P. F. Roddan served as a volunteer in the Texas Cherokee War under Burleson, Landrum and Rusk in the summer of 1839 near Rusk, Texas. He had come to Texas in March of 1839 via Mississippi and New Orleans.
In a letter dated October 26, 1839, P. F. Roddan provides a first hand account of the Texas Cherokee War of 1839. Writing to his parents in Franklinville, New York, he describes conditions in Nacogdoches and East Texas and then provides an account of the battle. The collection also contains three letters written by members of the Roddan family between 1846 and 1850, including an 1850 letter from R. F. Roddan to his mother, written from the Nevada City gold fields.
Unrestricted access.
P. F. Roddan Family Papers, 1839-1850, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.