At the Birth of Texas

History has a way of putting the right man in the right place at the right time. William Fairfax Gray didn't know it when he set out for Texas in 1835, but he was about to document the events of the Texas Revolution in real time. He thought he was coming here to gather information about Texas land opportunities for his partners back in Virginia. Instead, a chance meeting with Stephen F. Austin thrust him into the chain of events that led to the birth of the Republic of Texas.

He personally carried letters from Austin to Sam Houston and Thomas Rusk letting them know Santa Anna was marching for Texas and concluding, "This of course leaves us no remedy but one, which is an immediate declaration of independence."

There are lots of books about the Texas Revolution. Some are treasures, written by men who participated in the events described. But almost all were written years or decades after, and memory is seldom perfect. They are also colored by the personal friendships and animosities of the writer. The diary of William Fairfax Gray is different. It was written on the spot, as things happened, by an astute observer with no horse in the race. That's what places it in a class all its own.