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Chapter 7 Parker’s Fort and Little River Depredations April 23 - June 5, 1836 Lieutenant Colonel Griffin Bayne’s rangers arrived on the San Jacinto battlefield one day after the historic conflict. The group included Captain Wilson’s company and a ranger detachment that had been commanded by Captain Tumlinson prior to the Runaway Scrape. Noah Smithwick, who had recently joined Bayne’s party, later described the carnage they witnessed. The dead Mexicans lay in piles, the survivors not even asking permission to bury them, thinking, perhaps, that, in return for the butchery they had practiced, they would soon be lying dead themselves. The buzzards and coyotes were gathering to the feast, but it is a singular fact that they singled out the dead horses, refusing to touch the Mexicans, presumably because of the peppery condition of the flesh. There they lay unmolested and dried up, the cattle got to chewing the bones, which so affected the milk that residents in the vicinity had to dig trenches and bury them.1 In the immediate wake of the battle, the Texas soldiers were variously occupied in guarding Mexican prisoners and in splitting the spoils of war from their great victory. Scouts and patrols were busy rounding up additional prisoners and monitoring the retreat of other Mexican forces. President Santa Anna, now a Texas prisoner of war, signed a surrender dispatch that ordered generals Vicente Filisola, José Urrea and Antonio Gaona to fall back to Victoria and San Antonio to await his further orders. During the process of delivering this message to the enemy, Texas scouts under Deaf Smith managed to capture General Cos, a brother-in-law to Santa Anna, and haul him back to the army’s camp.2 As word of the Texan victory spread, the massive Runaway Scrape was slowly contained. From Robbins’ Ferry on the Old San 124 Parker’s Fort and Little River Depredations 125 Antonio Road, George P. Digges wrote to General Houston on April 23 of the movement of some of these families. Digges wrote that he had “formed two companies of spies from among the men moving on their families.” One he placed under the direction of Louis B. Franks, who had recently commanded his own ranger company during the revolution, to watch the road near Gonzales. The other was under William Robinson, to spy on the road between Bidai Creek and the La Bahía Road on to the Brazos River. Neither company found any signs of advancing Mexican troops and the companies were not maintained for any length of time.3 Bayne assumed command of the various ranging units which had joined the army for the battle of San Jacinto. Payment papers of William Weatherred of Captain William Wilson’s rangers shows that the company was stationed at “Headquarters Battleground” on April 28, where Bayne signed off as “Lt. Col. of the Army.”4 During this time, there was a steady shuffling of personnel between the army and the ranger service. Captain Isaac Burton, who had fought as a private in the cavalry at San Jacinto, resumed command of his company. Payment records for privates James Gorman and Felix W. Goff, who fell in briefly with other companies at San Jacinto, show that both did continue their service in Burton’s company.5 Some of the newer arrivals formerly under Captain Tumlinson were added to Captain Burton’s command. Lieutenant Thomas Robbins, originally the second lieutenant of Burton’s rangers, was promoted from Captain William H. Smith’s cavalry company into his own command on April 25. Although Captain Robbins would sign military papers as a captain of cavalry, his company operated on the frontiers in the fashion of a ranger unit during its existence. Several of his new men, in fact, were taken directly from Lieutenant Colonel Bayne’s ranging service. Joseph Clayton, George W. Anderson, James Shaw and William Sherrod all transferred from Captain Wilson’s ranger company into Robbins’ on April 25. Another who enlisted under Robbins was former ranger superintendent Daniel Friar. Many senior officers of the Texas Army were eager to mop up the remnants of the Mexican forces. General Sam Houston, however , sent only cavalry scouts under Henry Karnes and Juan Seguín to monitor the retreat of enemy forces. David Burnet, the interim president of Texas, reached the army headquarters near San Jacinto on May 1. He found that Secretary of War Tom Rusk, eager to give chase to the enemy, was being held...

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