Harrisburg 10^th April 1836

Dearest Brother

            I leave this in the morning for the
army; a dreadful Battle is to be fought in three
or four days on the Brazos, decisive of the
fate of Texas; I shall of course have to be in
it. Wm
D Redd [of] Columbus is with me. Texas is in a
dreadful state of confusion; the Mexica[ns]
thus far are invading. St. [San] Antonio has been
retaken by them and every man in the fort
murdered. Crocket was among the number.
Fannin's Army is entirely lost. After
fighting four or five hours, the enemy held out
the white flag and proposed terms of capit-
ulation to which Fannin yielded. The terms
of surrender was that they were all to be
transported to New Orleans, not again to engage
in the war; they were about four hundred, in-
cluding Ward's men and Capt Miller's just
arrived & taken at Copano. They were kept
prisoners 9 days, then marched out and fired
upon & all butchered with the exception of
two or three who escaped by flight. Almost the
whole of the Americans from Georgia and
Alabama have perished. The Citizens of Texas
are fleeing in every direction; house, farms
etc. are deserted and every thing left behind.
Houston's Army has retreated from the
Colorado to the Brazos; the Mexican army
is in San Fillipe [sic], ours 20 miles from them;

they

Mirabeau B. Lamar to Jefferson Lamar, April 10, 1836. Mirabeau B. Lamar Papers #351. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.