September's History: When The Summers Heat Turns To Autumns Chill. (9/15/12)
Texas, unlike other states, has a history in which we not only celebrate the fight for Independence from tyranny in our shared American history, but celebrates a history in which the grandchildren of those American Patriots themselves, fought for Independence from tyranny here in Texas. As any of you who follow my rants and diatribe of the current administration and direction that we find our country in, know, I am a history buff and a proud Son of the Republic of Texas. Just as I find inspiration in those writings of Madison, Adams, Jefferson and the like, so too do I find inspiration and motivation in the writings of Houston, Jones, Austin and many Texas founding fathers that includes my 4th great grandfather, General George Whitfield Terrell.
In thinking about this past week of mid September 2012 and that shared history that as an American and a Texan I am so proud of, I have seated myself to conclude a few lines of thought and draw inspiration and motivation from a particular history that I hope will once again serve to show, that under overwhelming odds, righteousness can overcome; good can prevail over evil; liberty can lay waste to tyranny and that it is the very blood that courses through our veins that makes us the fighters we were born to be. Yet, at the same time, a history that proves we must always stay vigilant. For as long as human kind exists, liberty and tyranny will forever be at war.
With the week that is now behind us, a week in which we remembered over 3,000 American souls that were murdered on September 11, 2001; a week that on that very day of mourning, we Americans saw attacks on our embassies in Libya and Egypt; a week in which more Americans lost their lives by the Islamo-fascist and the continuation of a failed Presidency that I find an insult to the very foundation upon which our founding fathers built our country, I thought about September and the Mexican Invasions of 1842.
Although Texas had fought and won her Independence and signed the Treaty of Velasco, Mexico refused to recognize Texas’ independence. Ever since Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna suffered his humiliating defeat at San Jacinto, he was determined to recapture Texas. The Republic constantly feared a Mexican invasion and on October 6, 1841, Santa Anna had regained full power in Mexico. Shortly after re-assuming control of Mexico, Santa Anna ordered General Mario Arista to immediately start harassing the Texans and to dispatch an expedition against San Antonio. Arista ordered up 400 – 500 Calvary troops and placed them under the command of General Rafael Vasquez, whom he instructed to; take it [San Antonio] captive, or put it to the knife should it offer resistance. By early March 1842, San Antonio was once again under occupation by Mexican troops numbering from 600-1,000 strong.
Gen’l Terrell wrote two letters that month, one to Sam Houston from outside of San Antonio in which he said; the Mexican flag could be seen flying from the church steeple – and a most humiliating sight it was to a true hearted Texan to behold. He furthermore wrote to General Andrew Jackson; I visited this hallowed spot a few days since, and again found it occupied by the same ruthless and degenerate people whose atrocious enormities are without parallel in the annals of civilized warfare. Arista had written the Mexican Secretary of War; the national flag is once again flying over the city of Bejar, and the Mexican eagles are again today treading the soil they have been deprived of for the length of six years…
It did not take long for President Houston to declare an emergency and mobilize the Texans under the command of Colonel Alexander Somervell, later yielded to General Edward Burleson. The Texas volunteers came from all across the country to San Antonio to repulse the invasion of the Mexican Regulars only to find they had fled when they knew of the impending battle that the Texans would besiege upon them. The Mexicans continued sporadic raids into Texas throughout the remainder of 1842 and as spring turned to summer and summer into autumn, the Texans would once again find themselves invaded by a large contingent of Mexican Regulars.
On September 11, 1842 a Mexican army of twelve thousand, led by General Adrian Woll once again captured San Antonio. By September 17, two hundred Texans had gathered at Cibolo Creek and marched to Salado Creek under the command of Mathew Caldwell. The next day, a company of scouts went to San Antonio to lure the Mexicans into a fight, which became known as the Battle of Salado Creek, and by September 20, Woll was retreating back to Mexico. The Texans by this time had ran out of patience and by September 25, a large force of volunteers had gathered at San Antonio and plans were made for the Somervell Expedition as a punitive measure, led by Col. Alexander Somervell for the raids on San Antonio. The year would end with the expedition chasing the Mexicans south to Laredo where they recaptured the town and then further south to Rio Grande where the expedition was ordered to return home. A large number of Texans felt betrayed by the order and elected to continue raids into Mexico, which became known as the Meir Expedition. By June of 1843, Texas and Mexico celebrated a fragile peace when both sides agreed to the armistice.
