because of his own written testament and the understanding of his relatives, close and distant, they all knew that Juan wanted to join his compadres of the Texas Army after his death.   Finally in the early 1970s, Juan was brought back among his mates, and buried on the north side of the Guadalupe River in Sequin, Texas.  Now, he and all worthy Texians are happy, I am happy, and we commend these words to the worthy.

     The City of Seguin, Texas has placed a truly pleasant part on the north side of the near-downtown part of the town…not far from the famous rows of magnificent Victorian homes that provide another wondrous feature about Sequin as a community.  The stop at the Juan Sequin park and the various other attractions in and around the community make a couple of hours or two or three days of poking around more than normal, more than worthwhile.


We leave these matters to your own discretion.  We always like to hear from folks who take advantage of our recommendations, and you can easily reach us at privatouring@gmail.com.

EL GRINGO VIEJO
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Proud of their own ignorance…they scheme to erase the past without knowing much about it….

To Those Who Are Terrorising and Destroying America

 piece by piece are leaving pieces and shreds and cast-off remnants of

 reality that should forever be preserved…

 

We invest the following written and spoken images of the South,

 of Robert Edward Lee, and a reality of life

 that we came to understand. 

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     When he left her to go to the West Point, his mother was heard to say; “How can I live without Robert? He is both son and daughter to me.” 

Years after, when he came home from West Point, he found one of the chief actors of his childhood's drama-his mother's old coachman, “Nat”— ill, and threatened with consumption.  He immediately took him to the milder climate of Georgia, nursed him with the tenderness of a son, and secured him the best medical advice. 

But the spring-time saw the faithful old servant laid in the grave by the hands of his kind young master.

        The above paragraph depicts one of the many acts for which Robert Edward Lee was famous…as a child, as a young man, and throughout his fabled life.   When the Battles roared and cannon-launched bombs exploded around him and his famous mount "Traveller",  frequently the junior officers would shout out, "Lee to the rear!! Lee to the rear!!"

     But the demand of the subordinates would fall mainly on deaf ears.    Holding the reins atop his saddle, and with his servant stroking Traveller's neck during the horrible cannonades and noise of battle, Lee would finally take note of the

subordinate officers and return to a less exposed position to study the ebb and flow of the battle.   Lee's "body man" would return, just as slowly, showing no interest in things that could only be controlled by the officers and men at this  point.  Mister William (or sometimes "Mack") would keep a kind hand, stroking through Traveller's mane, and telling him, "Don't worry, boy.  There's lots of oats to-night for you."

    We wish to enter into the record that I am a descendant of the Newton and Bonesteel lines as it pertains to my northern (or Union) element in the War Between the States.   From the Southern (or Confederate) element we have a lot of Neals and Chisolms and Limbaughs.   Because of long generational delays and other reasons such as the loss of women at birth (or shortly thereafter) some of my great and great-great grandfathers had extended years and periods between progeny arriving to the families.

     For instance, my grandfather was a small child, but remembered well his two eldest brothers who came to Christmas (or perhaps Easter) banquet dinner during that horrid period of the War Between the States, or as Mr. Lincoln would have it, "The Civil War".   Both of those boys never saw the end of the next year.

     As Longstreet lurched out with two divisions reinforced by several batteries of cannon at New Salem Church, Virginia on 2 May 1863, one of my Uncles had the impossible task of  facing off the onslaught of Longstreet's masses with only one single company, the loyal and capable Company 3, of the 96th Infantry Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers.  One can imagine guarding a rail station with 160 men, when 8,800 crazy Confederates come pouring out of the dense forests covers some 200 yards away.   It was over fairly quickly.  Sgt. (brevet Lieutenant) Charles Newton was patched up in the parsonage of the Episcopal Church in New Salem but the best efforts of the doctor…a Southern gentleman, were to no avail.  Several score of Union soldiers were either killed or seriously injured in those moments.

     Two months later, a foolish and brave rear guard rider of Union cavalry was helping harass a large Confederate army in retreat from a place called Gettysburg.  The Yankee boys  thought is was great sport to harass and molest the rear guard of the grey forces.  Lamentably, Sergeant Ollie Newton brushed up too close to the rear and managed to take a single bullet in the heart, along with several other blue-coats.   They had underestimated the remaining spunk and spark within the ranks of the Confederates.

      These moments are known and documented.   There were five Confederates who were either killed in action or who died just after the War Between the States due to the wounds suffered in service to the Confederacy.   One was a Captain of Cavalry by the name of Asa Grant…a cousin of the famous Union Genereal and later President of the United States.   Another was David Limbaugh, a Lieutenant who died in action at Fallen Timbers.  Three others met their demise…all five were Tennessee people…none of whom owned a slave during entirety of their lifetimes.

