The Georgia pioneer, and retrenchment banner. (Cassville, Ga.) 1835-184?, May 20, 1836, Image 2

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JFI ff riit a. From the Savannah Georgia*. LATEST FROM FLORIDA. The steam packet Florida, Captain Hebbard, arrived yesterday morning from Pieolata/Ta JacksonvilleJrcighted with tiie gallant corps ofCapt. Robert son, and Capt. Bones, from Augusta, whom, officers and men, we welcome back to their native State, after the perilous campaign they have encoun tered. Their conduct, and that of all the brave volunteers who*sacrificed their comforts at home for the perils of the camp, must ever be a source of the most unmixed gratification to those w hose names are more than ever identi fied w ith the country from whose bosom they have sprung. We regret that these gallant men returned so much earlier than was expected, thereby de priving our citizens of the opportunity of making sum? preparation for their reception. Messrs. Andrew Low, jr..Wm. D. I Berrien, Edward Purse, and Wm. Reed I of this city, returned with the Rich mond Blues. Major Pemberton, senior Editor of the Augusta Chronicle, was also a passengei in the Florida., Hereturned from Fort Drane, via Jacksonville,hav ing been with the Army on the route to Tainpa, and back to Fort Drane. To bis politeness we are indebted for the following information, in addition to that contained in the extra of the Jacksonville Courier. One of Ihe divisions of the Army under Gen. Clinch, left Tampa on the ! 14th ult., for Fort Drane. Having; proceeded three days on their march,' they arrived within four miles of Fort! Cooper, where Major Cooper had been left with his battalion from Georgia. Gen. Clinch encamped and detached the two companies of mounted meu frSm Jefferson and Washington coun ties, under the command of Capt. M done, of the Washington corps, with wagons to rl ijor Copper, aad instruc tion to join him. When this detach ment had proceeded about two or 3 jniles, they were fired upon by the In dian?, stationed in a hammock near the road, and Mr. Howard and Cornet Dawson,of the Washington troop,were wounded. Mr. Howard received three wounds, but is in a fairway of recovery. Cornet D. received a wound (not dan gerous) in the leg. The Indians re treated before the fire of Capt. Malone’s men, and Capt. M., on informing Gen. Clinch, received a reinforcement of a corps of infantry,who scoured the ham mock, but without discovering the In dians. This was on the 18th ult. The detachment proceeded toFort Cooper without further molestation. There they learned that a considerable body of Indiana had attacked the encamp ment of Major C. on the third or fourth day after Gen. Scott’s command left them, but they were successfully re pulsed by the brave Georgians. The Indians refiewed their attack upon Major Cooper for thirteen successive days, but with no better success, than unfortunately killing Mr. Zadoch Cook of the Morgan Guards, commanded by Capt. N. G. Foster. After the junction of Major C. with Gen. Clinch,the latter returned about two miles to take an Indian trail, and after proceeding a day or two without meeting any Indians, heard the cannon of Col. Lindsay, fired at 10 o’clock, A. M. as a signal. They reached Col. L’s. camp before evening. He was en camped on the. great Ouithlacoochee —had been suffering, as well as sever atof his men, from sickness, but was recovering. Col. L. stated that he left Tampa on the 14th ult., and was attacked by a party of Indians while crossing the Hillsboro’ riv,ei w -and had one of his men unfortunately killed, Mr. James Branham; of the Alabama Volunteers, asonofDr. Ilenry Bran ham, of Putnam county in this State, a young volunteer,whose loss was sincere ly regretted. Gen. Clinrh’sjdi vision havingseparat fd from Col. Linsay’s, (latter intending to return to Tampa,) proceeded on tbeir way tv Fort King. On their march, before reaching Fort Kmg, one of the mounted Rankers,Mr. Bostick,of Jeffer son troop, Was fired upon by Indians, and wounded, though not severely His horse was, however, s« badly Wounded a? to dif?shorjy after. Ihe Indians, although fir«J upon,escaped. This division reached I ort King with out any other incidents, except passing over the interesting battle ground of ' Major Dalle, and falling in with, at two different times, near two hundred head of cattle and three p'voies with halters. They arrived at Fort King on the 25th, where they learned that the Indians had made prisoners of two friendly squaws who were washing