As a single month goes in the annals of history, September has seen not only the tragedy of September 11, 2001, but it also saw the first Continental Congress assembly in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. September also saw, the Treaty of Paris signed on September 3, 1783 by John Adams, Ben Franklin and John Jay formally ending the American Revolutionary war between Britain and the United States as well as the signing by 56 Patriots of that most treasured Document - our Constitution on September 17, 1787 at the Constitutional Convention. The first of our founding fathers to sign being Patriot John Hancock, who penned his name in large letters. He allegedly quipped that he wrote it so large so King George III could read it without his glasses,
It also saw Fredrick Douglas begin his escape from slavery on September 3, 1838 as well as nine African-American students enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas that escalated into the Little Rock Crises that gave cause to President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send in the 101st Airborne on September 24, 1957. It saw the Treaty at Birds Fort (penned by my 4th great grandfather Gen’l Terrell) with the indigenous Nations of the Delaware, Cickasaw, Waco, Tawakani, Keechi, Caddo, Anadahkah, Ionie, Biloxi, and Cheroke yet saw the capture of Geronimo in September 1886.
This is just but a small example of some of the history that our country has seen when the summer heat turns to the autumn chill. It is a history full of many great accomplishments and of many horrible failures. It is a history that fought tyranny and found freedom, freed slaves, yet murders it’s unborn, but it is our history and it should serve as an ever vigilant reminder that freedom is fragile and carries with it, responsibility! Our history is also a reminder that overwhelming odds can be overcome.
I think for me, one of the greatest contrasts of our September history is during the War of 1812. The British once again tried to impose their brand of tyranny on the United States and from September 13 -14, 1814, the British Navy bombarded Fort McHenry, at which time an American lawyer, author and poet penned a poem that holds the most coveted spot in my heart for the country I love:
O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave
Frances Scott Key
God Bless America
In thinking about this past week of mid September 2012 and that shared history that as an American and a Texan I am so proud of, I have seated myself to conclude a few lines of thought and draw inspiration and motivation from a particular history that I hope will once again serve to show, that under overwhelming odds, righteousness can overcome; good can prevail over evil; liberty can lay waste to tyranny and that it is the very blood that courses through our veins that makes us the fighters we were born to be. Yet, at the same time, a history that proves we must always stay vigilant. For as long as human kind exists, liberty and tyranny will forever be at war.
With the week that is now behind us, a week in which we remembered over 3,000 American souls that were murdered on September 11, 2001; a week that on that very day of mourning, we Americans saw attacks on our embassies in Libya and Egypt; a week in which more Americans lost their lives by the Islamo-fascist and the continuation of a failed Presidency that I find an insult to the very foundation upon which our founding fathers built our country, I thought about September and the Mexican Invasions of 1842.
Although Texas had fought and won her Independence and signed the Treaty of Velasco, Mexico refused to recognize Texas’ independence. Ever since Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna suffered his humiliating defeat at San Jacinto, he was determined to recapture Texas. The Republic constantly feared a Mexican invasion and on October 6, 1841, Santa Anna had regained full power in Mexico. Shortly after re-assuming control of Mexico, Santa Anna ordered General Mario Arista to immediately start harassing the Texans and to dispatch an expedition against San Antonio. Arista ordered up 400 – 500 Calvary troops and placed them under the command of General Rafael Vasquez, whom he instructed to; take it [San Antonio] captive, or put it to the knife should it offer resistance. By early March 1842, San Antonio was once again under occupation by Mexican troops numbering from 600-1,000 strong.