     There are many stories about those times.  There was bad and there was good as one might find anywhere.  But in the main, people did what the events required.   My mother scolded a little Jewish girl who had a slightly gimp leg, for instance.  She told her that she was very pretty and smart and talented but she needed to put herself forward more.

   Before long, she was pushing the pretty little blond girl to play hoop and stick,  kickball, football, and baseball with the boys…and beating them.  She taught the blond girl how to pluck mulberries correctly, and how to make a pecan pie.   My mother learned about Kosher this and Kosher that and a bit of Hebrew along the way.  The two families were competitors in the general wares and wears stores on main street in Winchester in those days.

     It was a time when there were still more horses and mules and wagons in front of the the stores, but there were a lot of fancy autos as well, due to the people who came down from New York to visit the "medicinal springs" in the area around Winchester, Tennessee.   My mother's family had farming property out at Estill Springs for instance.

      Oh…the little girl?   She went to New York and wowed a bunch of Yankees and some real people too.  She was "Fannie"  to her playmates and to my mom (long before my mom became my mother).  But once "Fannie" found a stage in downtown New York City,  she became who we know as Dinah Shore.   They named a long section of the main street in Winchester for her.

     During one of their last calls during Dinah's later days, my mother advised "Fannie" that the city of McAllen, Texas had, in a way, named a major boulevard for my mother…when the city fathers opted for changing the first idea "Narcissus"  for "Nolana" due to my mother's given name of "Nola".   It was necessary to have an "N" because the streets in McAllen were order so as to be alphabetical.    My mother had been very active in PTA as County President, in politics, as a business woman, and as a middling executive with the power company, and as an active civic personality, heading the Traffic and Safety Commission, and various other duties including the Altar Guild at the Episcopal Church.

     So, in a way, Fannie and Nola had very different and very similar lives lived well.

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A Special Note about the Below Included Publication 

The following is somewhat confused.  The first thing will be a nice book written by the Reverend Mr. William Mack Lee.   He went through early life as an illiterate, and then as a person who worked

 to perfect his manner of speaking so as to  adapt to the people to whom he might be

 speaking.  His written word is quite coherent and very understandable.

In his book, he will move in and out, depending on the level of 

familiarity and upon the seriousness or humorousness

  of what is being related.

   

He grew throughout his life and became a true servant of the Lord and Jesus Christ.

  He established many Baptist Churches in the rural areas of Virginia and other

 places adjacent to his native State.  His writing style and manner advanced

 during his years (1832 - 1919).  He would at times revert to the

 "country accent and construct" that pertained to his 

"less sophisticated" younger times.

It is readily evident that his studies and practice

 did turn him into a remarkable writer!                                      

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"TRAVELER"

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REV. WM. MACK LEE
Still Residing in the South

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HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF
REV. WM. MACK LEE, BODY SERVANT OF

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE

THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR

1861 to 1865

Copyrighted - year 1918,  by the Rev. Wm. Mack Lee

STILL LIVING UNDER THE PROTECTION
OF THE SOUTHERN STATES

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GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE AND OTHER GENERALS


for whom Rev. William Mack Lee cooked four years during the Civil War, when he was servant to General Robert E. Lee--1861-1865

• Gen. Stonewall Jackson
• Gen. Ewell
• Gen. Mosby
• Gen. Bragg
• Gen. Elwell
• Gen. Anderson
• Gen. Pickett
• Gen. Early
• Gen. Longstreet
• Gen. Jos. E. Johnston
• Gen. Sidney E. Johnston
• Gen. Morgan
• Gen. Forrest
• Gen. J. B. Hood
• Gen. Kirby Smith
• Gen. Chambers
• Gen. Van Dorn
• Gen. Buell
• Gen. J. E. B. Stuart
• Gen. A. P. Hill
• Gen. D. H. Hill
• Gen. Fitzhugh Lee
• Gen. J. B. Gordon
• Gen. Harrison
• Gen. Price
• Gen. Billy Mahone
• Gen. Jefferson Davis
• Gen. Wilcox
• Gen. Fremont

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HISTORY OF THE LIFE

of and by

 the Rev. William Mack Lee

I was born June 12, 1835, Westmoreland County, Va.; 82 years ago. I was raised at Arlington Heights, in the house of General Robert E. Lee, my master. I was cook for Marse Robert, as I called him, during the civil war and his body servant. I was with him at the first battle of Bull Run, second battle of Bull Run, first battle of Manassas, second battle of Manassas and was there at the fire of the last gun for the salute of the surrender on Sunday, April 9, 9 o'clock, A. M., at Appomatox, 1865.

