REFERENCE: 1324 VA Cou
Z. Smith Brooks, No. 1324 in Va Cousins, son of Frances Goode Brooks, No.
559(?) in Va Cousins removed from South Carolina to Texas, in the days of
the struggle of the Texans for independence. He was with his cousin Frank
Burt, and his brother Whitfield, was with Shackleford's "Red Rovers," and
in the massacre at Goliad. When the prisoners were drawn up in line to be
shot, he with a Kentuckian and Tennessean took his chances in running the
gauntlet. They were shot at and separated, and the Mexicans following
Broooks pressed him so closely that he threw his watch to them. They
stopped to struggle for it, and he succeded in reaching the San Antonio
river which he swam, and after hiding for several days, made his way to a
place of safety. The experience of Mr. John C. Duvall, printed in Baker's
Texas Scrap-book p. 365, under the title of "Adventures of a young
Texan," is doubtless a fair counterpart of that of Brooks.
pp. 317 and 318, Va Cousins