USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 6
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The Texas population at the beginning of the century were much devoted to the chase and the roving habits which this pursuit implies. But Governor Cordero, among the other excellent accomplishments of his administration mentioned by Lieut. Pike, "restricting by edicts the buffalo hunts to certain seasons, and obliging every man of family to cultivate so many acres of land, has in some degree checked the spirit of hunting or wandering life which has been hitherto so very prevalent, and has endeavored to introduce by his example and precepts a general urbanity and suavity of manners which rendered San Antonio one of the most agreeable places that we met with in the provinces."
CHAPTER X
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN TEXAS, 1810-1820
Spain's most brilliant era as a world power was in the sixteenth century. Then her vast conquests in all seas and lands gave her posses- sions which, had she retained, would still girdle the world with her sovereignty. But the golden dream was dissipated with the crushing of the Armada in 1588, and from that time Spanish glory rapidly declined. Her weakness as a colonizer in Texas has been disclosed on former pages, but with the increasing impotence of the mother country, she imposed the heavier burdens on the provinces. In Mexico, the strongest of Spain's colonies, a gradual amalgamation of conquerors and .natives had been going on for centuries until there had resulted a truly Mexican people, alien both to the pure-blooded Spaniards and to the natives. The royal laws, however, discriminated in favor of native Spaniards, giving them superior privileges and caste distinctions especially invidious to the Mexican born.
The climax of these difficulties came in 1810, when Hidalgo first raised the standard of revolt. Morelos succeeded him as chief of the revolutionary party, until the defeat of his army and his execution in 1817. For several years the royalists were supreme, but in 1820, when Spain herself was in the throes of revolt, the Mexicans seized the opportunity to proclaim their own independence, overthrow the vice-regal govern- ment, and set up the republic which with so many vicissitudes has ex- isted to the present time.
During all this turbulence and the varying fortunes of the Mexican revolution, Texas suffered at the hands of royalist, revolutionist, Indians, pirates and adventurers, and at the end few results remained of Spain's colonial enterprise. Texas was essentially an agricultural country, and Spanish conquest succeeded best in mining regions further south and west. It was the policy of the Spanish to constitute themselves a ruling class and leave to the conquered natives the labors of working the mines
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and tilling the fields; but, as it turned out, the Indians of Texas could not be brought under the pueblo system, and hence there was no success- ful exploiting of native industry. This failing, only one motive remained for the continued occupation of Texas-the fear of foreign encroach- ment, the selfish desire for a thing which someone else wants. The poli- tical and administrative measures which were the fruit of this policy had produced very insubstantial results. The meager population and scattered settlements could present no formidable front against invasion, and for this reason the foreign incursions and revolutionary ventures in Texas during this period had a larger degree of apparent success than the facts of the situation would justify. Because Texas was not yet a settled and permanent community, armed expeditions could only scatter the chaff- like settlements, could tear down but not build up, nor even sustain what was there. The basis of an independent and hardy farming and indus- trial population had to be made before a political state could be made of Texas.
The Mexican revolutionists of 1810 counted on the sympathy if not the active support of the Americans. So, after the defeat and demorali- zation of his forces, Hidalgo and a remnant of his followers started north with the hope of strengthening their cause by alliance with Amer- ican sympathizers. In March, 1811, Josè Bernardo Gutierrez was com- missioned agent of the revolutionary organization to solicit aid and promote the cause of independence at Washington and among Amer- ican citizens in general. He passed through San Antonio, which on Jan- uary 22, 18II, had fallen into the hands of the revolutionists. At Wash- ington, Gutierrez failed to receive any official attention. His mission to the general government having proved fruitless, he had then returned to Natchitoches. There he found many willing spirits eager to help win independence for any people, provided their thirst for adventure and active military duty was satisfied. Augustus Magee, who as lieutenant in the American army had just returned from a successful expedition against the outlaws of the Neutral Ground, resigned his commission in the army in order to join the filibuster, and began collecting recruits from among the characters of the Neutral Ground.
Magee became the actual military leader, with the title of colonel, while Gutierrez held the nominal position of general of the invading army. The latter was an adroit promoter of his plans. That he was a sincere patriot cannot be affirmed, but he willingly became a figure-head
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of a movement the objects of which were to secure the independence of the northern provinces from Spain.
