USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 1 > Part 5
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Early in January, Magee had sent Major Reuben Ross to the east to contradict a rumor that had been put in circulation to the effect that he and all his men had been captured. This rumor had the effect of dispersing a number of bands, on their way to join him. Ross was directed to bring back with him all the recruits possible, but only succeeded in bringing twenty- five Americans, commanded by Captain James Gaines, and thirty Coohsattie Indians from the Trinity, under their chief, Charles Rollins, a half breed whose father was a soldier in Magee's army. Thus re-inforced, Kemper set out on the 21st of February to pursue the enemy to San Antonio. General Herrera, learning of his approach, marched out with all his force to meet him and took position below the Salado on the road leading from San Antonio to La Bahia. The Americans had taken the left hand road by way of the Missions of Espada and San Juan. The enemy were posted not far above the forks of the two roads and their presence was first made known on the 2d of March, 1813, by the American right being fired upon by a picket. The signal for a simultaneous attack was to have been the tap of a drum, to be followed immedi- ately by a charge. The Indians, not understanding the ar- rangement, charged too soon and rode furiously into the midst of the enemy. They suffered severely in the hand to hand fight that followed, but, in their desperation, killed a great number of the enemy. Meantime the Americans came up from the center and left and the engagement became general and in twenty minutes the enemy were routed and flying in dis- order, despite every effort of their officers to rally them. Their loss was three hundred and thirty men left dead on the field, sixty prisoners, six pieces of artillery and all their bag-
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gage. Herrera had received re-inforcements in San Antonio, and had twenty-five hundred men in this battle, known as the battle of Salado. The officers of his army behaved with the utmost gallantry. Some of them, seeing they could not bring their men to fight, rushed forward, sword in hand, determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible ; consequently a dis- proportionate number of Spanish officers were found among the dead. The American loss was but six killed and twenty- six wounded.
The Royal army having retreated to San Antonio, and the Americans having taken possession of the Mission of Concep- cion, the latter proceeded on the 3d to invest San Antonio. On the 4th, Salcedo sent a flag of truce and requested a parley. Colonel Kemper refused all terms except the surrender of the beleaguered army as prisoners of war and the delivery of the city into his possession. These terms were finally accepted, and on the 6th the Americans marched into the city, the royalists at the same time marching out, leaving their arms stacked.
Gutierrez de Lara immediately organized a Republican government. On the 7th occurred the atrocious butchery of fourteen Spanish officers, including Salcedo, Herrera, and Cordero, by order of Gutierrez de Lara. He obtained posses- sion of these prisoners from the guard by showing an order signed by Kemper, couched in language calculated to allay apprehensions of foul play if any had existed. They were delivered up to Juan Delgado and taken to the battle ground of Salado, where with one exception, their throats were cut and their bodies thrown into the river. One of the prisoners was shot, a fate granted in compliance with his earnest en- treaties. Delgado, in his defense at his subsequent trial, urged in extenuation of his crime, that his father, while fighting under Hidalgo, had been executed by order of Salcedo after having surrendered, and that he (Delgado) had the order from Gutierrez de Lara. Gutierrez was tried and removed
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from command. This shocking piece of brutality so inspired the American officers with horror and disgust that many of them, among the number Kemper himself, soon after left the service.
Diverse accounts of this expedition have been given by different historians who gathered them more or less from tra- dition, or other vague and unreliable sources. So far the author of this work has adopted the clear and unquestioned narrative of Warren D. C. Hall, written thirty years ago. He was a captain in the expedition, a young lawyer from Natch- itoches, and became an early settler in Austin's colony in Brazoria county and maintained the character of a high-minded gentleman and sterling patriot throughout the struggle of Texas for independence.
We continue the narrative, after sifting the various accounts and adopting those statements which bear evidence of truth.