about one hundred yards from the Fort. One js the wife of Indian BiUy, who, with his son, was w ith oar arm at the time. At Fort King they first learned that Fort Drane had been attacked, dnd some negroes & several horses captur ed, while outside the Fort. Major Cooper’s battalion was left at Fort Drane on the 27th ult., and expected soon to be discharged. The mounted men from Georgia had been discharged as also the Augusta Volunteers. Gen. Scott has,we learn from another source reached Picolata, via Volusia, to which latter place he accompanied Gen. Eustis. Thus, it seems has ended this unfortunate compaign, and the Red man stalks unpunished over the graves of Dade and his martyred associates. Col. Mclntosh’s cotton house in the vicinity of Fort Drane,- was burnt to the ground onthe night of the 25th ult. and about sixty bales of cotton therein consumed. Several officers of the army were passengers in the Florida. Some have proceeded on in the Seabrook for the North, via Charleston. We sympathise—deeply sympathise with our bleeding brethren in Florida. We have been brief in the above statement, as circumstances rendered it necessary to compress. From the Charleston Mercury. THE INDIAN CAMPAIGN TERMINATED. Captain Finley, Aid to Gen. Eustis, and Lieutenant Van Buren, Aid to Gen. Scott arrived in this city yester day forenoon from Picolata,via Savan nah, in the Steam Packet William, Sea brooks Capt. Dubois, from Savannah' who have politely communicated the fbllo"ing information: Lieut. Van Buren states, that owing to the commencement of the warm weather, the campaign had been brought to a close. The regular forces had gone into summer quarters at St. Augustine. There were supposed to be about 200 on the sick list at Tampa Bay, and 80 at Volusia. Capt. Finley has communicated to us the foliowing intelligence: The left wing of the army of Florida arrived at Tampa Bay on the sth of April, left there on the 17th, &, march ed to Volusia, by Pilaklikaha. The active operations of the campaign have ceased from the sickly season having commenced. The South Carolina Vo lunteers left Volusia on Friday, 29th, to march to St. Augustine, where Col. Brisbane’s regiment would be discharg ed, and sent by transports to this City Col. Goodwyn’s mounted men- would be discharged at Jacksonville. The regulars, it is believed, will in Florida, in garrison posts which may be important in the commencement of the next campaign. The Indans were no where in any force, and are suppos ed to be scattered over the territory. We give the following extracts of letters: “Camp Volusia, E. F., April 27. “At 9 o’clock on Thursday, the 14th instant, we were attacked by a party of Indians, consisting of about one hun dred and fifty in number. The attack was first made upon a party of five men,- detached to dig a grave, who were fired upon within 300 yards of the pickets, and two of their number, lam sorry to say, fell victims to the scalping knife of the ruthless savages. yVe were at the same moment surround ed and fired upon from every direction by the enemy.- Our men appeared punctually at their posts, and returned the saiate with a volley of musket balls. m sorry that lam deprived of the pleasure of giving you here a de tailed account of the whole affair, but, for want of tiwe,Jam forced to be laconic, aS the boat is about starting otfin a few minutes. However, I must say, before concluding, tha'l while the savages were charging' bolJly in open field upon our fort, Captain Quattle bum, who was Very sick,mounted the pickets and fired at one fellow, (at a distance of about 130 yards.) who was seen by many to fall into the bellies. At the same time Mr. J. R. Dickson, who was a bold volunteer on the occa sion fired at another by the side of a tree, and planked the ball into the tree. Dickson, although engaged in other business,and not expected to shoulder arms, has been on every occasion, ex ceedingly prompts "The Shritfi-lGaFolina troops are now it tills post, oft*their way homeward; they will leave here in a day or two for St. Augustine. They have had several little fights but none very effec tive. The war is not by any means’at an end, and will be another winter’s campaign.” “Volusia, E. F., April 25. “We have been without any news for 16 days,-with the exceptionof a daring attack from about 150 Indians. On the 14 th inst., at 9 o’clock, our camp was alarmed by the report of three rifles, which was instantly follow ed by the whole body. The camp en closed about one and a half acres of