Lesson 52: The Texas Santa Fe Expedition - Part VI

After traveling two thousand miles, the prisoners reached the City of Mexico on the 26th of December. Ten days after, by order of Santa Anna, they were chained two together, and marched at midnight through the streets to the palace and back to their quarters.

Two days after, they were sent out to work on a public road, but the amount of labor they performed was insignificantly small. On the 21st of January, Messrs. Thomas S. Lubbock and Louis Mazer effected their escape. Three days after, nearly all the officers were sent out to work. In February they were joined by portions of both commands who had been left sick on the road, together with nearly twenty Texans who were captured near the Nueces River. In April, Mr. Geo. W. Kendall was admitted, and joined in fellowship to Major Bennett by a similar chain worn by the others.

The prisoners told the Commandante that the 21st was their patron Saint's day, and requested leave to celebrate it, which he granted. Their friends in the city hearing of it, sent them some turkeys for a dinner and liquor to drink toasts. Major Geo. W. Bonnell delivered an appropriate address from a pulpit in what had generally been used for a lecture room. Several gentlemen from the city, and some Mexican officers, joined in the festivities. As the men had either broken the rivets of their chains or could easily shake them off from their ankles, they passed the evening in dancing. The gentlemen were represented by those wearing hats and the ladies by those with their heads uncovered; the evening's enjoyment closing by the liberation of Mr. Kendall and two others. One week after, ten more Texans were added to their list, and twenty others were released.

On the 13th of June, all were marched to the grand parade ground, where Santa Anna, accompanied by his staff officers, reviewed eight regiments of infantry, two of cavalry and artillery companies, with twelve pieces of cannon. The throng of carriages, horsemen and citizens was immense. They were gathered together to witness the liberation of the Texas prisoners, which had been accomplished through the instrumentality of Gen. Waddy Thompson, who had been sent Minister from the United States to Mexico. Four days later, they were on the road to Vera Cruz, with traveling expenses furnished by Gen. Thompson.

One month after the capture of Cooke's party, the remainder of the prisoners, Gen. McLeod's party, left San Miguel. A few days after, one of their men died from hunger, cold and fatigue. The next day, John McAllister, who was naturally lame, had sprained his ankle and was unable to keep up. Salezar, rather than to let him ride on one of the led mules, or have the march delayed, ordered him to be shot, which was done, and his ears cut off as a voucher for the number of prisoners. The Rio Grande, in its descent below Fra Cristobal, makes a large bend; to shorten the distance, the road runs across, and is called the "Dead Man's Journey," being ninety miles without water. Col. Cooke's party started on it at three o'clock, and after a forced march all night, encamped for two hours at a spring of water, fifteen miles out of the way, and reached the river below on the next afternoon.

When General McLeod's party left Fra Cristobal, the night wind from the snow-clad mountains was so chilling to the weak frames of the men that the most violent exercise could not keep them warm. Next morning many were so much exhausted that they could only stagger along. One unfortunate man, named Golpin, a merchant, was shot by the rear guard, for no other reason than that he was too sick and weak to keep up. The horses of the guard requiring rest, at dark they stopped, and at ten o'clock at night were ordered to resume their gloomy march. At daylight, a man named Griffith, who had been wounded by the Indians, and who had not entirely recovered, had ridden a mule until his faculties were nearly paralyzed by cold; at daylight he jumped off and undertook to walk; he was too weak and too lame to travel and sank to the ground. A soldier ordered him to rise. He made one feeble and ineffectual effort, and cast an imploring look to the soldier, and while doing so, the brutal miscreant knocked his brains out with a musket.

After forty hours, without food or water, they reached the waters of the Rio Grande, and before arriving at El Paso, a man named Gates, who was in a dying condition, was another victim to Mexican cruelty. Death no sooner ceased his sufferings, when, like the others before him, his ears were cut off, and his body thrown by the roadside.