The royalist governor, Salcedo (who had been restored to office after the first uprising of 1811), had a clear apprehension of what the movement meant, as the following letter. written August 17, 1812, to the viceroy, explains : "With one thousand of the troops recently arrived from Spain at Matagorda I shall free this kingdom within a month of a new and more formidable insurrection than the past one. The people, incautious on the one hand and hallucinated on the other, embrace with readiness the sedi- tion. The Americans say they have not come to do harm to the inhabitants of this kingdom, but to aid them in securing independence. Unfortunately our people do not know the poison and hypocrisy of our enemies ; do not realize that they are working, under the pretext of succoring them, to conquer our provinces little by little. In the end, the natives cannot rid themselves of the Americans .... While I am waiting for the reinforce- ments I have asked, I shall do all in my power to expel the invaders, if the troops of this garrison remain faithful."
In August, preparations having been completed by the revolutionists, an advance was made from Natchitoches to the Sabine. The passage of the river was disputed by the Spaniards under Montero, though they were quickly outflanked and compelled to retreat to Nacogdoches.
The defense of Nacogdoches aroused no enthusiasm among the in- habitants or soldiers, the former seeming to anticipate with gladness a change of government, while the latter were indifferent. After over- coming without difficulty the patrol at Atoyac, the invading forces ap- proached Nacogdoches. On August 12th the garrison fled without pre- tense of resistance, leaving all the territory between the Sabine and San Antonio open to the foe. But, without following up this advantage, the expedition remained some weeks at Nacogdoches, where recruiting continued and proclamations and addresses were sent out from the revolu- tionary headquarters, inciting the citizens of Texas to join the revolt and assuring them that the primary purposes of the invasion were for the independence of the province and the general welfare of its residents.
Natchitoches was in American territory, and that the expedition could originate there and be organized for effective invasion was clearly a violation of neutrality. But the protests of the Spanish authorities were unavailing. It seems one of the weaknesses of a great republic like the United States, especially at that period of its history, that the laws of nations cannot be enforced equally and quickly throughout all portions
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of the nation. A war with England engaged the attention of the central government, and a frontier town like Natchitoches was, under best of con- ditions, a quite safe place for revolutionary enterprise. The fact that Magee did not join the expedition as active leader until Nacogdoches became the headquarters is an evidence of some desire or perhaps policy to observe nominally the treaty relations between Spain and the United States.
"A letter from Natchitoches, dated September 5, says that five hun- dred men, principally 'late' citizens of the United States, under Colonel Magee, were in full march for the Spanish post of San Antonio in Mexico. Their force was hourly increasing .... The governor of Louisiana, far distant from the scene of action, had in vain attempted to prevent the excursion."*
They pushed on to La Bahia (Goliad), the next most important post, where Salcedo was awaiting in force. On the approach of the American army the governor marched out to meet them on the Guadalupe, but was outgeneraled by Magee, who crossed the river at a different' spot and captured La Bahia with all its stores before Salcedo could come up. The Americans were besieged for several months, and in the meantime Magee died and the command devolved upon an another American named Kem- per. As a result of the many losses inflicted by the unerring marksman- ship of the Americans, Salcedo finally raised the siege and in March, 1813, retired towards San Antonio.
Colonel Kemper now took command of the revolutionists, with Cap- tain Ross second in authority. A hundred and seventy volunteers arrived from Nacogdoches, together with twenty-five East Texas Indians, and with these reinforcements the army marched up the left bank of the San Antonio river, and about the 28th of March reached Salado creek, about nine miles below San Antonio. Their numbers were augmented by three hundred Indian allies, and with eight hundred Americans under Kemper and one hundred and eighty Mexicans from Nacogdoches under Man- chaca, the "republican" army really presented a formidable front.
Meantime, Salcedo, having received additional troops from Mexico, sent out his entire force of twenty-five hundred regulars and militia, with a commander who pledged life and honor to defeat and capture the entire revolutionary army. Marching south along the river, they took position on a ridge of gentle slope dividing the waters of the San An- tonio and the Salado, and there, in ambush, awaited the approach of the
* From Niles' Register.