        The following is a list of co-generals who fought with Marse Robert in the Confederate Army: Generals Stonewall Jackson, Early, Longstreet, Kirby, Smith, Gordon from Augusta, Ga. Beauregard from Charleston, S. C., Wade Hampton, from Columbia, S. C., Hood, from Alabama, Ewell Harrison from Atlanta, Ga., Bragg, cavalry general from Chattanooga, Tenn., Wm. Mahone of Virginia, Pickett, Forest, of Mississippi, Mosby, of Virginia, Willcox, of Tennessee, Lyons, of Mississippi, Charlimus, of Mississippi, Sydney Johnston, Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of Marse Robert, and Curtis Lee, his son.

        The writer of this little book, the body servant of Gen. Robert E. Lee, had the pleasure of feeding all these men at the headquarters in Petersburg, the battles of Decatur, Seven Pines, the Wilderness, on the plank road between Fredericksburg and Orange County Court House, Chancellorsville, The Old Yellow Tavern, in the Wilderness, Five Forks, Cold Harbor, Sharpsburg, Boonesville, Gettysburg, New Market, Mine Run, Cedar Mountain, Civilian, Louisa Court House, Winchester and Shenandoah Valley.

        At the close of the struggle, General Lee said to General Grant: "Grant, you didn't whip me, you just overpowered me, I surrender this day 8,000 men; I do not surrender them to you, I surrender on conditions; it shall not go down in history I surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to you. It shall go down in history I surrendered on conditions; you have ten men to my one; my

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men, too, are barefooted and hungry. If Joseph E. Johnston could have gotten to me three days ago I would have cut my way through and gone back into the mountains of North Carolina and would have given you a happy time." What these conditions were I do not know, but I know these were Marse Robert's words on the morning of the surrender: "I surrender to you on conditions."

        At the close of the war I did not know A from B, although I had been preaching two years before the war. I was married six years before the war. My wife died in 1910. I am the father of eight daughters and I have twenty-one grand children and eight great-grand children. My youngest child is 42 years old.

        I was raised by one of the greatest men in the world. There was never one born of a woman greater than Gen. Robert E. Lee, according to my judgment. All of his servants were set free ten years before the war, but all remained on the plantation until after the surrender.

        The following from the Bedford Bulletin, a paper published in the town of Bedford, Va., which town I am now visiting, situated in the mountains in full view of the famous Peaks of Otter; while soliciting means here to finish my church near Norfolk, I caught inspiration to give the readers of this little book, my friends, and friends and admirers of Marse Robert, a brief history of his body servant and cook, the Rev. William Mack Lee, and will, I hope, cause you to purchase one at the price named on back of same, as I will never be able to write another; I am too old.

Lee's Body Servant Here.

        "Rev. William Mack Lee, one of the best known colored men in the South, is in town this week making an effort to raise funds to complete the payment on his church near Norfolk. He is a Baptist minister and built the church at a cost of $5,500, of which all has been paid except about $500, and he wants to raise this before he returns home.

        "He was born on the plantation of Gen. Robert E. Lee, in Westmoreland County, 81 years ago, and at the outbreak of the civil war went to the front as the body servant of his distinguished master. He cooked and waited on the Southern chieftain during the entire four years of the war, being with him at the surrender at Appomatox. The fact that the war had set him free was of small moment to him, and he stayed with his old master until his death. He is a negro of the old type, distinguished looking, polite in manner, and, despite his age, is straight, firm of step and

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bids fair to serve his congregation for many more years. The first day he was in town, he went to the old Burwell homestead, now the home of Mr. John Ballard, because he and his master had stopped there while on a visit to Bedford, soon after the war, and was greatly disappointed to find that the last member of the Burwell family was dead.

        "He will be in town all of this week, and if you want to help him pay for his church you will find him on the streets or some one will tell you where he can be found."

        I have been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ the best I knew, with my limited preparation, for 57 years. My master, at his death, left me $360 to educate myself with. I went to school. I studied hard at the letter, but my greatest learning came from Jesus Christ. God sent me out to preach, and when God sends a man out, he is qualified both with the Holy Ghost and the Spirit. He makes his words sharp as a two-edged sword, and his feet as a burning pillar of brass.

        I was ordained in Washington, D.C., July 12, 1881, as a Missionary Baptist preacher. The beginning of my work as an ordained minister was with the Third Baptist Church, Northwest, Washington, D.C., which I built with 20 members, at a cost of $3,000. This church increased from 20 to 500 members during my pastorate. I also built another church in the same city, a frame building, 20 x 36 feet long, at a cost of $2,000. I took this church with 8 members and left it with 200 at the close of two years.

