| From the Houston Telegraph |
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| December 21, 1863 |
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| Port Lavaca, Monday noon, Dec. 21, 1863 |
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| Editor Telegraph, |
| Yesterday, about 9 A. M., the
enemy came up to Powderhorn, with one steamer and one schooner, threw
out their pickets, and very quietly went to work getting off planks
from the charred ruins of one of the wharves, and at sundown moved off
as they came, and today everything is quiet. I have constant access to
Headquarters here, and therefore am posted at the earliest moment
whenever anything turns up. |
| Our railroad {the
San Antonio & Mexican Gulf RR} is now being
rapidly annihilated in every part. This is a sore subject, and
I name it at this time with great reluctance, because the gallantry of
Gen. Magruder has been a theme of admiration with us heretofore, and
we don't like to be let down so flat. He will no doubt say that it was
a military necessity, and that civilians have no right to question his
judgment on this subject. |
| I acknowledge he ought to
know what is best to do, but we can't help thinking he has erred in
judgment, and trust it will not be out of place for me to give a
reason or two, why we think so, which I do with all due deference to
the General. |
| 1st It will create a debt of
more than $340,000 for our Confederacy to pay. 2d It ruins the
future business prospects of this section of Texas. Both of these
reasons, I acknowledge would be futile if there was any necessity for
it, which I deny, and submit the following facts to prove what I say.
The road is about thirty miles long, and the old San Antonio wagon
road runs alongside of it which has been the road for about
thirty years, over which all the goods that were sold in San
Antonio were hauled in wagons and Mexican carts. |
| I am informed by old merchants
here that said piece of road was a good road for at least nine months
of each year on an average, and that the other three months were not
so bad but what lines of stages made their regular trips almost daily,
as also very many carts and wagons were going and coming all the
while. Now, then, we will suppose that the enemy have determined to
try to make to San Antonio and Austin with a force strong enough for
the work before them, then let me ask is it not reasonable to suppose
that they will be fully provided with transportation? I think all will
say yea, and I assert that it would take the road at least two weeks
with her small amount of rolling stock, to transport the plunder
necessary for such a campaign. Again, all the wharves at the different
towns on the bay, are and will be destroyed before they can get any
good of them, consequently they will have to make landings of their
own, and from them land their wagons. Now then will they haul these
supplies to the depot, and let the wagons go on empty? or will they
load up and go directly on, which is only two days easy march? If it
is said that they would want to bring down cotton, I reply that they
won't get any cotton, for it will be burned. I also say, that there
never has been a time, from the beginning of this way, that the
citizens and stock holders were not ready and willing to disable
the road at a moment's warning, and our plans were all matured how to
do it, and we should not have waited for the General's order to do it. |
| I have been told by high
authority that the General distrusts the loyalty of sundry individuals
in the West, which was the principal cause of his order for the
destruction of the road. Now I was taught to believe that a man should
be considered innocent until he is proved guilty, and I therefore
argue that these men are innocent of the charge if disloyalty, because
if the General has proof enough to justify him in issuing said order,
(which I understand was to prevent its being a temptation to said
parties to turn the road over to the enemy to save it) then it follows
that he has proof strong enough to do with them as he did with Peeples
and Baldwin. |
| We read in the Good Book that
Sodom and Gomorrow were destroyed, because there could not be found
ten righteous men in it, and it is said to be a poor rule that will
not work both ways, and I here assert that the Gen. can't find ten
really disloyal men to the Confederate cause. (I mean those of any
standing at all,) in the companies that are directly interested in
this road. I therefore argue, that it is wrong in him, to inflict such
a calamity on so large a section of country, and make such a debt for
the Confederacy, just because he distrusts the loyalty of two or three
individuals in it. |
| ***** |
| D. Bradbury |
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