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Americans. Lying in the chapparal thickets that bordered the Salado, they were undiscovered until the American riflemen were directly in front.
"The Indian auxiliaries," says Yoakum, "were placed in front of the American lines to receive the charge of the Spanish cavalry, until suitable dispositions could be made to charge in turn. At the first onset they all fled, except the Cooshatties and a few others; those withstood two other charges in which they lost two killed and several wounded. By this time the Americans had formed at the foot of the ridge, having placed the baggage wagons in the rear, under the protection of the prisoners they had taken at La Bahia. The charge was sounded, and orders given to ad- vance within thirty yards of the Spanish line, fire three rounds, load the fourth time, and charge along the whole line. The order was obeyed in silence, and with a coolness so remarkable that it filled the Spaniards with terror. The Americans had greatly the advantage in ascending the hill, as the enemy overshot them. The Spaniards did not await the charge of their adversaries, but gave way along the entire line, and then fled in the direction of San Antonio. They were pursued and killed in great numbers, and many who had surrendered were cruelly butchered by the Indians. When the Spanish commander saw his army flying, and that the day was lost, he turned his horse toward the American line, and rushed into their ranks. He first attacked Major Ross, and then Colonel Kemper; and as his sword was raised to strike the latter he was shot dead." This was the first important battle on Texas soil in which the superior effectiveness of American frontier troops was proved against Spanish mercenaries and raw militia. Nearly a thousand of the enemy were slain and wounded, and many of the captured were inhumanly slaughtered by the Indians.
The next day, on the approach of the American army, San Antonio was surrendered. General Salcedo and his staff of thirteen officers, together with the garrison and all the stores of the capital city, fell into the hands of the revolutionists. Seventeen Americans, impris- oned in the Alamo, were released and given places in the army. Spoils were distributed, and for a brief time there was harmony. A provisional government being formed, with Gutierrez as governor, the latter, in the light of success, soon showed his unfitness to found a stable government. The soldiers of the captured army were released, but the disposition of Governor Salcedo and his staff produced much debate be- tween the American and Mexican parties. Finally it was proposed to escort them overland to Matagorda bay, and thence send them by vessel
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to New Orleans. Captain Delgado and a company of Mexicans were appointed an escort, and at evening they and their prisoners started from the city. A mile and a half below town, in the screen of woods, the prisoners were stripped and tied, and then cruelly butchered by the guards, who are said to have used dull camp knives in the decapitation. Besides Governor Salcedo, who according to all estimates deserved his fate, there perished the ex-governor, Herrera. Such bloody atrocity and treach- ery were to blot the annals of Texas for twenty years to come, and later victims were the Americans themselves. Even the most hardened Amer- ican outlaws were revolted by this outrage. Many deserted, and the subsequent conduct of the Americans was without enthusiasm. The Mexicans leaders justified the execution of the officers on the principle of retaliation. Delgado, who directed the butchery, had witnessed many cruelties inflicted by order of Salcedo, and among them the beheading of Delgado's father, at which his mother was also compelled to be present, and by order of Salcedo the blood from the bleeding head of the father was sprinkled over the unfortunate mother .*
Colonel Kemper returned to Louisiana, and the American volunteers without danger or discipline to restrain them proved very troublesome and dissipated neighbors for the peaceful citizens. At the same time they held Gutierrez and his associates in the government in utter contempt.
This condition of affairs continued about two months, when the revo- lutionists were aroused by the approach of another Spanish army, under Don Y. Elisondo. With fifteen hundred regular soldiers, he had surprised and killed a small outside guard before the garrison was aware of his approach. Instead of making an immediate attack, however, he stopped on the west side of the town and fortified his camp on Alazan creek. In San Antonio the revolutionists were making hasty preparations for resist- ance. Captain Perry was given actual command of the forces, Guti- errez not being trusted for such a responsible post. "At ten o'clock at night, June 4, the Americans marched out of the town. They moved by file, and in the most profound silence until they approached sufficiently near to hear the enemy's advanced guard. Here they sat down, with their arms in their hands, until they heard the Spaniards at matins. Orders were given that, on notice, the Americans should charge. The signal was given, and they all marched forward with a firmness and regularity becoming veteran soldiers. The enemy's pickets were surprised and taken
* Niles' Register, May 21, 1813.
