Raiding For Documents
The Archives War
Lately, there has been a fight against Mexico and Texas. This small war was caused due to what the Lamar administration did. The Texans had been ordered by Lamar to control the region of Santa Fe. A source told us, "Mexican leaders are very upset due to Texas' actions." Soon, a Mexican army led by Gen. Rafael Vasquez moved towards San Antonio. The Archives War had begun. 700 soldiers attacked Texas including San Antonio, Goliad, Refugio, and Victoria. Due to Mexico's actions, Sam Houston believed that having an important meeting in Houston was more safe than in Austin. The people fear that Houston will replace Austin on being the Texas capital. We asked a man about his opinion on this and he responded with, "Moving the capital to Houston isn't going to help anyone. More problems will occur, and that is the last thing I want for my family, Texas, and myself." President Houston had the Seventh Congress in a meeting at Washington-on-the-Brazos. By the end of December 1842, rangers led by Col. Thomas I. Smith and Capt. Eli Chandler were sent from Houston to give orders to Austin to remove archives and to not lead towards killing. The raid from the rangers had Austin's people unprepared. The rangers had the archives put into wagons and were to be taken, when suddenly, Angelina Eberly, a cannoneer, had people who she led to fire at the officials. Eberly had fired a cannon at the rangers. One ranger spoke to us and said, "I was awoken by the sudden fire of a cannon. It surprised me." He continued by saying, "A fog was surrounding us and it filled the air causing our sight to become blurry and unclear. Once it was gone, Mexican troops had surrounded us." After the Archives War ended, the documents had been returned to Austin and the rangers ended up not succeeding.