War-dated LS, four pages on two adjoining sheets, 6.25 x 8, Independence, April 5, 1862. Letter to William S. Oldham. In full: “In hopes that my letter may reach you before you leave Richmond, I take pleasure in addressing you as a Senator from Texas. I have not, as yet, written to any other Senator or Members.
The subject on which I address you, I doubt not, you will properly appreciate. My son, Sam Houston volunteered for during the war, in Capt. Ashbel Smith’s Company, in the regiment commanded by Col. Moore. He was absent at the time from home on business, when the company was partly raised, and organized. The offices were all filled, and no organization took place after the company was completed. Sam is 18 years of age, 6 feet high and rather a well made and good looking boy!
He was two sessions at Col. Allen’s Military school at Bastrop, and prior to that had been at Baylor University. He is a very good scholar, his habits are good and he is ardently devoted to the cause to which he is engaged, as well as to the life of a soldier. He was offered a situation of Brevet Lieut., if he would consent to be transferred, and be stationed at Galveston, but he preferred the glory of an action and immediate campaign. If you can procure him a lieutenancy, in any formation that you may think proper you will confer upon me an undying obligation, and I trust and believe he will never disgrace his patrons. I will be happy to hear from you in reply to this. I doubt not but what all the representatives from this State, will cheerfully cooperate with you, in obtaining the situation desired for my son.
I will not close this communication, without assuring you, that I was gratified at your election to the Senate, and so far as I understand, your Senatorial action, I entirely approve it. Your advocacy of free trade, I regard not only as a statesman like measure, but indispensable to the wants and conditions of the Country, and I most heartily wish you success. It has been a subject of wonderment to me that it was not proclaimed, at the inauguration, of the Provisional Government of the Confederacy. I am as this place on business having recovered from my lousy indisposition. So far as I can hear amongst the people, you will be sustained in the course in which you have taken. You have my sincere wishes for your success and happiness. Very truly your friend, Sam Houston” [secretarial]. Houston then corrects the small faux pas by writing, “My assistant made a mistake and signed my name. Thine, Sam Houston.”
After his signature, is a short postscript which reads, “I could have procured any number of recommendations in favor of my son had I thought it would be necessary. But Col. Wm. P. Rogers assured me it was only necessary to address you myself.” In very good condition, with intersecting folds, one through a single letter of signature, scattered toning and creasing, and foxing, and show-through from text on opposite sides.
One year earlier, Houston had been at the center of a political firestorm when he forcefully refused to recognize Texas’ secession; this stance put him at odds with an overwhelmingly anti-Union legislature and led to his ouster as governor. The congenial tone of his prose here underscores the great tensions that the Civil War revealed. On the one hand, he and his fellow Revolutionary found themselves ideologically opposed to the constitutionality of secession. However, his feeling of kinship with his fellow Texas Revolutionary persevered.
In this letter, Houston seems to have at least partially reconciled his opposition to secession, petitioning his fellow Texan to assist his son Samuel Houston Jr., in securing a higher rank in the Confederate army, noting that his son had been offered a safe position behind the frontlines but preferred “the glory of an action and immediate campaign.” Before the younger Houston departed, his father gave him the sword he carried at San Jacinto and a few other personal items. The day after this letter was written, the young Confederate was seriously wounded and presumed dead at Shiloh. Houston was discovered alive and rescued by a Union Chaplain, who saw that he received medical care for his wounds. He was later returned home to Texas to recover from his injuries and help his ailing mother. The Robert Davis Collection. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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