In late March 1836, as the Texian Army retreated before Santa Anna's advancing Mexican forces, settlers fled in the Runaway Scrape and San Felipe was ordered destroyed so the enemy could not use its supplies and resources. While townspeople hurried to pack their belongings and cross the Brazos to safety, nearly every building was burned, many by residents themselves. By the morning of March 30, 1836, San Felipe and Stephen F. Austin's vision of a capital city of Texas had been reduced to smoldering ruins. William P. Huff, a merchant and amateur naturalist who lived on lot 87 and operated a store on lot 536, witnessed the destruction after his store helped supply Houston's retreating army with food and equipment. He later recalled that Gen. Houston gave the order to Captain Moseley Baker, who passed it to Lieutenant Paschal P. Borden; Baker burned his own office and bedroom, Borden used fire from Huff's store to ignite the Butler hotel, and Huff set fire to his own store, remembering the conflagration as rapid and brilliant.