Abstract
This is the English translation of letters published in Houzeau, J.-C. (1862). La Terreur Blanche au Texas et mon Évasion. Bruxelles: Ve Parent & Fils.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Les Confrères du Salut Public, literally, refers to fellows of the Comité de salut public (The committee for public safety), an exceptional and temporary institution (April 4, 1793–October 26, 1795) of which the main function was to defend the French Revolution and the Republic [3]. In the present context, the term refers to the committees of vigilance that were formed to stamp out lawlessness [4, p. 9].
- 3.
Lilas de Chine.
- 4.
- 5.
Houzeau: General Van Dorn (previously a major), good officer with a fiery temperament whose expensive habits led him to renounce the United States flag for an unanticipated promotion.
- 6.
“la batterie”, i.e., the moving part in the percussion-cap ignition system.
- 7.
The source text uses “coup de théâtre”.
- 8.
The source text uses here the feminine “elle”, referring to the faction (la faction), but throughout this paragraph our translation uses the neuter “they”..
- 9.
A reference to the destruction of tea in Boston Harbour on December 16, 1773, causing great commercial damage to the the British East India Company.
- 10.
Hessians were German soldiers hired by the British Empire during the American Revolutionary War.
- 11.
Governor Francis Richard Lubbock (1815–1905) served as governor of Texas from November 7, 1861 until November 5, 1863.
- 12.
Houzeau: “All able-bodied free male inhabitants, after one month’s residence in the State, and ten days in the county, are liable to do military duty”.
- 13.
Indianola, Matagorda Bay, Calhoun County, Texas.
- 14.
Arthur T. Lynn.
- 15.
Consul Joseph Deynoodt de Tilly was a supporter of secession.
- 16.
Houzeau: On the other hand, the governor had released (end of September) all of the convicts of the penitentiary who had agreed to sign engagements.
Editorial Note: Edward Clark (1815–1880) replaced Sam Houston (1793–1863) as governor and served until Francis Lubbock was elected in November of 1861.
- 17.
i.e., the people: the source text uses “on” and refers to “people” in this and in the next sentence.
- 18.
“Comité de salut public”, the Vigilance Committee.
- 19.
The geographical location of Houzeau’s house is shown in Fig. 2.4.
- 20.
The The Cincinnati Daily Enquirer of December 25, 1861 mentions the name of William A. Bayard of Brooklyn, NY [8].
- 21.
Henri de Latude (1725–1805), French writer famous for his escapes from the Château Vincennes prison in 1750 and 1765, [9].
- 22.
Referred to as Ann S. Ludlum in Kitty Anderson’s Civil War Diary [10].
- 23.
Charles Anderson’s escape route went west over Eagle Pass to Tampico, a trip of about 750 miles [11, p. 86].
- 24.
It is not clear which “gold franc” is referred to here. The original Belgian franc was defined in terms of its weight in silver, and the first coins struck after the independence in 1830 were silver coins. Belgium accepted certain foreign currencies [12], among them the French gold franc. The franc referred to by Houzeau likely is a Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon III) mint struck in the period 1852–1861.
- 25.
Houzeau: Here is the text:
Head Quarters Department of Texas,
San Antonio, October 4th 1861.
Sir,
Your long letter of yesterday, which I suppose you intend to be the last, is before me, and in answer to it will only say that, throughout the whole transaction with you, I have been guided by what I conceive to be my official duty, unbiased [sic] by prejudice, or partiality, and as your former mild and courteous letters, and the appeals of your friends, have not been able to arouse my personal sympathies, you certainly will not expect me to be so unmanly as to permit, your harsh, bitter and unwarranted allusions to myself, to excite the basest passions of the heart; if you do, you will find yourself as much mistaken in the last—as circumstances rendered it necessary for you to be,—in the first. While I shall take the necessary step to secure your person; and cut off your correspondence with our enemies, I will exercise all the kindness and courtesy, towards you, that I can do safely, or that you—in your evident desire to make yourself a martyr—will permit: you will be limited to the boundaries of Capt. Mechling’s line of camp sentinels, permitted to associate with him and his officers (if agreeable to yourself and them), but to receive no visits from others, or to correspond with any one, except, through these Head Quarters, and Capt. Mechling.
I remain, sir, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
H. E. McCulloch
Col. Prov. C. S. Army
Comd. Depart. of Texas
To Mr. Chas. Anderson Camp “Edward Clark”. .
- 26.
According to the 1860 census, twenty-five-year-old English-born male surveyor Lorenza [sic] Castro, lived with Henry [sic] and his wife Amelia Castro in San Antonio’s Fourth Ward. French-born Henri Castro (1784–1865), the founder of Castroville, Texas, was an empresario for the Republic of Texas [13, 14].
- 27.
The source text states “dix milles en dix milles”, although Houzeau uses the league as a unit of distance rather than the mile (“le mille”).
- 28.
Houzeau: The [November 2, 1861] article reads as follows:
We mentioned last week that Mr. Anderson had escaped from the guard here doubtless to join his family, and put out for old Abe’s dominions. We were right in our conjecture, as we learn from young Mr. Clay Wills, a youth well known for his veracity, who met Anderson on Saturday last about 140 miles this side of the Rio Grande. When met he said his name was Wilson; that he was on his way to Brownsville to get a large contract from the Southern Confederacy, and requested that Wills would not mention having seen him for several days after getting here, lest he might lose the contract. He was riding a fine black horse and was making good speed as Wills thought. There is no doubt but that Anderson was assisted in his escape by citizens of this place, and we are not without some hope that they may be discovered.
- 29.
i.e., by “passing the hat”.
- 30.
The distance quoted refers to the most direct route, i.e., via Brownsville and Matamoros.
- 31.
John Thurmond was the founding pastor of First Baptist Church of San Antonio, established in 1861 [15].
- 32.
François Arago (1786–1853), French astronomer and politician: “Ne vous semble-t-il pas, Messieurs, que l’académicien Cousin, traversant tout Paris, ayant sous le bras le pain, la viande et la chandelle destinés à la malheureuse veuve d’un illustre confrère ne s’honorait pas moins que s’il était venu à une de nos séances, ayant en portefeuille les résultats de quelque belle recherche scientifique?” [16, p. 425].
- 33.
Victor Cousin (1792–1867).
- 34.
Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1736–1793) was a French astronomer, mathematician, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution. He served as the first mayor of Paris, and was guillotined during the Reign of Terror.
- 35.
Marie-Jeanne Phlippon Roland (1754–1793).
- 36.
Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793), French scientist and radical journalist. The exact, and complete, passage to which Houzeau refers is “J’avais quelquefois douté que Marat fût un être subsistant, je fus persuadé alors qu’il n’était pas imaginaire”: I had sometimes doubted that Marat was an existing being, I became then convinced that he was not imaginary [17, p. 102].
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Sterken, C., King, A.A. (2020). The White Terror in Texas—Letter II. In: Jean-Charles Houzeau's Escape from Texas. Springer Biographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46538-4_9
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