        My next pastorate was at Cantorsville, about eight miles northeast of Baltimore, Md., in Baltimore county. There were 12 members of this church, when I took charge. I erected for a house of worship a frame building 22 x 38 at a cost of $3,500. At the end of four years the membership had increased from 12 members to 365. I resigned this charge and took a church in Norfolk county, Virginia, six miles from the city of Norfolk. In this little town called Churchland, I erected a brick building, stone front, for a house of worship, at a cost of $5,500, in the year 1912, all of which has been paid, with the exception of about $500. When I began the building of this last house for God, I sought aid from abroad. I went into three states and by the help of the Lord, and good friends of Virginia, North and South Carolina, I have succeeded in raising over $5,000 for this last project. I preached in 36 counties in South Carolina in 1915, 28 counties in North Carolina, and 23 counties in Virginia. The following is a list of cities and towns that responded to my call for help in relieving the indebtedness.

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of my church:--Virginia: Norfolk, Portsmouth, Berkley, Brambleton, Newport News, Hampton, Cape Charles, Eastville, Pocomoke City, Charles City, Suffolk, Lynchburg, Danville, Crewe, Blackstone, Petersburg, Ivor, Waverley, Zuni, Appomattox, Bedford, Roanoke and Hollins. South Carolina: Columbia, Charleston, Summersville, Kingtree, Lake City, Bennettsville, Florence, Mullen, Hartsville, Darlington, Marion, Dillon, Latta, Sumpter, Spartansburg, Orangeville, and Branchville. North Carolina: Raleigh, Wilmington, Rocky Mount, Goldsboro, Greensville, Greensboro, Selma, Clinton, Tarboro, Little Washington, Edenton, Elizabeth City, Wilson, Windsor, Kinston, LaGrange Beaufort, Durham, Hamlet, Rockingham, Gibsonville, Lovington, Ahoskie, Tunis, Reidsville, Winchester.

        Having stayed on Marse Robert's plantation 18 years after the war and with limited schooling, I am not ashamed to give my history to the world that it might cause some of the young negroes who have school advantages from childhood and early youth, to consider life more seriously and if men of my type had lived in their time, how far they would exceed them along lines of religious, educational, and business activities. I contribute my success to my teaching from God. When John was writing on the Isle of Patmos, God appeared to him and said, "Write no more, John, seal up what thou hast written." John fell face foremost. God said, "Rise upon your feet, fear not, I am he who was persecuted, seal up what has been written  and write no more." The apostle Paul says the letter kills a man, but the word of God makes him alive in our Lord Jesus Christ. A man gets nothing for starting a journey, but gets pay for being faithful and, holding out to the end. If a man lives according to the ten commandments, he will be blessed, because the chief word in the decalogue, obedience; and obedience to God is service to man.

        In addition to my pastoral duties I found time to look after the bodily wants of my fellowman as well as his spiritual needs. To this end I organized the State Benevolent Association of Virginia, for colored people, at Charlottesville in 1887. In 1888 I organized at Washington, D. C., the Supreme Grand Lodge United States Benevolent Association of the District of Columbia. The district associations of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania are under jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge, whose office and building is located at 428 R Street, N. W., Washington. I am elected Grand Chief for life at a salary of $50 per month and traveling expenses.

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        This association pays sick dues and death benefits and aids its members while out of employment by allowing a weekly sum of $2.00 for 4 weeks each, or until employment is secured, and gives each unfortunate a chance to pay back same to the Association in easy installments of 25 cents a month until the amount has been paid, so advanced by the Association's Treasurer. The brotherhood requires its members to help those find employment who are not employed.

        I have some gavels made out of the poplar where Marse Robert bade farewell to his comrades and instructed them to go home and make themselves good citizens and may I urge those who read this book, especially my people, to take the advice of the humble writer, try to make yourselves good citizens by being industrious, save your money, educate yourselves, buy property, etc., let your religion be more practical and less sentimental. The best friends we have are the Southern people who know all about our raising, and if we colored people want to get along well with the white people, we must show our behavior to, respect and be obedient to them. These are my views to our race.

Your respectable, obedient servant,

REV. WM. MACK LEE.

General Robert E. Lee's cook and body servant of the Civil War.

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        Still limping from a yankee bullet, an old darkey, with a grizzled beard and an honest face, hobbled into the office of the World-News at a busy hour yesterday.

        "Kin you white folks gimme a little money fur my church?" he asked, doffing his tattered as he bowed.

        Typewriters tickled their hurried denial.

