among the Anglo settlers in Texas with great interest. Texas independence from Mexico, Green and others knew, would send emigrants from the southern states pouring across the Sabine, which would mean large profits for the wise investor who purchased land before prices rose. Accordingly, Green began speculating in lands in Texas in 1855 - two of his wife's cousins, John A. and William H. Wharton, were already well established there - and had made plans to move to Texas in search of new opportunities, when Mexican troops clashed with Anglo settlers at Gonzales.

Having placed his son in the care of an aunt and uncle, Green arrived in Texas in early 1836, with the Revolution well underway.2 He proceeded to Jared E. Groce's plantation on the Brazos River, where he found the provisional government in temporary residence. Already acquainted with two members of the cabinet, Green arranged to meet with Acting President David G. Burnet, who issued him a brigadier general's commission authorizing him to return to the United States for the purpose of raising troops and money.3 The fact that the government of Texas, and for that matter most Texans, was at this time fleeing before Santa Anna's advancing army did not blunt Green's enthusiasm for the cause of independence. A contemporary historian described Green as "one of the disinterested champions of Liberty beyond the Sabine."4 Green was by no means unmindful of the prospect of personal gain, however, for he was fully convinced, as he confided to two business associates, that "Texas will certainly be ceded," as a result of which he expected land prices to "rise tenfold."5 To a friend in the United States he wrote: "Now is the time for enterprize and honor and fortunes.... Every man who may join our struggle will be well paid in money and land, more bountyfully than by any other nation on the globe."6

Whether out of patriotic or mercenary motives, Green approached the tasks assigned to him with characteristic zeal. He made his way to New Orleans via Natchez, purchasing gunpowder along the way and mortgaging his land holdings in Mississippi to pay for his expenses. He was a fiery and skillful propagandist in the service of Texas, but in New Orleans he found the efforts to aid the Revolution in disarray.7 The news soon filtering in to the port city of Mexican victories at the Alamo and at Goliad made it particularly difficult for him to recruit as many men as he had hoped. In Texas, Acting President Burnet added to the confusion by issuing a proclamation subsequent to Green's departure, stating that the commissions of all officers who agreed to provide troops for Texas would not go into effect until a certain number of men had been raised and mustered into service; only after raising one thousand recruits could Green officially claim the rank of brigadier general. Green simply ignored the edict, which would have seriously impaired his recruiting efforts, having already issued, on his own authority as a brigadier general, numerous officers' commissions to anyone who offered to raise volunteers.8

In two months, Green managed to enlist some 230 men from Louisiana and