on account of our men departing from the original plan of keeping the main road home. The calculation both of success in battle and the reasonableness of reaching home were maturely made; and we repeat, without the fear of contradiction, that, had that plan of operation been pursued by keeping the main road, on the 19th, which was nine days after their victory at Salado, our men would have been safe in Texas. We knew the fact from Captain Fitzgerald and Messrs. Van Ness and Hancock, that all their regular [176] forces at San Fernando had been marched down to Guerrero, and that before said forces could be informed from Salado, and then marched back to our crossing above the Precidio of the Rio Grande, our men would be far in Texas. We also knew the fact that it would be impossible to get any sufficient citizen force to attack them. These calculations were fully justified from the result that, 1st. Nine days after the battle, both Governor Mexier and Ortega had only four hundred and twenty men to intercept them, a force which, had our men kept together in the road, would never have approached them.19

2dly. That on this road, and in sight of the city of Saltillo, Colonel Jordan, three years since, with one hundred and fourteen men, only ninety-three of whom were effective, fought General Vascus and one thousand five hundred troops, defeated him, and made good his retreat, in the face of this pursuing force, into Texas, with a loss of eight men.

3dly. That only two years since one hundred and fifty miserable Comanche Indians put the town of Saltillo under tribute, and were supplied with every requisition.

With these facts before us, will any except the "moon-struck" pretend to say that our two hundred and twenty-one men at Salado, who had performed such wonderful deeds of velour, could not do half what Jordan and his ninety-three did, or could not do what a few wretched Comanches had frequently done? [177]

We return again to the battle of Salado, to inquire after our wounded and those who remained with them. Of the wounded, Higgerson died soon after our main body had taken the road home. Captains Fitzgerald and Baker, and privates Stansbury and Hancock, were placed in a rough cart and started to Mexico, with Captain Reese and those who were not wounded, but who refused to return home with the balance of the men. Fitzgerald died the second day, and was hauled from the cart before the vital spark had left his body, and thrown upon the prairie to the wolves and vultures.

We rarely knew so brave a man and so good a soldier as was Captain F., an Irishman by birth. He had served as captain in the "Peninsular War" under General Evans, where he had distinguished himself, and came to Texas, as he informed the writer, "because ours was the most just cause in which he could engage." He deserves the sympathy of all brave men, and the lasting gratitude of our country. The balance of this party, in all sixteen, were, under charge of