”AN ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO.

JAMES WASHINGTON WINTERS.

I was born in Giles county, Tennessee, January 21, 1817. I came to Texas from Memphis, Tennessee, with my father and all his family. Mr. Bankhead and his family came with us. We came through Arkansas on the Trammell’s Trace. In Arkansas Mr. Geo. Lamb, who was on horseback, joined us, and remained with us all the time, even after reaching Texas. Bankhead never obtained any lands, but just rented. He was taken sick and died soon after his arrival. Lamb eventually married Bankhead’s widow.

My father’s family located in the ‘Big Thicket,’ between the eastern and western prongs of the San Jacinto river. When we heard of Cos’s entry into Texas we were among the volunteers who started out to repel him. When my father, my brothers, and I reached San Felipe, on the Brazos, we heard that Cos had already been whipped out of the State. We met Sam Houston, who told us to go back home and make all the corn we could, for in the spring would come the clash. This was late in the fall, about December, 1835. I was then about eighteen years of age.

On March 12, 1836, about eighteen of us organized a company on the San Bernard; we chose William Ware captain…”

Reference Data:

The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. 6, by Texas State Historical Association, 1903, page 139