This Day In Texas History - February 26

[joe817]

1747 - Joaquín Prudencio de Orobio y Basterra, captain of the presidio at La Bahía(near the site of present Mission Valley in Victoria County), led an expedition down the Nueces River to its mouth, where he arrived on Corpus Christi Bay.

1836 - Capt. James Austin Sylvester and his company of 50 Kentucky riflemen, left Nacogdoches on February 26 for Gonzales, where the Texas army was reorganized. Sylvester was appointed second sergeant and color bearer in the active army, but he still maintained his captain's rank in the reserves.

1862 - In Bastrop, Robert Allen recruited the Seventeenth Texas Infantry Regiment of John G. Walker's Texas Division, which he commanded until November 1863.

1871 - Brothers Clint and Jeff Smith, ten and eight years old respectively, were captured by Lipans and Comanches while herding sheep near their family's home on Cibolo Creek between San Antonio and Boerne. After an initial rescue effort failed, their father, Capt. Henry Smith, and Capt. John W. Sansom, a cousin, assembled a large body of Texas Rangers and local militia, who, along with a posse led by Capt. Charles Schreiner, pursued the Indians from near Kendalia to Fort Concho in West Texas. The rescue attempt was futile, however, and Clint and Jeff were not returned to their family for another five years.

1888 - A statue originally ordered from a catalog, the Goddess of Liberty, was raised into place atop the new Texas State Capitol Building in Austin. The Texas Capitol is the tallest State Capitol in US and taller than the US Capitol building in Washington. The statue now resides at The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.

1908 - Frederick Bean Avery was born in Taylor. He graduated from North Dallas High School in 1926. "Tex" Avery is credited with creating Daffy Duck and developing Bugs Bunny into a wacky character. He also created the Droopy cartoons. His work included whistling wolves, bugged eyes, and melting admirers. Tex Avery was a major innovator in the cartoon industry in Hollywood.

1946 - Black activist Heman Sweatt, accompanied by a delegation from the NAACP, met with University of Texas president Theophilus S. Painter and other university officials to present a formal request for admission to the UT law school. The legal case resulting from this request, Sweatt v. Painter, was a landmark civil-rights decision, one of several that struck down the doctrine of "separate but equal" educational facilities. Sweatt finally registered at the University of Texas law school on September 19, 1950.

1949 - A B-50 Superfortress, the Lucky Lady II, took off from Fort Worth's Carswell Air Force Base. 94 hours and several mid-air refueling stops, and 23,452 miles later, Captain James Gallagher and his crew landed back at Carswell, after circling the earth non-stop. This was the first non-stop circumnavigation of the globe.

1977 - Members and supporters of the Texas Farm Workers Union set out on a 420-mile march from San Juan, Texas, to Austin to lobby for passage of a state law granting fieldworkers the right to vote on union representation. The marchers reached the Capitol on April 2, but the legislation died in subcommittee. Though TFWU, which ceased to exist in the 1980s, did not achieve its goal of winning collective-bargaining rights for farmworkers in Texas, it did force public attention on the substandard conditions under which farmworkers lived.

1989 - Tom Landry, the only Coach the Dallas Cowboys had ever had, was fired by the Cowboys' new owner, Jerry Jones, who named University of Miami coach Jimmy Johnson to succeed him. Jones and General Manager Tex Schramm flew to Landry's vacation home at Lake Travis to break the news. "It was a very difficult meeting," Schramm said. "It's very, very sad. It's tough when you break a relationship you've had for 29 years. That's an awful long time." Landry, took the Cowboys to a record five Super Bowls with two victories. Following the firing, Schramm resigned.

1998 - A Texas jury rejected an $11 million lawsuit by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey for price drop after an on-air comment about mad-cow disease.

[joe817]

FANNIN to ROBINSON. [February 26, 1836] [Dear Sir: ] I have to report that yesterday, after making all the preparations possible, we took up our line of March (about three hundred strong, and four peices of artillery), towards Bexar, to the relief of those brave men now shut up in the Alamo, and to raise the siege, leaving Captain Westover in command of this post. Within two hundred yards of town (Goliad), one of the wagons broke down, and it was necessary to double teams in order to draw the artillery across the river, each piece having but one yoke of oxen. Not a particle of bread stuff, with the exception of half a tierce of rice, with us,-no beef, with the exception of a small portion which had been dried-and, not a head of cattle, except those used to draw the artillery, the ammunition, etc., and it was impossible to obtain any until we should arrive at Seguin's Rancho, seventy miles from this place. After crossing the river, the troops encamped .... This morning whilst here I received a note from the officer commanding the volunteers requesting, in the name of the officers of his command, a Council of War, on the subject of the expedition to Bexar, which, of course, was granted. The Council of War consisted of all the commissioned officers of the command and it was by them unanimously determined, that, inasmuch as a proper supply of provisions and means of transportation could not be had; and, as it was impossible, with our present means, to carry the artillery with us, and as by leaving Fort Defiance without a proper garrison, it might fall into the hands of the enemy, with the provisions, etc., now at Matagorda, Dimmitt's Landing and Cox's Point and on the way to meet us; and, as by report of our spies (send out by Col. Bowers) we may expect an attack upon this place, it was deemed expedient to return to this post and complete the fortifications, etc., etc....I sent an express to Gonzales to apprize the committee there of our return. J. W. Fannin. [To James W. Robinson]

[ELB]

From Three Roads to the Alamo, by William C. Davis:

On February 26 Travis answered some Mexican cavalry that came in to skirmish on the east side of the fort, no doubt just to test further the strength of his defenses. The cannonade from Santa Anna's batteries continued all day, and now and then Travis allowed his gunners to answer, though with some of his powder being of poor quality, he could not afford to waste what he had. Fortunately most of the Mexican pieces were of the same caliber as his own, and solid shot that landed inside the parade ground could actually be picked up and fired back. Travis ordered two more sallies during the day, one for wood and water, even though he had a well, and the other to burn more of the huts down along the San Antonio that might give shelter to the foe.