588 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



I wish you were here to go hunting with me, it is rather dangerous, but very 

 exciting. 



I presume my wife has written to you before this concerning the stock etc. 

 I hope you have been able to do something for me in regard to my painting 

 those Indian pictures — 



If perfectly convenient I wish you would forward me a copy of the Docu- 

 ments accompanying the President's Message and such other documents as you 

 may think would interest me. 



As I am 70 or 80 miles from any mail route you will have to direct them to 

 San Antonio, Texas, from whence I will obtain them by express — 

 Six companies of the 3** are stationed at San Antonio — 



Please drop me a line and let me know what is going on in the U.S. and 

 especially in Congress — 

 Remember me to your wife and sisters at St. Peters — 



Yours truly 



S. Eastman 

 Capt. U.S. A. 

 Hon H. S. Sibley 



Delegate from Minnesota Ter. 



Apparently there was little action at this outpost of the Texan 

 frontier, and Eastman had time for many pictures. He had made "a 

 great many Sketches," ]\Irs. Eastman wrote to Sibley from Concord, 

 N.H., January 4, 1849, "every thing is new to him." Passing through 

 San Antonio, Eastman found it "a wretched place — full of desperate 

 characters," as he wrote to his wife [16], but he sketched busily away, 

 making views of the entrance to the city from the south, of the church 

 of the Alamo, of Conception Mission, and of many other historic 

 and, to him, unusual spots. A view of the ruins of the "Alamo at 

 San Antonio, Dec. 1848" in watercolor and a pencil sketch of the 

 "Plaza at San Antonio, Texas" dated March 18, 1849 (pi. 2) are rep- 

 resentative of these city views. x\t the army camp at Fredericksburg 

 he did not spend all his time hunting "games" or talking with Indian 

 chiefs. Among the works done there is an excellent pencil sketch 

 of "Live Oaks 2 miles from Fredericksburg, Texas, Encampment of 

 Caddo Indians, March 2, 1849" (pi, 3). Such trees were also the 

 subject of an attractive oil in the Buslmell Collection at the Peabody 

 Museum, "Live Oaks with Two Small Figures." 



On August 28, 1848, before he left Fort Snelling Eastman had 

 sought to be ordered "to the duty of painting, if the work being com- 

 piled on the N. American Indians is to be illustrated with engravings 

 etc.," but the War Office replied on November 14 that his services 

 were required with his company and that he was not recommended 

 for duty with the Indian Office [17]. Eastman's next step was to 

 seek a furlough — except for the 4 months of sick leave in 1841, his 

 jBrst in more than 20 years' service. 



In the meantime Mrs. Eastman had taken the five children east 

 placed some of them in schools, and settled down with two at her 



