Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[266] He was placed in command of the Department of Texas only a few weeks before he committed the treasonable act we are about to record. For forty years he had served his Government acceptably, and was honored with its confidence; but the virus that poisoned so many noble characters, destroyed the life of his patriotism. Not content with deserting his flag himself, he tried to seduce his officers from their allegiance. He began by talking gloomily of the future, and expressing doubts of the ability of the Government to maintain its authority. He soon spoke disparagingly of that Government; and finally he said to his officers :--“The Union will be at an end in less than sixty days, and if you have any pay due you, you had better get it at once, for it is the last you will ever get.”

Intimations of Twiggs's disloyalty had reached the Secretary of War, Holt, and on the 18th of January, in a general order, the veteran was relieved from the command of the Department of Texas, and it was turned over to Colonel Carlos A. Waite, of the First Regiment of Infantry. But the anticipated mischief was accomplished before the order could perform its intended work. When the Commissioners were informed of its arrival at Twiggs's Headquarters, at the Alamo, in the city of San Antonio, they took measures to prevent its reaching Colonel Waite, whose regimental headquarters was at the least sixty miles distant, on the Verde Creek, a branch of the Guadaloupe River. But the vigilance and activity of the patriotic Colonel Nichols, Twiggs's Assistant Adjutant-General, who watched his chief with the keen eye of full suspicion, foiled

The Alamo.1

them. He duplicated the orders, and sent two couriers by different routes. One of them was captured and taken back to San Antonio, and the other reached Waite, with the order, on the 17th of February.

Twiggs was cautious and had adroitly avoided committing himself to treason in writing. He always said to the impatient Commissioners :--“I will give up every thing.” But the time had now arrived when temporizing must end. He was ready to act; but he must have a decent excuse for his surrendering the force under his immediate command, which consisted of only two skeleton companies under Captains King and Smith. Other troops had been ordered away from San Antonio by Twiggs when the danger of revolution became pressing, and they might be called to put down insurrection.