Excerpt from A History of Texas, From Wilderness to Commonwealth, Vol. 3 of 5 Austin took occasion to report also that his health, which had been very bad since the army left Cibolo creek, had improved very much, and he praised the manner in which so large a percentage of the volun teers had remained on duty in the face of great hard ships. Many had found it necessary to return to their homes, and there really was no authority under which any of the men could be compelled to serve against their will. The army has done all that could have been done under the circumstances, Austin wrote, and without materials and organization, which latter is purely voluntary. It deserves great credit for its suf ferings and perseverance. I have every confidence that a short time will end this campaign. It is evident that Austin had now come to realize that there was no longer hope of any great number of new volunteers coming forward from among the col onists. The New Orleans Grays were journeying to ward San Antonio from the coast and Burleson, who was absent °with a detachment, Of one hundred and thirty men, was expected to return in a day or so. Austin had concluded that this would bring his force up to the greatest strength he could hope to have in the near future, and consequently he decided to delay the attack no longer. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.