ground. The plan of attack was such l as to try the pluck of our io6n,wb,o placed themselves at the pickets with the determination to stand the conse quences. The first three fires biought Sergeant Hblleday and Gough to the ground, and wounded Watson. IL, although mortally wounded, ordered his men to fire; but they were so close ly pursued they did not. They came up within 120 yards of bur picket,keep ing up a constant firing on us without effect, when we opened djjort thenv which they did not mind, and sfiodted at it; but when our howitzer discharg ed the bomb shell it surprised them, and they retreated a little, but still fired at our fort. The balls were pass ing around us inevery direction. From the cross-fire, the attack lasted about 50 minutes. They retreated; shout ing at about a mile and a half distant, which we could not interrupt.” jP e x a s. From the Columbus Enquirer, May 6. In another column, we give as we received them, every article of news from this distracted province. The following, which we received yester day in the N. O. Bulletin of the 28th, is the latest and most authentic infor mation which we have received. All eyes are now turned upon Houston. It remains to be seen whether his brave comrades will not restore to the ty rants, sevenfold vengeance for their savage butcheries. We confidently expect.that such.will be, or has before, this, been the case. Our informant I left them in tine spirits and sanguine of success. It is more titan probable thatj our next paper will contain the,news of the fall or triumph pf Fexas. May Heaven defend, and save the generous and the brave. Substance of the information brought by Captains Thornton and Jackson, who left t;he mouth of the Brasses on the 16th ult. On the 14th ult. Capt. Thornton left Gen. Houston’s army at Groce’s, 20 miles above San Felipe. On theeve ning of the same day, Gen Houston look up a line of march to attack a di vision of the Mexican army, then re ported to be crossing the Brassos, 30 miles below San Felipe, making their way towards Harrisburg and Galveston ■ Geu Houston had with him 1200 eflec- j live men, the number of the enemy es timated at from 3 to 5 000 men, and i thought to be marching in three divi-! sions -the division on its way to Har risburg estimated at from 12 to IpOO men. Capt. Thornton descended the river on board the steam boat Yellow Stone: on passing San Felipe he saw a num ber of the enemy; and irom the num ber of animals there, supposed their numbers might be 400 men. On the 15th the steamboat arrived at Fort Bend—the point where the enemy were crossing, in number aboiit 1200 men; they were strewed along the bank of the river for some distance. The enemy endeavored to stop the boat, fired upon her from a pleCe ofar tillery, but missed the boat. They kept up a continued fire from 1 small arms, but done no injury either to the crew or boat; her cargo of cotton had been so placed as to' protect ail on board. Capt. Thornton is of* opinion that Gen. Houston had a fight with the en emy du the 17th or 18th: hrs men were anient and confident of victory. Capt. Thornton saw some and h&rrdof many families, who had taken refCige in the cane brakes of the Brassos bot tom, and were in great distress, being entirely destitute of male protectors; those he saw entreated him to make known their situation in this country: husbands -and brothers bad taken the field against.the enemy, and the wo men and children sent their prayers for aid and for volunteers to go to their rescue. Capt. Thornton confirms the account already received of the massacre of Fannin’s men, at Goliad, some five or six men from another division had made their escape,and arrived in the Braesos. The'following which we have re ceived from a friendon whose veracity we can‘place the fullest reliance, pla ces the question as to the fall of Fan nin and his men on the right footing.