A pension application is a legal document much like a deposition. Both are primary documents which contain one or more claims. Ordinarly these require supporting evidence before they are accepted. That's the process that the Texas State pension followed. We try to find service records to support claims.

The statement made in the pension application changes by adding the word 'and.' That makes both assertions possible. We have good reason to believe the statement about service in Bourland's Cavalry Regiment and are searching for evidence of the claim to have been in the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern.