DALLAS, TX.- At the beginning of 1832, Stephen F. Austin, the “Father of Texas,” was resolute in his desire to protect Texas’ interests, despite battling poor health and exhaustion following decades of public service. He was losing confidence in the Mexican government, and he was so concerned about the future of Texas that he dictated in a letter his final words to his fellow Texans, should he die in a hazardous looming journey: “Be calm, be prudent, but firm and united.”

That message comes from his January 10, 1832, letter to his political ally David G. Burnet, who would go on to be the interim president of Texas immediately following the Texas Revolution, serve as vice president of the republic under Mirabeau B. Lamar and become Texas’ first secretary of state after annexation to the United States. In the missive, he rails against the Law of April 6, 1830, which sought to halt immigration from the United States and canceled empresario grants — conditional gifts of land from Mexico to settlers, including Austin’s father, Moses Austin, the first such empresario. The letter finds Austin at a breaking point. While he maintains that Texas should “form a state of the Mexican Confederation,” cracks in that belief begin to show when he adds, “I will adhere firmly to this opinion unless driven by dire necessity from it.”

Previously unpublished, the letter will be featured in Heritage Auctions’ Feb. 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction, and it is the first Austin-Burnet letter to appear at auction.

“The importance of a previously unknown letter from Austin to Burnet can hardly be overstated,” says Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena. “Along with being a significant correspondence between two legendary Texans, it is a glimpse into Austin’s mind at a critical moment leading to the Texas Revolution. It is an honor for Heritage to be entrusted with this monumental piece of Texas history.”

The letter is a highlight of the 80-plus Texana items in the event. Another historically important volume is an 1837 English translation of Santa Anna’s second-in-command’s account of his conduct in the Texas Revolution. General Vicente Filisola’s Evacuation of Texas is described by John H. Jenkins as “the first book printed in the Republic of Texas.” Stephen F. Austin personally urged that the account be translated into English and published for the public, recognizing its value as a detailed military history of the Revolution that had concluded less than a year before. Sam Houston supported the effort, and the newly established government funded its publication at public expense. The copy offered here carries special significance: It was owned by Benjamin C. Franklin, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto and one of the soldiers who helped secure Texas’ independence.

Also of interest to history collectors is W.W. Heartsill’s privately printed Civil War journal. Described by Jenkins as “the rarest and most coveted book on the American Civil War,” the volume offers an extraordinary firsthand account of the conflict from the perspective of a Confederate soldier. It was personally hand-printed by Heartsill, who painstakingly pasted in 61 albumen portraits of his compatriots in the war. The example offered here is preserved in exceptional condition with bright, clean pages and all 61 original albumen photographs intact.

Rounding out the Civil War category of the sale is Union soldier Martin Luther Moore’s correspondence. Comprising 80 letters, it includes extensive descriptions of Confederate Commander John Salmon “Rip” Ford’s activities along the Rio Grande as he advanced toward Fort Brown with his “Cavalry of the West.”

Moore’s letters are particularly significant because they trace Ford’s movements, giving us a rare perspective of the conflict.