        The aged negro cocked his head on one side. "What, I ain't gwine ter turn away Ole Marse Robert's main servant is yer? You didn't know dat I was Gen. Robert Lee's cook all through de wah, did yer?" Every reporter in the office considered that introduction sufficient, and listened for half an hour to William Mack Lee, who followed General Robert E. Lee as body guard and cook throughout the Civil War. When the negro lifted his bent and broken figure from a chair to take his leave every man in the office reached into his pocket, for a contribution.

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        "The onliest time that Marse Robert ever scolded me," said William Mack Lee, "in de whole fo' years dat I followed him through the wah, was, down in de Wilderness--Seven Pines-- near Richmond. I remembah dat day jes lak it was yestiday. Hit was July the third, 1863.

        "Whilst we was in Petersburg, Marse Robert had done got him a little black hen from a man and we named the little black hen Nellie. She was a good hen, and laid mighty nar every day. We kep' her in de ambulants, whar she had her nest.

Prepared Feast From Small Supply.

        "On dat day--July the third--we was all so hongry and I didn't have nuffin in ter cook, dat I was jes' plumb bumfuzzled. I didn't know what to do. Marse Robert, he had gone and invited a crowd of ginerals to eat wid him, an' I had ter git de vittles. Dar was Marse Stonewall Jackson, and Marse A. P. Hill, and Marse D. H. Hill, and Marse Wade Hampton, Gineral Longstreet, and Gineral Pickett and sum others.

        "I had done made some flanel cakes, a little tea, and some lemonade, but I 'lowed as how dat would not be enuff fo' dem gemm'n. So I had to go out to de ambulants and cotch de little black hen, Nellie.

        There was a tear in William Mack Lee's voice, but in his eye I fancied that I saw the happy light that always dances in the eyes of his race at the thought of a fowl for cooking.

        "I jes' had to go out and cotch little Nellie. I picked her good, and stuffed her with breod stuffin, mixed wid butter. Nellie had been gwine wid us two years, and I hated fer to lose her. We had been gettin' all our eggs from Nellie.

        "Well, sir, when I brung Nellie inter de commissary tent and set her fo' Marse Robert he turned to me right fo' all dem gimmin and he says: 'William, now you have killed Nellie. What are we going to do for eggs?"

        "'I jes' had ter do it, Marse Robert.' says I.

        'No, you didn't William; I'm going to write Miss Mary about you. I'm going to tell her you have killed Nellie.'

        "Marse Robert kep' on scoldin' me mout dat hen. He never scolded 'bout naything else. He tol' me I was a fool to kill de her whut lay de golden egg. Hit made Marse Robert awful sad ter think of anything bein' killed, whedder der 'twas one of his soljers, or his little black hen."

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Lee Wept Over Jackson's Death.

        "I have even seed him cry. I never seed him sadder dan dat gloomy mownin' when he tol' me 'bout how Gineral Stonewall Jackson had been shot by his own men.

        "He muster hurd it befo' but he never tol' me til' nex' mawnin'.

        "'William,' he says ter me, 'William, I have lost my right arm.'

        "'How come yer ter say dat, Marse Robert?' I axed him. 'Yo ain't bin in no battle sence yestiddy, an' I doan see yo' arm bleedin'.

        "'I'm bleeding at the heart, William,' he says, and I slipped out'n de tent, 'cause he looked lak he wanted to be by hisself.

        "A little later I cum back an' he tol' me dat Gineral Jackson had bin shot by one of his own soljers. The Gineral had tol' 'em to shoot anybody goin' or comin' across de line. And den de Gineral hisself puts on a federal uniform and scouted across de lines. When he comes back, one of his own soljers raised his gun.

        "'Don't shoot. I'm your general,' Marse Jackson yelled.

        "'Dey said dat de sentry was hard o' hearin'. Anyway, he shot his Gineral an' kilt him.

        "'I'm bleeding at the heart, William,' Marse Robert kep' a sayin'.

Tells of His Own Wounds.

        "On July de twelf, 1863, I was shot myself," continued the old darkey, heaving a deep sigh as he withdrew his thoughts from the death of General Stonewall Jackson.

        "Yer see dat hole in my head? Dat whar a piece er de shell hit me. Anudder piece struck me nigh de hip.

        "I had jes give Marse Robert his breakfas' an' went to git old Traveler fer him to ride ter battle. Traveler was Marse Robert's horse what followed him 'round same as a dog would, and would never step on de dead men, but allers walked betwixt and aroun' 'em.

        "I went out an' curried and saddled Traveler. I hyeard dem jack battery guns begin to pop an' bust an' roah. I saddled Traveler and tuck him in front o' Marse Robert's tent.