Gen’l Terrell wrote two letters that month, one to Sam Houston from outside of San Antonio in which he said; the Mexican flag could be seen flying from the church steeple – and a most humiliating sight it was to a true hearted Texan to behold. He furthermore wrote to General Andrew Jackson; I visited this hallowed spot a few days since, and again found it occupied by the same ruthless and degenerate people whose atrocious enormities are without parallel in the annals of civilized warfare. Arista had written the Mexican Secretary of War; the national flag is once again flying over the city of Bejar, and the Mexican eagles are again today treading the soil they have been deprived of for the length of six years…
It did not take long for President Houston to declare an emergency and mobilize the Texans under the command of Colonel Alexander Somervell, later yielded to General Edward Burleson. The Texas volunteers came from all across the country to San Antonio to repulse the invasion of the Mexican Regulars only to find they had fled when they knew of the impending battle that the Texans would besiege upon them. The Mexicans continued sporadic raids into Texas throughout the remainder of 1842 and as spring turned to summer and summer into autumn, the Texans would once again find themselves invaded by a large contingent of Mexican Regulars.
On September 11, 1842 a Mexican army of twelve thousand, led by General Adrian Woll once again captured San Antonio. By September 17, two hundred Texans had gathered at Cibolo Creek and marched to Salado Creek under the command of Mathew Caldwell. The next day, a company of scouts went to San Antonio to lure the Mexicans into a fight, which became known as the Battle of Salado Creek, and by September 20, Woll was retreating back to Mexico. The Texans by this time had ran out of patience and by September 25, a large force of volunteers had gathered at San Antonio and plans were made for the Somervell Expedition as a punitive measure, led by Col. Alexander Somervell for the raids on San Antonio. The year would end with the expedition chasing the Mexicans south to Laredo where they recaptured the town and then further south to Rio Grande where the expedition was ordered to return home. A large number of Texans felt betrayed by the order and elected to continue raids into Mexico, which became known as the Meir Expedition. By June of 1843, Texas and Mexico celebrated a fragile peace when both sides agreed to the armistice.
As a single month goes in the annals of history, September has seen not only the tragedy of September 11, 2001, but it also saw the first Continental Congress assembly in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. September also saw, the Treaty of Paris signed on September 3, 1783 by John Adams, Ben Franklin and John Jay formally ending the American Revolutionary war between Britain and the United States as well as the signing by 56 Patriots of that most treasured Document - our Constitution on September 17, 1787 at the Constitutional Convention. The first of our founding fathers to sign being Patriot John Hancock, who penned his name in large letters. He allegedly quipped that he wrote it so large so King George III could read it without his glasses,
It also saw Fredrick Douglas begin his escape from slavery on September 3, 1838 as well as nine African-American students enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas that escalated into the Little Rock Crises that gave cause to President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send in the 101st Airborne on September 24, 1957. It saw the Treaty at Birds Fort (penned by my 4th great grandfather Gen’l Terrell) with the indigenous Nations of the Delaware, Cickasaw, Waco, Tawakani, Keechi, Caddo, Anadahkah, Ionie, Biloxi, and Cheroke yet saw the capture of Geronimo in September 1886.
This is just but a small example of some of the history that our country has seen when the summer heat turns to the autumn chill. It is a history full of many great accomplishments and of many horrible failures. It is a history that fought tyranny and found freedom, freed slaves, yet murders it’s unborn, but it is our history and it should serve as an ever vigilant reminder that freedom is fragile and carries with it, responsibility! Our history is also a reminder that overwhelming odds can be overcome.
I think for me, one of the greatest contrasts of our September history is during the War of 1812. The British once again tried to impose their brand of tyranny on the United States and from September 13 -14, 1814, the British Navy bombarded Fort McHenry, at which time an American lawyer, author and poet penned a poem that holds the most coveted spot in my heart for the country I love:
O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave
Frances Scott Key
God Bless America