On the retirement of Kemper and others, Ross was elected to command. But when, on the 17th of June, General Don y Elisondo appeared on the Alazan Creek, a mile west of San Antonio, with about three thousand troops, regulars and rancheros, Ross, warned that his Mexican allies contemplated desertion, urged a retreat, which the Americans stoutly rejected, upon which he, and a few others, left and returned to Louisiana. His place was immediately supplied by the election of Perry.
Elisondo sent in a demand for the surrender of the place, with the condition that the Americans might peacefully retire to their own country, but that Gutierrez and the Mexicans should be surrendered and held to account for the atrocious murder of the fourteen Spanish officers. This demand speed- ily removed any latent defection that may have existed among the Mexicans and united all in favor of meeting Eli- sondo with unyielding firmness.
Perry therefore returned a blunt refusal to the demand, and during the succeeding night, June 17th, cautiously moved out
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in such close proximity to the Spaniards, that, at dawn on the 18th, while they were engaged at their morning devotions (matins ) he burst upon them with the utmost fury, com- pletely surprising them and producing consternation from which their commanders never fully rallied them. Perry led the Americans, and Gutierrez de Lara nominally commanded the Mexicans, but their real chief was Manchaca, a native, whose heroism inspired his followers with a courage worthy of veterans. The contest, with varying fortunes, continued about four hours, when in much disorder, the Spaniards fled from the field, Elisondo barely escaping capture. His loss was four hundred in killed and wounded, and a large amount of munitions and stores. Perry, incredible as it may seem, lost only twenty killed and forty-four wounded. This was partly due to the superiority of the American rifles to the muskets then in use by the Spanish troops. Elisondo lost no time in recrossing the Nueces. His withdrawal left not an armed royalist in Texas.
Participation in this affair seems to have closed Gutierrez de Lara's career at San Antonio and he retired with his family to the Sabine.
General Don Jose Alvarez Toledo, a Cuban Spaniard by birth, now appeared upon the scene. He had been a member of the improvised Spanish Cortez in Mexico, and manifesting sympathy with the patriot cause, had been banished from the country, and had taken up his abode in Louisiana. He was not only familiar with the operations of the republicans in Texas, but had aided in forwarding recruits to San Antonio.
In July, 1813, he set out from Louisiana and arrived at San Antonio shortly after the departure of Gutierrez de Lara. He was warmly welcomed by the Americans; but, being a Spaniard, was regarded with jealousy by Manchaca and the Mexicans.
Toledo, both civilian and soldier, proceeded at once to re- store order to the civil department of the government, as well
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as to introduce a degree of discipline in the army, measures doubly unpalatable to the Mexicans, as they emanated from a Gachupin. Well knowing the royalists would not give up a place so important as San Antonio, Toledo adopted precau- tions to prevent a surprise. On the 26th of July General Don Joaquin Arredondo, commanding the Internal Provinces of Mexico, left Laredo with four thousand troops for the purpose of recapturing La Bahia and San Antonio. At Can- ada Verde, a creek west of the Nueces River, he was joined by Elisondo and his remaining force. Approaching San Antonio his scouts reported that Toledo was advancing to meet him, whereupon he halted six miles south of the Medina, threw up breast-works in the form of a V with the open space towards San Antonio, and deployed about six hundred of his troops in front of his position.
Colonel Kemper had returned and, with Judge Bullock and some six or seven Americans, joined Perry, whose command consisted of about 300 Americans, a band of Cooshattie Indians and about six hundred Mexicans under Toledo and Manchaca.