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Page 10

        "Jes' as Marse Robert cum out'n his tent a shell hit 35 yards away. It busted, and hit me, an' I fell over.

        "I must o' yelled, 'cause Marse Robert said he ain't never hyeard no noise like de wan I hollered. He cum over and tried to cheer me up, an' I hollered lak one o' dem jackass guns.

        "Marse Robert laffed so hard 'cause he said he ain't never seed a black man holler so loud. An' den he called for de ambulants an' dey tuck me ter de hospital."

Loyal to Famous Master.

        William Mack Lee has all the praise in the world for "Marse Robert." He tells many interesting incidents of the Southern hero's life in the tent and field.

        The old negro is here now trying to raise $418 with which to complete a fund of $5,000, most of which he has already secured, for building a church. He has built four churches and is now working on his fifth.

        Among the white churches contributing to his fund are nine Baptist, eight Methodist, and six Episcopalians, in Norfolk, four Baptist in Danville, and churches in Lynchburg, Bedford, Crew, Blackstone and Appomattox.

        William Mack Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Va., at the old Stafford House, on the Potomac River, 1835. He is 84 years old. He was raised by General Lee as his personal servant.

        "Tell de white folks heah to be good ter me an' my church," says William. "Tell 'em not ter turn away Robert's ole soldier ."

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Significant Commentary Concerning Colonel Juan Sequin - Spaniard, Mexican, and Texian Extraordinaire

A Long and Complicated Life:   A vignette concerning Juan Nepomuceno Sequin

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 Juan Nepumoceno Sequin
Hero of Texas,
 defender of the Alamo
Commander of the Cavalry at San
Jacinto at the defeat of Antonio
 Lopez de Santa Anna, President
 and Generalissimo of
 Mexican National Forces

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      Responding to Jack Ayoub's excellent contribution of 9 June 2020, regarding Juan Sequin and the events pertaining to his light cavalry, there were in fact Mexican/Spanish Texians who were in the Alamo at the very end, and who died there on the fateful day.  There were perhaps as many as 22 of them.   Their commander, Juan Sequin, was following orders, when William Barrett Travis, commander at the Alamo, sent Sequin to search for reinforcements, or in other words, "…where the Hell is Fannin!!!  Bring him and his men, and anyone else you can!!" (I can almost hear him say).  On or before 28 February 1836  Sequin rode forth into the morning darkness, and found nothing but really bad news for the next 10 days.

   All Fannin's men, along with him, had been unlawfully (according to the rules of war at the time) slaughtered as filibusterers and rustlers, by order of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who was commanding officer, essentially of everything.   General Urrea, back at Goliad, was furious with Santa Anna for having countermanded Urrea's urgency to grant POW status to the Texians under Fannin's command.

     We know the outcomes of all these places, up to and including San Jacinto.  Urrea, however, had friends and cohorts during later moments long after San Jacinto. Talk became intrigue which then became lore, but it was accepted by Mexican military people during those times.   The "body count" of Alamo defenders wandered between 168 and 224.   Numbers would vary, depending upon this saloon in Monterrey or that other one in Mexico City.  The monster Lopez de Santa Anna ordered all Texian defenders to be immolated.     There was only one exception, Jim Bowie's number one buddy and caretaker was Gregario Esparza (Bowie was very infirmed, confined to bed).  That caretaker's body was turned over to a Mexican Army officer who was the half-brother of  Esparza.

     An explanation I have heard at times, and from other sources such as Mexican friends and scholars, is that Juan Seguin's patrulleros who stayed back at the Alamo, while Seguin rode out (at great jeopardy) alone save for three other cavalrymen. As those four rode out to search for the non-existent reinforcements, the others of Sequin's cavalry were slaughtered along with the rest of the Alamo Defenders.  They were burned with the rest, although some of their paperwork, orders documents, and such, were"souvenired" by Mexican soldiers, especially officers.   It is known that Juan Seguin avoided speaking about those light-cavalrymen he left behind at the Alamo...all of whom were either good friends or relatives of some kind or another.

That disposition continued until his death on this Earth in 1890 at the age of 84.

   Seguin rode into the retreat line, all the while gathering up his new replacements of "mounted infantry" during the trek to the east.  He was on the way, as we know,  to a place called San Jacinto, and he preferred to talk about "tomorrow",  and his hatred of Lopez de Santa Anna.  He said little or nothing about what had occurred back in San Antonio and the Alamo. His performance at San Jacinto, along with his cavalrymen, brought (Col.) Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar, commander of cavalry, to be muchly pleased with Sequin's successes against Lopez de Santa Anna's best cavalry and artillery.   It is said that Seguin's men did not lose a mount or a wounded horseman.   Phenomenal…

    Lamar, who had come through Mexico and into Texas, came with a distaste for the Spanish-Mexicans in general.   After hanging around with Sequin however, he had become quite affected by Sequin and his men.   Supposedly Houston had put Lamar in charge of the limited but effective cavalry.  Houston, along with General Somerville, urged Lamar to put Sequin in charge of the ground attack by that cavalry.