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prisoners. The Americans advanced to the works, mounted them, hauled down the Spanish flag, and ran up their own tricolor before they were discovered by the Spanish camp. This was just at the dawn of day. The Spaniards, thus aroused, fought gallantly, and drove the Americans back from the works. The latter rallied, retook them, and charged into the Spanish camp, using only the bayonet and spear. The slaughter was ter- rible. At length, after some hours of hard fighting, the Spaniards, fairly pushed off the field, turned and fled, leaving a thousand dead, wounded and prisoners. The Americans lost forty-seven killed, and as many more wounded who afterwards died of their wounds."*
After this battle Gutierrez was deposed from the office of governor and returned to Louisiana. Shortly after his departure there arrived in San Antonio Jose Alvarez Toledo, a Cuban by birth, once high in Span- ish-Mexican favor, but now a republican. He had been recruiting revolu- tionists in Louisiana, and on his arrival at San Antonio was welcomed and chosen commander of the army. A civil government was inaugu- rated in the city. It endured scarcely a month, for the day of fate was appointed for this rebellious city.
Arredondo, commander of the northeastern provinces, on learning the defeat of Elisondo, at once collected an army of about four thousand men and in August crossed the Rio Grande. Arriving at the Medina river, he fortified a position on the south bank, concealing the breastwork by setting up chapparal bushes in front. Then he concealed a force of six hundred along the road about a quarter of a mile in front of the main position. His arrangement was skilfully made, and the issue was equally fortunate.
Toledo's force consisted of eight hundred and fifty Americans, and about twice that number of Mexicans. Made overconfident and im- petuous as a result of their previous victories, they marched out to meet the enemy in his chosen position and were easily led into the trap set for them. The Spanish advance guard began retiring alinost as soon as attacked, and the Texas army, mistaking the movement for retreat, hurried on, and had entered the open end of the V-shaped breastwork before the ambuscade was suspected. Then from each side and in front a ruthless fire of artillery and small arms was poured at them. The order to retreat came too late, and only a part of the army obeyed it. Nearly all the rest fell in the vain endeavor to take the enemy's works,
* This is Yoakum's description of the battle.
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and in a short time the republican army was in complete defeat and rout.
The revolutionary government and army were destroyed, and the victorious royalists once more occupied San Antonio. General Toledo, Colonel Perry and some sixty survivors of the battle at Medina river reached Nacogdoches, and three hundred families were reported to be fleeing from San Antonio and La Bahia to escape the bloody vengeance of Arredondo.
Despite the fact that, according to a later report, Elisondo liberated all Americans taken in the action, treating them with humanity and sup- plying them with provisions for the home journey, the punishment in- flicted by Arredondo on the rebellious citizens of Texas caused one of the darkest periods in the history of the capital city. At San Antonio was commenced, to quote Yoakum's account, "a scene of barbarity which that place had never before witnessed. Seven hundred of the peaceable citizens were seized and imprisoned. Three hundred of them were con- fined during the night of the 20th of August in one house, and during the night eighteen of them died of suffocation. From day to day the others were shot, without any form of trial. The cruelty of the Spanish com- mander went even further. He had a prison for females. It occupied the site of the present postoffice* of San Antonio, and was tauntingly called the Quinta. Here were imprisoned five hundred of the wives, daughters and other female relatives of the patriots; and, for being such, they were compelled daily to convert twenty-four bushels of Indian corn into the Mexican cakes called tortillas, for Arredondo's army. After thus having satisfied his appetite for blood and revenge, the royalist com- mander found an opportunity, about the first of September, to collect and bury the bones of Salcedo and his staff." Nine years later the republicans who fell at the Medina received the honor of burial. When Governor Trespalacios, in 1822, passed the battlefield on his way to San Antonio, he found the site still strewn with human bones. He had them collected and buried with military honors, and placed a tablet with the inscription, "Here lie the braves who, imitating the immortal example of Leonidas, sacrificed their fortunes and lives, contending against tyrants."
