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They were too patriotic to be seduced, or even to listen patiently to his wicked overtures.
At about the time when
Van Dorn appeared, seven companies of National troops, under
Major Sibley, were at
Indianola, on
Matagorda Bay, preparing to embark on the
Star of the West, which had been ruthlessly expelled from
Charleston harbor in January.
This vessel had been sent, with twenty thousand rations and other supplies, under convoy of the gunboat
Mohawk, to bear away the troops.
Supposing the vessel to be at the mouth of the harbor,
Sibley embarked the troops on two small steam lighters, and proceeded down the bay. He had suspected treasonable designs concerning his command.
His suspicions were confirmed by the absence of the
Star of the West and its convoy, and he resolved to go on in the lighters to
Tampico, in Mexico.
A lack of provisions and coal compelled him to turn back.
His troops were disembarked, and, on the following day,
Lieutenant Whipple gave him proof of hostile designs against, his troops, by reporting the existence of a small battery at Saluria, some distance down the bay.
Whipple was ordered to capture it, but when he and his little party approached the place, the cannon were not there.
As speedily as possible,
Major Sibley re-embarked his troops on two schooners, and these, towed by the steam lighters, proceeded toward the
Gulf.
Heavy easterly winds were sweeping the sea, and no pilots were to be seen.
Darkness came on before they reached the entrance to the bay, and they anchored within it. There they lay a greater part of two days and two nights, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the
Star of the West and
Mohawk. At ten o'clock, when the darkness was profound, and the storm heavy, thick volumes of smoke were discerned above the schooners.
At daylight three steamers lay near, with side-barricades of cotton-bales; and, a little later, a larger steamship than either of these, armed with heavy cannon, came over the bar and anchored near the schooners.
The four vessels bore about fifteen hundred well-armed Texans, under
Van Dorn.
He sent commissioners to demand the surrender of the troops on the schooners.
Sibley called a council of war.
It was unanimously agreed that resistance to such a heavy and active force would be madness, and
Sibley surrendered.
The spoils, besides the seven companies made prisoners of war, four hundred and fifty in number, were over three hundred fine rifles and the camp equipage of the whole party of captured troops.
Many of these men wept because they had not an opportunity to fight, and threw their arms overboard.
At about the same time, a party of volunteers from
Galveston boarded the
Star of the West off
Indianola, and captured her, with all her stores.
On the day preceding this surrender near Saluria,
Colonel Waite, with his staff and all of the officers on duty at
San Antonio, were made prisoners,
under most aggravating circumstances.
When
Colonel Waite pointed to the plighted faith of the self-constituted Texan authorities with whom
Twiggs had treated, and argued that the present act was in violation of a solemn covenant, he was given to understand that no arguments would be heard — that he and his officers were prisoners, and, if they were not quiet, physical force would be used to compel them to keep silence.
One of the most insolent of these representatives of “authority”
