More on mobility, back to Texas again but backing up a bit to the 18th Century, re: early Texas cattle drives....
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/Spain.htm#ranching The first official cattle drive out of Texas was authorized on June 20, 1779 by General G�lvez to feed Spanish forces in Louisiana. Over 9000 documented and more than 15000 estimated head of Texas Longhorns herded by Texas cattlemen and vaqueros (both Tejano and Indian) left Texas ranchos between San Antonio de Bexar and La Bahia (Goliad) between 1779 and 1782.
The Guadalupe River valley in the heart of future DeWitt Colony was the staging area for these cattle drives that preceded the more well-known drives north from Texas to Kansas, Missouri and Colorado by nearly 100 years and equaled them in magnitude. The area supplied Spanish forces on the Gulf Coast front in the successful fight for American Independence from Britain.
Although seldom mentioned in American history books, Spanish forces supplied with Texas beef kept British forces occupied on a vast second front in addition to the American northeast coast, which was believed to be instrumental in defeat of the British and resultant American Independence. Birdwatcher