     Lamar was confident of the "chosen man" in those closing hours before the surprise attack on Santa Ana's forces.  One might imagine his disposition towards the Latin-folk was significantly changed further after watching the performance of his XO, Col. Seguin and his men.  They were heroes all.

    We close by saying that my belief is that the "overcount" of roster of all "Killed in Action" among  the Alamo's contingent was actually accurate.    Why?  One reason might well have been that the last group of Seguin's men had not been in the Alamo long enough to "roster-up" and to be assigned duties.  They died on their third day there.
     Another oddity about the Alamo before, during, and after is that Houston ordered Sequin back to San Antonio…quite close to the Sequin properties and home in Floresville just southeast of San Antonio…and gave him the duty and authority to re-establish Law and proper order to that community.   Upon arrival, Sequin ordered the last  contingent of Mexican troops back to Mexico.

     His next inquiry concerned the location of the Travis, Crockett, and Bowie revealed that it was assumed that they had also been immolated.

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     Colonel Juan Nepomuceno Seguin

and  his eloquent Alamo Defenders' Burial Oration
Columbia (Later named the City of Houston)
Telegraph and Texas Register April 4, 1837

Companions in Arms!!

      These remains which we have the honour of carrying on our shoulders are those of the valiant heroes who died in the Alamo. Yes, my friends, they preferred to die a thousand times rather than submit themselves to the tyrant's yoke. What a brilliant example! Deserving of being noted in the pages of history. The spirit of liberty appears to be looking out from its elevated throne with its pleasing mien and point to us saying: "There are your brothers, Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and others whose valor places them in the rank of my heroes." 

     Yes, soldiers and fellow citizens, these are the worthy beings who, by the twists of fate, during the present campaign delivered their bodies to the ferocity of their enemies; who, barbarously treated as beasts, were bound by their feet and dragged to this spot, where they were reduced to ashes. The venerable remains of our worthy companions are with us as witnesses, I invite you to declare to the entire world, "Texas shall be free and independent or we shall perish in glorious combat."

Colonel Juan N. Sequin, Commandant

 San Antonio, Bexar, Texas

Army of the Republic of Texas

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Thanks for your attention!!  More later.

Please remember…Texas is a composite of a score or more of races and ethnicities, white and indigenous, and African, and various places in the Orient, etc.   I am a Confederate…of that majority of Confederates who despise the Ku Klux Klan.

My ancestry includes two great-uncles (brothers of my Grandfather, Norman N. Newton) who were killed during the middle of that horrid War Between the States…who were Yankees…96th Battalion, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

Five of my Confederate 1st and 2nd degree of relations died in Battle or due to wounds suffered in the face of the enemy.  I apologise neither to nor for neither side…but if asked...am a Confederate of the past…and I am a Texian of the now, and for that which is to be.   God Bless General Lee, and God Bless President Davis…and may God Bless America.  

More Later,
El Gringo Viejo

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The Seas Are Stormy

A note filtered in from the confines of Travis County, Texas which holds itself up as one of those "reasonable" places in Texas where the majority of the people think chickens are diamonds and boys and girls can marry their favourite Cedar tree and live happily ever after because everything is "FREEEEeeeeeeee!!!!".   My Consuegro (remember the word, for it means that two men are criss / cross politically related because He is the father-in-law of my daughter, and I am the father-in-law of his son.)  invests some of his pleasantly-pointed and brief message  posted below:

"We will be 105 degrees or more today. We'll see now  how many protesters and marchers we get this afternoon. I vote that the city DOES NOT supply "free water". Sell water for $2.00 and tell the protesters the funds will go to help fund our police department. 

Defunding the police. I've heard proposals to take away guns, tear gas, shields, helmets ect. Mandatory 6 month 'sensitivity' training and yearly testing.

Oh well, lock and load."

Owl

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The future of America

    Pictured to the left is one of those endearing things that make a Daddy so very proud of his progeny.  Our understanding is this picture actually is a "record photo" and it pertains to her having been detained by the New York Police for some real or imagined violation of good public order.

     This is the face of America's "young intellectuals, and apparently much of the Western World, during these times.   Those who know little, and understand less have arrived at the conclusion that their knowledge and deductive ability has obviously risen above the intellectual ability of the masses.   They know this to be true because their college professors, many of whom are third and fourth generation professors, are more than certain that they are guiding lights of knowledge and truth.

