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By
W. D. H. Saunders, 721 Rigsby Avenue, I
was born in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, March 1, 1845, and came to
Texas with my parents in 1850, locating in Gonzales County. Although quite
small at that time, I remember when crossing the Mississippi River at
Vicksburg, a fire started on the boat and there was great excitement on
board. The passengers and crew succeeded in extinguishing the fire before
it gained much headway. We moved to Goliad County in 1859. I
was married June 27, 1866, to Miss Annie New in Bee County, Texas. To us
were born twelve children, eleven of whom are yet living. I was engaged in
the mercantile business in Bee County several years, later moving to
Sayers, Bexar County, in 1884, where I was postmaster and merchant for
twenty years. I moved to San Antonio in 1919. T.B. Saunders (II), a
prominent business man of Fort Worth, is my son. In
October, 1862, I left Goliad with Jim Borroum and Monroe Choate with eight
hundred beeves for Mississippi. We
crossed the Guadalupe River at Clinton and went to Sweet Home, in Lavaca
County, where we rented a field in which to pen our cattle. In this field
was a large haystack. The cattle became frightened at this haystack and
stampeded. Next morning we were eight miles from camp and lost three
hundred of the beeves. We remained there several days to round up our
cattle, and then started on our trip, crossing the Colorado at Columbus,
the Brazos at Richmond, the Trinity at Liberty, the Natchez at Beaumont,
the Sabine near Orange, and then passed into Louisiana, after which we
crossed the Cule-shoe River and passed through Opelousas, where we met
Crump and Fleming, who bought half interest in our herd, and put in three
hundred more, making eleven hundred in all. When
we were near the Mississippi River the Confederate soldiers arrested all
of our crowd, thinking we were trying to get the beeves to the Yankees.
They took the owners of the herd to Alexandria and held the rest of us
four or five days, but as they could not prove anything, we were all
released and permitted to pursue our journey. When we reached the
Mississippi a thousand of the beeves took the water and easily swam
across, but we had to sell one hundred on this side of the river, as we
could not get them across. We had an old negro with us who was very
excitable, and was always uneasy for fear the Yankees would get him, and
we had a great deal of difficulty in keeping him with us. We
found sugar mills at all of the large plantations and whenever we stopped
at a mill our boys were told to "help themselves," which they
usually did, with the result that they often ate too much and were sick
from the effects of it. After
we crossed the Mississippi the Confederate soldiers arrested us again, and
took our men to Fort Hudson, where they kept them several days, but, as in
the former case, they found nothing against us and turned us loose. At
Woodville, Mississippi, the cattle were divided, and Borroum and Choate
sold theirs to parties there. Crum and Fleming went on to Mobile, Alabama,
where they sold their cattle. At
Woodville we stayed at a plantation owned by Dr. Simms. The fence around
this plantation was made of hedges. One night Dr. Simms persuaded Upshur
Brookin and myself to go bird hunting. We had to carry a light and kill
the birds with a stick. We succeeded in killing but one bird, and the next
morning at breakfast Upshur found that bird on his plate. Dr. Simms had a
large canebreak on his farm where he kept his mules and horses. The doctor
had never seen a hair rope, so while we were there he drove up all of
his horses and had us trim their manes and tails to get hair and make a
rope him. Upshur
Brookin, J. B. New and myself came home together. We crossed the
Mississippi with our horses on a ferry boat. The water came within two
inches of the boat and I almost knew we would sink before we got across. I
reached home in January and enlisted in the army at Corpus Christi,
February 23, 1863, when I was just seventeen years old. Source
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1999-2000
©
Sam Sanders. All Rights Reserved |
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