During the retribution that followed the victory of Arredondo, the vast territory from the Rio Grande to the Sabine was desolated and, temporarily at least, almost depopulated. The royalists slaughtered with-
* This was written fifty years ago. The "Quinta" was an old rock house fronting west on what is now Dwyer avenue.
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out mercy all connected with the revolutionary party. From San An- tonio a force went devastating as far as the eastern boundary, took pos- session of Nacogdoches, and proclaimed the authority of Spain throughout the province. But it was an authority with little substantial basis. The results of a century of colonization had been swept away in a few days; nearly all the republican sympathizers of the eastern country had taken refuge in Louisiana; industry was paralyzed, crops were destroyed and cattle driven off-leaving a wretched testimonial of Spanish inefficiency and mismanagement.
During this period the Apache and Comanche Indians on the north and northeast were a constant menace to the settlements. Their boldness brought them even to San Antonio, where they robbed or levied tribute almost at will. On the northeast border the desperadoes of the Neutral Ground made life and property unsafe, and formed a nursery for criminals and adventurers of all classes. The gulf coast also came into notice as the haunt of pirates, whose operations were a danger to the com- merce of other nations than Spain.
Galveston island was the seat of the most flourishing of the piratical enterprises. In 1813 a Mexican named Manuel Herrera had gone to the United States as minister of the revolutionary government, but received no official recognition at Washington. Taking up residence at New Orleans, he was one of the active spirits among the refugee Mexicans there and also had considerable following of American adventurers.
Cloaking his enterprise in the guise of an attempt against the Spanish royalists, and claiming to act under the fictitious authority of the Republic of Mexico, in 1816 he led a fleet of vessels to Galveston island, which was to be the stronghold of the revolutionary movement. A government was set up. Louis de Aury was appointed governor, commander of fleet, and judge of the court of admiralty-a sort of Pooh Bah of this pirate republic. Founded ostensibly to combat Spanish authority in America, the principal business of the organization was preying upon the merchant marine of the gulf. Their prizes were not confined to Spanish merchantmen, and among them were some slave-ships with cargoes of negroes for the West Indies or the United States.
Through this source Texas got its first ill-fame in the slave trade. There was, of course, no market on Galveston island for the captured negroes, nor any demand for them in the Texas interior. To dispose of them Aury's agents smuggled them across the boundary and sold them more or less openly at New Orleans and other Louisiana points. Galves-
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ton island thus became a supply point for Louisiana in this traffic. A re- port to the government at Washington in 1817 stated that the traffic was carried on "by a motley mixture of freebooters and smugglers at Galves- ton under the Mexican flag."
About this time Aury was attracted from the island to join a filibus- tering expedition into Mexico. His place was soon taken by the most famous and romantic of Texas pirates and buccaneers. Jean Lafitte, who had previously carried on his operations with headquarters along the Louisiana coast, from which he was expelled by the United States govern- ment, in a short time organized a most complete and efficient pirate king- dom at Galveston. According to his story, having been plundered of all his wealth and outraged, some years before, by the captain of a Spanish war vessel, Lafitte had sworn eternal enmity with Spain, and in his opera- tions about the gulf he claimed that Spanish commerce was the only object of his attack. Following his predecessor's example, he set up his government in avowed allegiance to the Republic of Mexico. The pur- poses of his enterprise were afterwards confessed by his judge of ad- miralty to be "the capturing of Spanish property under what they called the Mexican flag, but without any idea of aiding the revolution in Mexico or that of any of the revolted Spanish colonies." As the establishment increased and Lafitte's lieutenants in many cruisers scoured the gulf waters, depredations were made on ships of other nations, and especially on those of the United States. He was also a principal medium of the slave traffic, and his operations prospered until he had a veritable kingdom on Galveston island and rolled in wealth and spoils, with his town of Cam- peachy as his capital. A fort was built at the east end of the island, and the ruins of the old pirate stronghold were pointed out for many years afterward. Among Lafitte's agents in disposing of the negroes in Louisiana were the three Bowie brothers, Rezin P., James and John .* Their profits in these transactions, from 1818 to 1820, were estimated by John Bowie to have been $65,000.
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