   It is that legal and religion of the left's canon that guides "intellectual  truth", for them.  They have descended from and  derived from great-granddaddy professor, granddaddy professor, daddy professor, and mommy-converting-to-daddy professor and have internalised their entire bucket of leftist / marxist bilge.   They have spilled out the contents of that bucket over the "best and brightest" of America's young and budding intellectual powerhouses.

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The bears hang around during the day, and the
 coyotes come at night.  Pumas come whenever
 they wish.
   We were assured that human activity would
 destroy all the major mammals in the western
 Sierra Madres before 1975, due to American
 pollution and Mexican complicity.
The Mama Bear is relaxing while watching
over her cubs.   It's her third litter in five
years.
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  These are the people who told us that the Polar Bear would be extinct before 1975.   There are now five times the number that were known to have existed back then.    People are having trouble with bears of all kinds turning up in places of all types.   In Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico we have the case where this metroplex of 10 or 12 municipalities ( the largest being Monterrey, obviously) bears are so numerous that the State government and the localities have had to establish a "Bear Round-up Service".   Reasonable estimates concerning these bears is that there are something in the area of 6,000 in the mountains to the west of Monterrey's metro area and it seems to extend down to the Linares - Iturbide area in the Sierra Madre Oriental's very rugged topography, 80 miles to the south.

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Never have so many milled around so much for so little
 justifiable purpose.  Banal, pointless demands, and
 tonnes of chants were in abundance, although
 none of it made any sense.

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     The "We Are the World" people have to explain to us about AlGore's love mansion that he bought for his new squeeze after he ran off his long-suffering  wife.   You see, it is below the sea - level that he predicted would occur if George Bush failed to stop the inevitable 20 yard rise when all the ice in the Antarctic is melted by Texas oil and gas production.  AlGore assured the world that would be a matter of three to five years before that particular coastal area of California would be underwater by several yards.

   Now they, the "protestors" and the Antifa and Black Lives Matter thugs, presume to tell us what the new Code of Process and Ethics shall be.  Now they propose that police organisations and operations must be "defunded" and shut down.  The notion that a constabulary and records of process for legal reasons is not needed is ludicrous.  Violence would soar, death and destruction would be incomprehensibly devastating and there could be no judicial punishment.   It would, without any doubt, bring anarchy.

    For the agitators and "protestors", they know the objective is for volatility, destruction, violence, and mayhem.   They fool no one about their objectives.  For them, the more "students" and "marchers" and "oppressed" there are who are wounded, bleeding, and/or seriously afflicted or killed, the better it serves their purpose.   The "mainstream press" will make certain to construe all blame as belonging to the shop-owners and constabulary.

     The main purpose of the disorder, as usual, is to cause a form of anarchy.  Preferably, they want to work by night, when those on the offence have the advantage.  The "protestors" also have the advantage that they actually have no rules of engagement.  To them fall all the rights of anarchy…burning, looting, maiming, killing…without any reason or justification.   Now we have CHAZ, the "free zone" in downtown Seattle that has allowed the scum of the Earth to take possession of what was Police Precinct 13…it is an area of six blocks that has been taken over by something between 1,500 to 4,000 miscreants.
     
     All the disorder is necessary so as to keep the streets blocked, clogged, and menacing.  All ignorant, violent imbeciles who need Antifa and Black Lives Matter and George Soros's degenerate, subversive marxists must be kept at the ready.  At times they might be fully in view, and at other times they evaporate into houses, or alleyways, or predesignated "hidey-holes".   The boulevards and byways must be ready to be filled with zomboids chanting menacing threats, throwing rocks, bricks, and other things.  At times there are more fire engines than people.

     At other times there are more animals dressed up as human beings than there  are fire engines.   Sometimes the nights bring a thousand molotov cocktails, and 2,000 boogie boards that serve to knock out police units windshields, car lamps, and safety lights in the rear.  There is the edge of violence in CHAZ, day and night, weekday or weekend now.  Violence, property destruction, and degradation have become the dress code of the city,

     de Blazio, however made me rethink things.  His daughter who is pictured above is very proud of her violation of established law.  She is very proud of being able to ridicule her own father in public.  She is the future of ruin…of abandoned buildings and homes and productive life alternatives.  She is a slug who is motivated only to tear down, remain ignorant…proudly ignorant…and to remain totally self-absorbed while she pushes for the implementation of projects and schemes that have failed every time they were tried.

We hope calamity falls upon her quickly so as to not allow her suffering to be lengthy.

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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