was believed to be approaching San Patricio with a considerable force, and that the Cherokees, Comanches, and other Indians were concentrating a large number of their braves on the upper Brazos "with a view doubtless of attacking our towns and settlements."

Most of the members of the cabinet warmly supported the idea of calling out the First and Second Brigades of the Militia. No sooner was Albert Sidney Johnston, Archer's predecessor in the War Office, apprised of the order calling out the militia en masse from the districts comprising the first two brigades, than he hurried back to Texas, where from Galveston on August 6 he informed Lamar that at the suggestion of a mutual friend (probably James Love) he had been told that "his services in a military capacity would probably be required." Consequently, he had returned immediately to Texas, and if Lamar contemplated a movement against Mexico, he would be much gratified to contribute to its success.[145]  General Felix Huston, major general of the Texas Militia, was at Bastrop on June 21 "ready to obey any orders." It was not long after the order had been issued before the militia was beginning to turn out, and it was expected to do so in considerable number.

Reflecting persons of more mature judgment within the administration and among the opposition, however, believed that Archer's call upon the militia was premature and unwise, and that the information upon which the decision had been made was both meager and unreliable. "We all know," wrote Ashbel Smith, that Doctor Archer's "talents are not imminently practical."[146]  Colonel Burleson, who com-