Secret War for Texas

Appendix: Grant’s Men

Appendix: Grant’s Men a biographical dictionary This is a listing of all the men so far identified as belonging to the two companies that went forward with James Grant to San Patricio at the end of January 1836, and afterward followed him to the Rio Grande. One company was commanded by Captain Thomas Lewellen and the other by Captain Thomas Pearson. Fortunately the transcript of a final roster for Lewellen’s company survives in the Land Office Muster Rolls, but none has been found for Pearson’s company or Captain Plácido Benavides’s Federalistas, and consequently the listing remains incomplete. The compilation presented here is therefore largely based on the work of the late Harbert davenport, who included some of Grant’s men in an unfinished study of Fannin’s command intended to complement Amelia Williams’s work on Alamo defenders.1 A thorough revision and expansion has however been undertaken, and while a number of soldiers have here been added to davenport’s lists, others have been removed or his identifications have been questioned. staff Colonel Francis (Frank) White Johnson Born near Leesburg, Virginia, on October 3, 1799, and originally trained as a surveyor, he came to Texas in 1826, laid out Harrisburg in that year, and was afterward the surveyor in the Ayish district and then surveyorgeneral of Austin’s colony in 1832. An able but frequently intemperate Austin supporter, he became alcalde of San Felipe de Austin in 1831, led a militia company during the Anahuac disturbances of 1832, and was a delegate to the constitutional convention in that year. in 1835 he went to 18 • appendix Monclova, ostensibly as an observer at the proceedings of the state legislature , met James Grant for the first time, and was associated with Samuel Williams in obtaining some of the controversial land certificates. during the siege of Bexar he was appointed adjutant and inspector general of the army, and during the assault on the town he initially commanded one of the two columns before succeeding to operational control of all the forces in the town after the death of Ben Milam. Subsequently left in command of the forces at Bexar, he and Grant immediately proceeded to reorganize them in preparation for the projected Matamoros expedition . However, while Johnson was absent at San Felipe, Grant took command and marched the army down to Goliad. Johnson eventually caught up at Refugio but never succeeded in reestablishing his authority. Surprised by urrea at San Patricio on February 27, he managed to escape but took no further part in the revolution. Traveling widely and unsuccessfully , he was something of a recluse when he died at Aguascalientes, Mexico, on or about April 8, 1884. Major Robert C. Morris Seemingly a native of New Orleans and an apothecary by trade, Morris was introduced to Stephen Austin in October 1835, as having served five or six years in a local volunteer unit called the Louisiana Guards; he was recommended to Stephen Austin by J. W. Collins of New Orleans as a “soldier and tactician.”2 He was also, as it turned out, something of an alarmist, but this did not prevent him from successively being elected captain of one of the two companies of New Orleans Greys and then major of the provisional regiment. At the storming of Bexar he was originally second in command of Ben Milam’s column, but when all the Texian forces in the town were consolidated after the death of Milam and wounding of Grant, he became Frank Johnson’s second in command . Afterward he declined a commission in the regular army of Texas to march south with Grant and stuck by him after Houston’s intervention at Refugio. in command for a time at San Patricio, he informed William Cooke on February 10 that he was no longer in the service of Texas but had accepted the command of a regiment in the federal service of Mexico and then rode with Grant to the Rio Grande. He was killed in action at Agua dulce on March 2, 1836, and in 1858 Reuben Brown recalled that after his own horse went down, “Grant told me to mount Maj. Morris’ horse, as Morris had just been killed.” Grant’s Men • 183 Captain Nathaniel R. Brister A Virginian, he was originally first sergeant of the New Orleans Greys, before being appointed adjutant of Ben Milam’s column for the storming...