On the 13th Houston ordered Major Wyly Martin, Captain Moseley Baker, and other commanders of detachments assigned to delaying actions, to rejoin the main army at the house of Charles Donoho, about three miles from Groce’s. At Donoho’s the road from San Felipe to eastern Texas crossed the road south from Groce’s. On April 16 the army marched twelve miles to the home of Samuel McCurley on Spring Creek, in present Harris county. The creek forms the boundary line between Harris and Montgomery counties. Three miles beyond McCurley’s was the home of Abram Roberts at a settlement known as “New Kentucky.” At Roberts’ two wagon trails crossed, one leading to Harrisburg and the other to Robbins’ Ferry on the Trinity and on to the Sabine. Many of his officers and men, as well as government officials, believed that Houston’s strategy was to lead the pursuing Mexicans to the Sabine River, the eastern border of Texas. There, it was known, were camped United States troops under General Pendleton Gaines, with whose help the Texans might turn on their foes and destroy them. However, on April 17, when Roberts’ place was reached, Houston took the Harrisburg road instead of the one toward the Louisiana line, much to the gratification of his men. They spent the night of the 17th near the home of Matthew Burnett on Cypress Creek, twenty miles from McCurley’s. On April 18 the army marched twenty miles to White Oak Bayou in the Heights District of the present city of Houston, and only about eight miles from Harrisburg—now a part of Houston. From two prisoners, captured by Erasmus “Deaf” Smith, the famous Texas spy, Houston first learned that the Mexicans had burned Harrisburg and had gone down the west side of the bayou and of San Jacinto River, and that Santa Anna in person was in command. In his march downstream Santa Anna had been forced to cross the bridge over Vince’s Bayou, a tributary of Buffalo Bayou, then out of its banks. He would have to cross the same bridge to return. Viewing this strategic situation on the morning of the 19th, Houston told his troops it looked as if they would soon get action. And he admonished them to remember the massacres at San Antonio and at Goliad. “Remember the Alamo!” The soldiers took up the cry. “Remember Goliad!”[2] In a letter to Henry Raguet he said: “This morning we are in preparation to meet Santa Anna. It is the only chance for saving Texas.” In an address “To the People of Texas” he wrote: “We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish.... We must act now or abandon all hope.” Houston’s force crossed Buffalo Bayou to the west side, near the home of Isaac Batterson, two and a half miles below Harrisburg, on the evening of the 19th. Some 248 men, mostly sick and non-effective, were left with the baggage at the camp opposite Harrisburg. The march was continued until midnight. ON THE EVE OF BATTLE