- Hence, it appears that so far as the! Mexican statement went, in represen ting the Treaty as faithfully kept, up to its date, it was perfectly correct. It appears, however, that the treaty hitherto kept without violation, was on the eighth day of confinement, brutally violated, when the whole captured force, amounting witlr other prisoners to 407 men,were marclied from Goliad. Scarcely had they proceeded more than a mile and a half—avowedly on the route to .Copano, when they were star-. tied by afire in Col. Fannin’s direction; an alarm arose amongst the prisoners » that the work of slaughter had com- menced, and scarcely had they come > to that conclusion when their own • guard, amounting to a large force. L suddenly formed and commenced fir : ing by platoons on the unhappy men , with such (Veadtul effect,that in a short I time, the whole was cut off’with the . exception of you 'g Hadden and three : others. For the jemainder of the news con ; veyed, we refer the reader to the letter , itself, which he will find remarkably interesting. Harrisburg!, 7th April, 183 G. , Tear Sir—This place is now the : seat of government of Texas. These are exciting times; every man now walks with a full heart, moistened eyes and compressed lips, indicating his feelings of grief and anger. Young Hadden is here; he alone escaped of all the forces which were with Col. Fannin. Onthe 19th ult Col. Fannin who had weakened his force by send ing parties on various expeditions, com menced his retreat from Goliad, hav ing with him about 300 men. Two or three leauges on the road, he was at tacked by a Mexican army of near three times his numbers—infantry cav alry and artillery. It was two hours before night, and the Texians defended themselves with the most undaunted ! resolution against the repeated char ges and vigorous efforts of the enemy until dark, when they drew off' their forces having lost in killed and woun ded 180 men. The Texians bad ten men killed and several wounded^—a mong the latter was Col. Fannin hirn i self. During the night, the Texians entrenched themselves in their posi ’ tio.’i on the prairie. The next morn ing they found thsmselves surrounded by the Mexican army who sent an offi cer with a white fl ig, and he was met by another from the Texians, and a capitulation was entered into by which it was stipulated that the Texians should surrender as prisoners of war— that they should retain their private property, and that thej should be sent to New Orleans and released upoa their parole of honor not to serve again against the Mexicans during the war. The reasons which induced the sur render without making further defence was the want of water, and a belief I that the Mexicans would comply with I the article of capitulation, according i to the custom of all civilized nations. | The prisoners were a’l marched ' back to Goliad, and were joined by i other parties of prisoners, amounting jin all to 407 men. They were kept eight days in confinement—being al- I lowed only a small piece of beef to each man once a day and no bread; on the 9lh day at sunrise, they were marched (out, under pretence of taking them to I Copano to embark for New Orleans.— i The prisoneis rejoiced at the prospect lof a speedy release, but when they j found themselves divided into four par ties, with a guard of overwhelming • strength, and that these parties were marched by different routes, they be gan’to have gloomy forebodings. When they had marched' about a quarter or ha.fa mile, young Hadden’s compa ny heard a firing Tn ttie direction of Col Fannin’s party. F. murmur atose that they were killing the prisoners. At that moment the guard which Were in two lines, one upon each side of the prisoners, passed all to one side ai.d commenced firing by platoons at the prisoners; young Hadden and three oters yet unhurt, started and fled. The cavalry, armed with lances pur sued them; they plunged into the riv er and swam; one was killed in the water,one upon the bank, and the fate of the third is unknown. Young Had den secreted himself until night ; from his hiding ph ee, he heard the shrieks and the groans of the wounded and dying men,- the cries of “O Lord! O Lord have mercy.!” and the most af fecting ejaculations of distress were mingled with the noise of guns, whith gradually subsided about mid-day, when the horrid work was finished. The neighbors who have known young Hadden from his childhood, say, that his statement may be relied upon with implicit confidence; no man - can hear kirn tell his story and doubt: its truth, and a blacker picture of per-: fidy and blood, is not on record in the annals of history. The Mexicans have not, in this case, as at Tampico, any legal grounds to justify this cruel* butchery. Texas has declared herself an independent nation, and every man fighting ?n her cause was a citizen and not a pirate and outlaw. • Miller, the Tennessean, Ward, the Georgian, a son of Gen. Harrison of Ohio, and many of our old neighbors have fallen victims to the diabolical massacre. The widow the tender infant stares in wonder at the mother’s grief. The whole popula tion to the west have fled. In coming up we