Chapter 6: as Texan soldier.
In spite of the brilliant victory of San Jacinto, it was soon apparent that Mexico had not abandoned her plans of subjugation, and that Texas needed every man she could draw to her standard. Mr. Johnston, leaving Louisville, proceeded by way of New Orleans to Alexandria, Louisiana. After staying a few days with his brother, Judge Johnston, he started on horseback for the camp of the defenders. His companions were Leonard Groce and brother, and Major Bynum, of Rapides. Crossing the Sabine on the 13th of July, he arrived on the 15th at Nacogdoches, where he met General Sam Houston, the commander-in-chief, then in the full flush of his popularity. From Nacogdoches he went with Leonard Groce to his plantation, on the river Brazos, where an adventure befell him that has been told in various ways, but of which the following is the true version. Hearing a great uproar near the house, Mr. Johnston seized his gun and hurried with Mr. Groce to the spot, where they found the dogs fighting a puma or American lion. The lion was playing havoc with the dogs, scalping one, crippling another, and disemboweling a third. Mr. Johnston immediately shot the puma, the ball breaking the jaw, but not disabling the animal, which continued the slaughter of the pack with the tearing wounds of its terrible claws. Mr. Groce, much excited at the loss of his favorites, cried out, “Save the dogs! Save the dogs!” Mr. Johnston then clubbed his gun, which was a heavy German Yager rifle, and, springing into the melee, dispatched the beast by blows over the head. His rifle-stock was splintered, and the barrel much bent. He escaped without a scratch, but no one could tell how. The puma was one of the largest of its kind, and very fierce. Mr. Groce had the skin stuffed, and long kept it as a memento of the event. He was ever afterward a warm friend of General Johnston. From Mr. Groce's Mr. Johnston proceeded to the headquarters of the army, which were then on the river Coleto, about fifteen miles east of Goliad. Although Mr. Johnston bore with him the highest testimonials to his personal worth and military ability, in the form of letters of introduction from persons of distinction in the United States to the leading men of Texas, he forbore to deliver them. General Atkinson had sent him a letter to Stephen F. Austin, couched in language of the highest eulogy; and personal friends of Houston, Rusk, and others, had also given him letters that would have secured him a cordial welcome at
