The Rose of Brays Bayou

The rush to the Louisiana border was known to the Texans as the Runaway Scrape, the Great Runaway, or the Sabine Shoot. Whatever one calls it, the wild exodus was a nightmare of terror and suffering for women and children across the Lone Star State. It was only their burning desire for retribution that made it possible for them to keep going.

Dilue Rose Harris told her story for the Eagle Lake Headlight in Eagle Lake, Texas, in 1900.

Delicate women trudged day after day until their shoes were literally worn out and continued their journey to the east with bare feet, lacerated and bleeding at almost every step. Their clothes were scant and provided no means of shelter from frequent drenching downpours and bitterly cold winds.

Finally, the women of the Runaway Scrape, the Sabine Shoot, or the Great Runaway justifiably could regard themselves as veterans of the Texas Revolution. They endured dangers and hardships as harsh as those faced by their soldier husbands. Not as commonly lauded over the last almost 200 years, their efforts were just as important.

Santa Anna had no secret of his objective. He wanted to drink a cup of coffee from the waters of the Sabine River and, on the way, rid Texas of all perfidious foreigners. His campaign ended on April 21, 1836.