stopped at the worthy old Capt. B’s. No welcome greeted our arrival -r-the house was chair '' T £ whe.fe the aged grandmother sat vacalt—the prattle of the little cliik ■ dren was unheard—the furniture wa»\ there, the milk pan was upon the shelf \ —thi dough lay in the kneading trough --tty bacon hung in the meat house-* the foor of the corn crib vibrated up- . on 16 hinges to the flaws of the breezs, the kows fed in the field—the pigi lootrd in the garden—the chickens to her tender brood, unconscious that theit protectors were gone, and that they were in danger from the birds and the i/easts of prey; but the enmity es the hawk, the owl and the wolf, is char-' ity, lhen compared to the tender mer cies of the tyrant wlio has driven from thetyhorhes the aged matron and the helpless child, who now flee for safety without a shelter to protect them-* the edd ground their bed—the caqo-. py of Heaven their covering-r-beiiind them an !y despair; and before them on ly hope. Will the charity of ,the fair daughters of the United Stat’e» suffer these to perish with hunger! Will the son?, proud of their descent frotp sires who have shed their blood to pro tect the helpless and 'oppressed, - afford no relief to the innocent and helpless, against savage ferocity, and remorse less cruelty? Texas will triumph! tha proud tyrant will be humbled and wfll perish; innocence and vjrtue will.here find peace, security and happiness. Your friend, T. From the Mew Orleans Bee, Texas.— The following named per sons, who were taken prisoners of "war at San Patricio on the 14th March, and carried to Matamoras, were shot on the 14th April, at Matamoras, by order of the Mexican commander:— S. Curtis, Samuel McCandley, Thos. J. Mitchell, R. R. Brown,G. Copeland, IVm. Langinhum, B. J. E. Malian, S. ‘ Francis, N. Jones, W. Hall, L, H. Ben Wm. Brunson, Wm Levin. An officer of the schr. Invincible was shot at the Brassos. The above information was brought by a gentleman arrived on Saturday evening in the schr. Com peer, from Matamoras direct, and can be relied on. , 4 The American brig Jane, Captain Williams, h?nce, was seized at Mata-’ qioras,and the captain thrown in pris on, for hoisting the American ensign with union down, as a signal to an A merican man-of-war which was off (hat port. - The assertion that the troops under the command of Col. Fannin had not - been butchered when made prisoners . of war by the Mexican army, turns out to be untrue. The melancholy tidings have been confirmed by arrivals vester day. It is also too well ascertained' that Santa Anna left Mexico with the fell purpose of carrying on not only a war of conquest, but of extermination and massacre. However his day of retribution has drawn near.-Ji 27& ull. By Major Horton, who came passen ger in the Texian Government scbr. Invincible, we learn that 1200 Mexi cans had crossed the Colorado, 800 men at San Felipe, and 400 at Fort Bend; tfiat Gen. Houston’s' effective force was 2300. The Colorado had ovorflowen its banks, and the 1200 ’ Mexicans cannot retreat. Houston > bad despatched Maj Behen, with 400 men against 400 Mexicans, and was ad vancmg himself with his whole force upon the Mexican division*, whose re* treat to the main army Whs impossible. The total destruction of ihe 1200 Mexicans is certain, all was joy and confidence at the Seat of Governments The elements are fighting for Texasy and the universal opinion is, that the Mexican army between the Colorado and Brassos, is already defeated. Houston must have fought the battle last Sunday. A. O. Bulletin Extra, April 24. i)x E adfcl Massacre!!! We also learn that 73 unarmed emi grants that left this city in the William and Francis for Codnijo, and were lah ded at that port, trusting themselves unarmed in the power of the Mexicana were in two hours butchered by the soldiery, in sight of the vessels; the schoonerescaped to Matagorda. ! Ihe Pennsylvania is expected up to ■ night with further information. The Brutus wus to sail the day after the In-* ’*incibl6 with women and children, ■ We also leafn,that Dr. Harrison, sou of Gen. Harrison, of North Bend, Ohio, was while travelling with three Ameri-. can gentlemen taken by the Mexicans, castrated, his body cut down, and his bowels torn out and left in that situa tion before life was extinct! The wife of Dr. Harrison came passenger in tha Invincible. — lb. Naval Engagement. The Texian armed schooner Invin cible,Capt Brown, fell in with the Mex* ican schooner Montezuma, at anchor off the Brasos Santiago: An action