He left Natchez on May 5, 1836, with 500 to 700 volunteers to join the Texian army, but arrived well after the Battle of San Jacinto in which Mexican President General Santa Anna ceded defeat and, in effect, granted Texas her independence.
On June 25, Texas President David G. Burnet appointed Major General Mirabeau B. Lamar as secretary of war, to succeed the resigning Thomas J. Rusk.
Texas received word that Mexico had rejected the Treaty of Velasco and had sent General José de Urrea to attack Goliad, Rusk immediately rescinded his resignation.
In August, war chief Little Buffalo Hump and 500 Comanche Indians attacked Victoria, Texas, and other nearby towns, stealing horses and livestock and killing dozens of white settlers.
Huston led 200 Texans and Chief Placido and his Tonkawa scouts against the raiders at Plum Creek near Lockhart on the evening of August 11, killing 80 Comanches while only losing one man.