Colonel William Preston Johnston, The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston : His Service in the Armies of the United States, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States.

President Houston had adopted the policy of undoing whatever had been attempted by his predecessor. Yucatan, which, aided by the Texan navy, had employed so much of the energies of Mexico, was abandoned to the conquering sword of Santa Anna. Treaties were substituted for militia as a defense against the Indians, who had, however, been too severely punished to be troublesome for some time, and were glad of a breathing-spell. The transportation of the mails had entirely ceased; and the revenue derived from direct taxation scarcely paid the expense of collection. The volunteers, who were scouting along the Rio Grande, were disbanded; so that the frontier was now left not only without the means of protection but of warning.

The consequences of this “masterly inactivity” were soon realized, and the dream of security rudely broken by another Mexican invasion, repeating that led by Vasquez in March. On September 11th General Adrian Woll entered San Antonio with a force of 1,200 men. Congress, warned, by Vasquez's invasion, of the inefficiency of the President in providing for the public defense, had passed a bill for that purpose just before its adjournment in July, in which the President was required to hold an election for major-general on the 1st of September. There is no doubt that General Johnston would have been chosen almost by acclamation; but the President, not signing the bill, defeated it by what is called “a pocket-veto.”

The want of an organized force and a competent commander was felt when Woll burst suddenly upon San Antonio with his rancheros. He captured the judge and bar of the district court, and other prisoners, fifty-three in all. The Texan minute-men made a gallant fight at the crossing of the Salado with part of Woll's force, but suffered a heavy blow in the loss of Captain Dawson and fifty-three men, who were surrounded and massacred by the Mexicans. After a week's occupation of San Antonio, Woll retreated with his prisoners and plunder unmolested, having attained the object of the expedition-“to contradict the argument, advanced by the annexationists in the United States, that the war was in fact at an end” (Yoakum). On November 18th General Somerville, under instructions from the Government, set out with 750 men against Mexico, on an expedition of retaliation which culminated in the disaster at Mier.

General Johnston's friends continued to urge him to re-enter public life. During his absence from Texas, in 1843, he was continually assured by his correspondents that, if he would come forward for the