Seguin had secured a furlough for this man. General Sesma had found him and was using him for a guide. When the Mexicans were captured Deaf Smith exchanged suits with the courier, and when the party arrived at the camp of the Texans Houston sent for Moses Austin Bryan to question them, and he thus describes the scene:. The men and officers came in squads to see Deaf Smith in his new suit and to sympathize with the forlorn-looking courier, who looked as though he would like for the earth to open and swallow him up.
For the first time now General Houston knew for certain that Santa Anna was in person with the army and what his plans were. The Mexican scouts discovered the Texans and reported to Santa Anna, who was at New Washington, and he turned back with his army and went into camp facing them on the 20th of April. He fell in with the cavalry under Lamar and Karnes, and was one of the central figures in that short, but desperate fight with the cavalry of Santa Anna.
Besides his gun, Smith had two large, heavy pistols, and, after firing these, hurled them at the heads of his enemies. He also carried a short saber, which he broke off at the hilt. Captain Karnes, with a small portion of the cavalry, pursued some of the fugitives to the destroyed bridge, where, they not being able to cross, milled like a bunch of cattle and many were killed, but some of the most important ones, of whom was Santa Anna and Cos, for the time made their escape.
During the night Karnes, Deaf Smith and others guarded a thicket, in which four Mexican officers had taken refuge after abandoning their horses, not being able to cross the boggy bayou.
They went into this thicket at twilight, but when daylight came only one remained. Wells being the best mounted kept in the lead and came upon General Cos, Captain Iberri, Captain Bachiler and two or three others near the Brazos timber, where the fugitives seeing Karnes and the others rapidly approaching, halted and surrendered.
I am hunting for him now, for he is one scoundrel I wish to kill in person. They did not reach the Texan camp with their prisoners and others they picked up until the 23rd. Santa Anna had separated from the others that night in the thicket, and went off alone. On the 22nd, mounted men in small squads scoured the country on the route towards the Brazos, picking up many straggling Mexicans.
A party under Col. Burleson reached and crossed the bayou above the burned bridge, accidentally finding a place where the passage could be made, and soon after directed some of his men to return to camp and search down the east side of the bayou, saying he would continue up the bayou on the west. A group of six cavalrymen-composed of Second Sergeant James A. Sylvester, Joel W.
Robinson, Edward Miles, Joseph Vermillion and Thompson and others started back, traveling somewhat parallel to and down the bayou. Five of the party followed a bend of the stream while Sylvester went directly across about a mile to the lower part of the bend. Before separating the en-tire party had noticed a man on foot in the locality, but before Sylvester arrived he had disappeared. On reaching the spot, however, he found the man lying down and trying to conceal himself in the high grass.
This was Santa Anna, but he had thrown off his uniform and put on that of a common soldier, which was a blue jacket, glazed cap, and white pants.
He had, however, retained his fine shirt with gold studs in the bosom and his sharp pointed Shoes, which was commented on by his captors at the time, but they had no idea their prisoner was the Meixcan President until they arrived at camp. General Houston dictated terms to Santa Anna, and made him sign an order to Filasola, his second in command, to evacuate Texas at once with all the Mexican troops, and this order was entrusted to Deaf Smith to deliver into the hands of the Mexican general.
Filasola, however, had learned of the defeat of Sana Anna from a wounded soldier of the Tampico regiment, who came to him at Fort Bend with his horse and himself covered with blood and mud.
Filasola asked him where Santa. At Mrs. A council of the generals was held, and it was agreed to retreat beyond the Colorado, open communications with the capital, and await advice and assistance. The retreat was very disorderly, the road being strewn with carts, muskets and other effects in such quantities as to impede the progress of the enemy.
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Adapted from: Goodstein, A. Interesting Deaf Americans. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University. Used with permission from the Gallaudet University Alumni Association. All rights reserved. During this period his family, rendered destitute by the war, was living in Columbia, where it apparently had some dealings with Santa Anna, who was then being held at the nearby port of Velasco.
Nevertheless, Smith and his family remained in Columbia. He resigned his commission in the army but raised and commanded a company of Texas Rangers that on February 17, , defeated a band of Mexicans at Laredo.
Soon thereafter he resigned from ranger service and moved to Richmond, where he died at the home of Randal Jones on November 30, A man, more brave, and honest never , lived.
His soul is with God, but his fame and his family , must command the care of His Country! Smith was the father-in-law of Hendrick Arnold , a free black who served in his spy company. Deaf Smith County is named in his honor. John H. Jenkins, ed. Smith, a deaf man, well known to the army for his vigilance and meritorious acts, has been severely wounded in storming Bexar, and that his family are daily expected in this place, with an expectation that the Council would exercise such guardianship over them as their situation may require.
Their head remains in camp, as his services as a spy cannot well be dispensed with. Gammel's Laws of Texas Vol. Citizen Hendrick Arnold, most respectfully represents to your Honorable House, that he arrived last night in the neighborhood of this town, with the wife and family of his father-in-law, Erastus Smith, who are in a state of destitution and thrown upon the sympathies and generosity of their fellow citizens of Texas.
They have been reduced thereto by the present struggle for liberty, in which Erastus Smith has sacrificed his all, and has been wounded and now by me, respectfully and earnestly solicits the aid of your Honorable House for his indigent family.
San Felipe de Austin 4th January, Hendrick Arnold. Kemp, Houston. I wonder whether there is a definite tradition among his descendants that Deaf Smith's father's name was "Chiliab"? The name is one I never heard before. Is there any chance that the original census record in Washington could have been misread and the name really been "Caleb"? The printed census of for Dutchess County gives "Chiliab" Smith as a resident of the town of Washington, with a household consisting of 1 male including head of family and 2 females including head of family ; Their statistics do not allow for a boy of three, as Deaf Smith would have been in Chiliab Smith's name occurs next after the name of Silas Waddle I know exactly where Silas Wodell, he was really lived - a mile or so east of the present village of Millbrook on the main road to Amenia and Sharon.
Chiliab Smith presumably lived not far from him. Next after the name of Chiliab Smith is that of Joel Smith. The census of the state, , shows six Joel Smiths and twelve Caleb Smiths. All the others were in localities which were settled by many migrants from Long Island.
On Long Island were two distinct Smith families, numerous and well known. In the town of Washington there was, I believe, no Baptist Church in About six miles north at the place where Silas "Waddle" lived is Bangall, in the town of Stanford, where there was a Baptist Church before the Revolution but whether the register of that church has survived and covers I do not know.
The Society of Friends formed a large element in Washington. Note spelling "Chiliab" Smith. At the age of eleven years he emigrated with his parents to the Mississippi territory and settled near Natchez. His parents were exemplary members of the Baptist church and gave him such moral and intellectual training as circumstances He first came to Texas in He soon returned home but in he came to Texas for the purpose of making his home'.
We quote this information hoping that the old Baptist Church records of Dutchess County, New York, may be available to you.
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