On the 17th day of August, 1813, the Republican army left San Antonio to meet Arredondo. Crossing the Medina on the 18th and approaching Arredondo's ambuscade, they were opposed by the six hundred deployed troops and ad- vanced with impetuosity. The enemy yielded ground and retreated in good order, until, such was the fierceness of the pursuit, that they turned, fled pell-mell, abandoned their cannon and rushed in confusion into the lines of their works. Toledo, discovering the intended ambuscade and seeing that the Americans were entering it, ordered a retreat. Confusion followed. The left wing obeyed, but Kemper, Perry and Manchaca swore there should be no retreat and with their center far in front, their right wing supporting, advanced rapidly and were soon reeling under a destructive enfilade fire from front, right and left, delivered at close range and
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with deadly effect from along the entire line of breast-works. The Mexicans fell into disorderly retreat, but the Americans and Cooshattie Indians did not flinch. They fought with such desperation that Arredondo's cavalry was on the point of retreating, when treachery gave him the day. Musquiz, a deserter from Toledo's ranks, carried his company over with him to the enemy, and represented that the Americans had been abandoned and were fainting from heat and parching with thirst. He declared that their ammunition was nearly exhausted, and that, if the battle was prolonged, their defeat was certain. Arredondo accordingly made a furious assault with his reserve companies upon the Americans, who were checked, thrown into confusion aad compelled to yield.
Then the work of slaughter commenced. The bones of the dead were to be seen for many years scattered over the battle ground. Most of those who escaped from the field were pursued and slain in their retreat toward Louisiana. Elisondo, glad of the opportunity to avenge his former defeat, followed the fugitives, and at the crossing of the Trinity at Spanish Bluff, overtook and captured seventy or eighty men and marched them to a grove. Here a deep ditch was dug for a grave. Across this a piece of timber was laid. After tying the prisoners, ten at a time, he had them placed on the beam and shot-their bodies falling into the trench ; among the victims were Manchaca and Delgado. Perry escaped to figure elsewhere and to meet an equally tragic fate. General Toledo escaped to the United States and declared that with 2,000 such troops as the Americans under Perry he could plant the Republican standard in the city of Mexico. In 1815 he was tried in the district court of Louisiana for violating the neutrality laws, but was acquitted.
In 1822 Colonel Jose Felix Trespalacios, Governor of Texas under the new government, had the skulls, bleaching on the battle field of the Medina, collected and interred with military
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honors, and placed on a large oak tree a tablet bearing this inscription : " Here lie the braves who, imitating the immor- tal example of Leonidas, sacrificed their fortunes and their lives contending against tyrants." 1
Two days after the battle of Medina, General Arredondo, having his wagons loaded with wounded and dying, marched in triumph into San Antonio. He there seized and impris- oned seven hundred citizens and confined three hundred in one room during the night of August 20, eighteen of whom died of suffocation. He arrested five hundred females, members of the best families, and compelled them to cook for his army. The property of the insurgents was confiscated.
Many of the principal families of San Antonio left their homes and sought refuge across the Sabine. The town of Trinidad at Spanish Bluff was entirely desolated. The republicans of Nacogdoches fled to Louisiana. Thus closed the year 1813 in Texas.
1 In January, 1843, the author of this work with others saw some of the bones lying about the battle field.
CHAPTER VIII.
Operations of Aury, Perry and Mina - Death of Perry - Galveston Island -
The Lafitte - An account of the career of Jean Lafitte in so far as it is connected with the History of Texas - Attempt of Generals Lallemand and Bizand to found a Settlement in Texas.
Francisco Zavier Mina was a young Spanish soldier, of good family and chivalrous character, and served his country with conspicuous gallantry in the Peninsular war, fighting against the great Napoleon. After the restoration of the Bourbons in Spain, he was proscribed as a republican and compelled to flee. He resolved to lend the patriot cause in Mexico his sword and aid the people of that country in their struggle for liberty. In due time he reached Baltimore. He determined to make Galveston Island his base of operations, and, while busy with the work of organization at Baltimore, corresponded with Don Jose Manuel Herrera, commissioner of the revolutionary or Morelos government, to the United States. Herrera thoroughly appreciated the advantages of Galveston Island as a place of rendezvous for the privateers which his government contemplated introducing into the waters of the Gulf for the purpose of crippling Spanish com- merce, and, therefore, eagerly accepted the proffered services of Mina, granted him necessary commissions and urged a vigorous prosecution of the intended enterprise. He also co-operated with that gallant and accomplished naval officer, Don Luis Aury, who at this time appeared on the scene. In the service of the revolutionists of Mexico, Venezuela, La Plata, and New Granada, Aury had commanded a squadron of twelve or fifteen small vessels, and at the memorable siege of New Granada, broke through a royalist squadron of thirty-
(64)
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five sail and bore away on his vessels to places of safety in the West Indies, hundreds of men, women and children.
