Chapter 14

We were escorted into the camp by a pair of grim-looking men who took us to their new commander, a man named Mirabeau Lamar. The name sounded French, but he spoke American with a southeastern accent so I didn’t have much trouble understanding him.

I figured Sam must have been short of colonels, because Colonel Lamar had joined up as a private. But I reckoned him to be a good hombre, because when the Mexicans had Tom Rusk surrounded he rode up with a cavalry detachment and chased them away. I remembered Tom from the Gonzales fight, so I was glad he’d made it through the war. As for Lamar, even the Mexicans had saluted him for his bravery, so I guess he deserved to be a colonel.

I sure didn’t want to be one! Being a captain was bad enough, and glad I was that the ranging company had split up as soon as we got to the battlefield. Maybe they figured there was still silver in a few Mexican pockets and went off to search, although the bodies that were still unburied smelled pretty bad. Lamar sent the same two hombres with Jean-Louis and me to see Ed Burleson, but when we got there he was asleep.

“He’s been up since the fight, seeing to things.” The speaker, a sergeant, was in charge of several men watching over the general to make sure he wasn’t disturbed. “Sam was bad hurt. There were some others too, so we had to get them back to the wagons because some of the people that stayed back knew how to treat wounds.

“We had to make up a burial party too. Nine of our boys was killed, and I don’t reckon anyone has tallied up how many of Santa Anna’s soldiers won’t make it back to Mexico. But we caught ‘em nappin’ and licked their whole army, we did! We captured more than 700 of them, and a bunch of muskets and pistols besides. Swords too, and a chest full of silver! Might have been more than one of the chests, now that I think on it. We also got their mules, horses, tents, everything they had.”

“I reckon Ed’s pretty busy, now that he’s in charge, but when he wakes up I’d appreciate you telling him that Jacob Jennings and Jean-Louis Lafitte stopped by. Sam and him sent us up here with a wagon train of women and kids, so if you’d let him know that they’re staying with families around Nacogdoches it might relieve his mind.”

“I’ll do that. Cap’n, your horses look used up, if you don’t mind my sayin’ so. We’ve got all of Santa Anna’s, so why don’t you find Sion Bostick’s cavalry detachment and tell him that I sent you to swap your horses for some of the ones we captured?”

“I remember him from the fight at Gonzales,” I said. “Good man.”

“You were in that one? I don’t remember you, but I got there late and the fog was pretty thick. But now that I think on it, you do look familiar.”

“I didn’t last long,” I confessed. “I got one shot off before my horse boogered and fell on me, and I don’t remember much after that.”

“That was you? I helped lift that hoss so you could be pulled out from under him!”

“I thank you, but like I said, I don’t remember much about that day.”

“I reckon you fixed up my rifle too! Ain’t had a lick of trouble with it since, and I never did pay you! Tell you what, long as you don’t mind Mexican silver I’d admire to pay my debt now!”

By this time, Jean-Louis was grinning at my confusion. “You go ahead and pay him, and after that, I ‘spect we ought to swap horses and be on our way. If you show up in Gonzales after we get back, I’d admire to buy you a drink!”

Our horses were mustangs, tough and able to do well on a diet of prairie grass. Or if that wasn’t available, weeds, brush or even the tips of tree branches would do, but they’d come a long way and the grain we’d fed them to make up for not giving them time to graze had run out two weeks ago. We talked to Sion, then turned them in with the Mexican stock. “I’ll keep an eye on them,” he said. “Might be that if they recover all right, I’ll need new animals when we start back.”

“They’ll serve you well,” I told him. He nodded and rode slowly into the herd, edging some of the animals toward where we waited. The geldings we chose looked to be blooded stock of some kind, possibly the personal mounts of senior Mexican officers, so I figured we got the best of the swap. We saddled up and shook hands with Sion, then headed out.

As soon as we were away from the camp, which we were glad to leave because of the stink, I gave Jean-Louis half of the silver that soldier had given me. Likely it was loot off of a corpse, which was why he was being so free with it, or it could be that there was more than one of those chests of silver the sergeant had mentioned and somehow the ones who’d found it forgot to tell anyone!

None of my business if they had, I figured. If they turned it in, that bunch of politicians who’d taken off instead of staying to fight would get it. Better that it went to whoever had found it!

People noticed those big horses when we rode into Nacogdoches. We turned them into the livery and asked that they be given a measure of grain if any was available. The stable-hand said there was, and when we asked, he gave permission for us to bed down in his hayloft that night.

The trip had been long and we were tired, but not ready for sleep. We found a tent that was selling beer and something they called whiskey, so we walked in and ordered a beer. If a man was aiming to get drunk, as more than one did, then that whiskey would likely do the job. But folks called it rot-gut for a reason, so we stuck to beer.

We ordered a second beer after that first one and drank it slow, just looking around at the men leaning against the big plank that served as a bar. I spotted Fred Duty and nodded at him. He nodded back and walked over to us. “I’d admire to buy you boys a drink,” he said. “My wife told me you had a rough time of it.”