Where are the great men now, at a time when we desperately need them? I don’t see any around, and I am saddened that we have no brave, courageous, intelligent, smart (there is a difference between intelligent and smart) leaders who can lead this country back to its greatness.

Keep on writing!!! Sandy

As for the Civil War, Houston felt so strongly about his battle to get Texas INTO the Union, that he was heartsick that they so quickly wanted to LEAVE the Union. He felt SO strongly, that he left his office, rather than agree to turn his back on what he had worked so hard to achieve.

Lamar joined the retreating Texas army at Groce’s Settlement, as a private, and a few days later arrived with it at what was to be the battleground of San Jacinto. On the afternoon of April 20 during skirmishes by the Texas cavalry, Col. Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War, in the front of this second cavalry charge, was hemmed in by several Mexican dragoons. It was sure that he would be put to the sword because while Santa Anna watched this fight, he ordered his bugler to sound the “Deguello.” Pvt. Lamar, on a big stallion, charged into the ring of Mexican cavalrymen surrounding Col. Rusk, knocked over one horseman with his horse, and thereby made an opening through which both he and the Secretary of War could escape.

As Lamar and the Texas cavalry retreated to the woods, Lamar rushed to the rescue of another comrade’s life. Walter Lane, a nineteen-year-old boy born in Ireland and raised in Baltimore, had been brushed off his horse when a Mexican lance touched him on the shoulder. His wound was slight, but he was on the ground and unable to defend himself when another Mexican lancer rushed to attack him. Lamar rode up in time to shoot the Mexican lancer with his pistol. Killing the Mexican lancer, and putting the others to flight, Lamar extricated his comrade-in-arms who jumped behind another Texas cavalryman on a rawboned sorrel mare and made it back to the Texas camp. This boy, who owed his life to Lamar’s daring intervention, later became a Confederate general.

Legend adds that Lamar then rode coolly in front of the Mexican lines back to his own squad, that the Mexican cavalrymen paused to applaud Lamar’s brave feats, that they acknowledged their admiration by a volley as he passed, and that Mirabeau reined in his horse and acknowledged this tribute with a bow. It was a deed the Black Prince would have envied.

The next morning Lamar was acclaimed commander of the cavalry, but he refused the post out of consideration for the regular officers. These very officers, however, after Colonel Rusk had invited him to join his staff, added their insistence to that of the men, and Lamar took command of the cavalry corps.

As the main Texas army advanced to the fife and drum music of “Come to the Bower I Have Shaded For You, Our bed shall be roses all spangled with dew,” Lamar and his sixty cavalrymen swept forward on the right wing like an avenging fury.

Mirabeau B. Lamar—the knightly gentleman, affectionate, loyal husband, romanticist poet, whose Huguenots ancestors fled France because of persecution for their Christian beliefs—went on to become the second President of the Republic of Texas and “father of education” in our great State.

Her remarks, from the steps of the Texas Capitol,
visiting Austin in May, 1991:

“One hundred and fifty years ago, the British consul in Texas reported to our Foreign Office that ‘Texans are rough and wild, but their consistency and courage are admirable.’

“Quite a number of principal characters in it (Texas history) had their origin in the old country,” she said.
“Some of the heroes of the Alamo were migrants from Britain, as were many of the people who settled your land.

“In more recent years, Texans have been busy reversing the trend,” she noted.
“The new world has returned to develop the old.
Texan strength and Texan expertise have notably helped us to find and use the oil fields in the North Sea.”

She evoked wild cheering when she talked about Texas’ reputation.

“No state commands such fierce pride and loyalty,”
the Queen said,
looking up from her text as the crowd erupted,
waving flags and applauding.

“Lesser mortals are pitied for their misfortune in not being born Texans.

(And then the crowd really went wild . . . ! )

“That sense of confidence and optimism is a priceless asset in an increasingly competitive world,” she said.

(Pretty neat stuff from the Queen of All the English-Speaking Peoples of the World, eh? — JJW)