[39]
in this department.
As no reply save your verbal declaration (which declaration was that you “gave up everything” ) has been given to our note, ... we again demand the surrender ...
To this
General Twiggs replied the same day:
I have to say that you are already aware of my views in regard to the delivery of the public property of this department, and I now repeat that I will direct the positions held by the Federal troops to be turned over to the authorized agents of the State of Texas, provided the troops retain their arms and clothing, camp and garrison equipage, quartermaster's stores, subsistence, medical, hospital stores, and such means of transportation of every kind as may be necessary for an efficient and orderly movement of the troops from Texas, prepared for attack or defense against aggression from any source.
The commissioners then wrote, making two further conditions: that the troops should leave
Texas by way of the coast, and that they should there surrender all means of transportation as well as the artillery.
General Twiggs responded, consenting to the first condition, but objecting to the second so far as it related to the guns of the light batteries, and it was to that extent waived by the commissioners.
Thus the formal surrender was consummated on the 18th of February, five days before the ratification of the ordinance of secession by the people of
Texas.
In a letter to
Mr. Davis, dated New Orleans, February 25th, 1861,
General Braxton Bragg says: “
General Twiggs was ordered to turn over the command to
Colonel Waite, a Northern man, but preferred surrendering to
Texas.”
March 1st,
General Twiggs was dismissed from the United States army.
He was appointed major-general in the
Confederate service, and was placed in command at New Orleans.
He died September 15th, 1862, at
Augusta, Georgia, his own State.
On the 28th of January,
General Twiggs's successor,
Colonel Waite, was in command at
Camp Verde, 65 miles from
San Antonio.
In a letter of that date to
General Twiggs's assistant adjutant-general at
San Antonio,
Colonel Waite said:
For the purpose of making some defensive arrangements, I have deemed it proper to order the remainder of Captain Brackett's company to this place without waiting for further instructions from your office.
... I respectfully request that 1 or 2 pieces of artillery ... maybe sent here as early as practicable.
In making this application I assume that there is a probability, or at least a possibility, that a mob of reckless men may attempt to seize the public property here, the most valuable of which consists of 53 camels, ... worth some $20,000. ... I hold it to be the duty of every commanding officer to be at all times, and under all circumstances, prepared as far as possible for any and every emergency.
To this end he must anticipate his wants and take timely measures to meet them.
February 12th, he wrote again:
Being desirous of concentrating my regiment (the 1st Infantry) so as to bring the companies more under my control, I respectfully request permission to move out of the department with the five companies now serving here and join the remainder of the regiment which is in the Department of the West.
February 26th, in his report of the situation after he had assumed command, he says:
To concentrate a sufficient number [of troops] to make a successful resistance after the Texans had taken the field was not practicable.
Besides, we had no large depot of provisions to move upon, and the means of transportation at the posts were so limited that the troops could have taken with them a supply for only a few days.
An attempt to bring them together under these circumstances would have no doubt resulted in their being cut up in detail before they could get out of the country.
Under these circumstances, I felt it my duty to comply with the agreement entered into by General Twiggs, and remove the troops from the country as early as possible.
For this purpose
Colonel Waite continued at
San Antonio.
The troops (except those mentioned below) marched to the coast, where vessels chartered by the
United States awaited them.
Concerning the advantages which
General Twiggs's surrender conferred upon the cause of secession,
Colonel Charles Anderson says:
Of its successes, the first was that it carried the so-called election five days afterward.
Without this brilliant coup de main (the first victory of rebellion) the majority would have surely been in Texas for the Union cause.
As it was, only 42,000 votes (less than half the total vote of the State) was polled, of which 13,000 votes were given by the now confounded and dismayed Unionists.
[The exact vote was: for ratification, 34,794; against, 11,235.-editors.] And just here (a second and great success) was the beginning of that series of flockings pari passu, with every disaster to the Union cause, of our Douglas Democrats, and our Bell and Everett men to the winning side — the Breckinridge Democrats.
... A third gain to the rebellion was the immense money and military values of the public arms and other war properties on the very verge of the coming war, which it hastened, if it did not determine.
Fourthly, our national prestige lost was a vast and instant impulse to secession and rebellion in every slave State.
The number of posts surrendered was 19.
The number of troops “to be removed, in compliance With
General Twiggs's agreement,” was reported by
Colonel Waite, February 26th, at 2328.
This agreement was not respected by the
Confederate authorities, who, on the 11th of April, on the ground “that hostility exists between the
United States and
Confederate States,” gave instructions to
Colonel Earl Van Dorn “to intercept and prevent the movement of the United States troops from the
State of Texas.”
Under these orders 815 officers and men were captured, including
Colonel Waite and his staff, who accepted parole under protest.
Many of the private soldiers were kept in confinement for nearly two years. The San Antonio Herald, of February 23d, 1861, estimated the total value of the property surrendered at $1,209,500, “exclusive of public buildings to which the
Federal Government has a title.”
This property included mules, wagons, horses, harness, tools, corn, clothing, commissary and ordnance stores.
In the main the authority for the foregoing statements is Volume I. of the
Official Records of the Union and Confederate armies, issued by the War Department, under the editorship of
Lieutenant-Colonel Robert N. Scott, U. S. A. This work will be referred to hereafter in these pages as
Official Records.--editors.