Herrera set sail for the island with Aury on the 1st of Sep- tember, 1816. They landed, and on the 12th of September, organized a government and unfurled the flag of Independ- ence. Aury was made civil and military governor of Texas and Galveston Island and took the oath of fealty to the Repub- lic of Mexico. It was agreed that he could, if he thought necessary, change his base of operations to Matagorda. The vessels of Commodore Perry soon swept Spanish shipping from the Gulf.
On the 24th of November, Mina arrived at Galveston with a few small vessels and about two hundred men, disembarked his troops and laid out an encampment to the westward of an earthwork fort built by Aury. Colonel Perry, who participated in 1812-13, in the victories of La Bahia, Salado and Alazan, and the disastrous defeat near the Medina on the 18th of August, 1813, commanded one hundred men on Bolivar Point. Organi- zation and training were vigorously prosecuted. Skeletons of regiments were formed and officers appointed. It was expected that the ranks would be filled by the people of Mexico; thus, Colonel Young, a gallant officer of the war of 1812, between the United States and Great Britain, was made commander of the Guard of Honor; Colonel Myers, com- mander of the artillery ; Colonel, the Count de Ruuth, com- mander of the cavalry ; Major Sarda, commander of the first regiment of the line, etc.
Altogether the republican cause seemed in a promising way at this time.
Mina had frequent interviews with Commodore Aury and sought his co-operation ; but the latter, holding a commis- sion from Minister Herrera, as Governor of Texas and a General in the republican army of Mexico, had with him about two hundred men, including those with Perry, and, being wedded to the idea of invading Texas, declined the
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overtures of Mina. In the meantime Mina visited New Orleans in his newly acquired brig-of-war, El Congreso Mexicano. During his absence a dispute arose between Perry and Aury, causing the former to abandon the latter and resolve to join Mina. Aury had him placed in irons, but Perry's men at once demanded and obtained his release, and, without further opposition, he and his followers joined forces with Mina. At New Orleans Mina purchased the ships Cleopatra and Neptune, and, on arriving at Galveston, on the 16th of March, found his command embarked and ready to set sail.
Having failed to open communication with the Mexican General, Guadalupe Victoria, on the coast of Vera Cruz, he determined to effect a landing at the mouth of the river San- tander, north of Tampico, and forty-eight miles distant from Soto La Marina, a town situated on that stream. Accom- panied by Aury and Perry he sailed from Galveston on the 27th of March, 1817, with the following vessels:
An armed schooner, Commodore Luis Aury, having aboard a company of artillery and cavalry, under Colonel, the Count de Ruuth; the ship Cleopatra, Captain Hoover, having aboard General Mina and staff, the Guard of Honor and the first regiment of the line; two prize brigs (recently captured by Aury), having aboard the Regiment of the Union under Colonel Perry ; the Neptune, Captain Wisset, conveying the commissariat and stores; the schooner Ellen Tooker, which arrived at Galveston on a trading voyage on the eve of depart- ure and joined the expedition, and, a sloop commanded by Captain Williams. The fleet consisted of seven vessels.
The entire force, properly belonging to Mina's command, was three hundred men. After a stormy voyage it disem- barked on the 15th of April, at the mouth of the Santander. A disagreement arising as to who should command, Aury abandoned the enterprise and sailed for Texas with a few followers. Mina ascertained that the royalist commander of the district, General Don Felipe La Garza, was stationed in
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the neighboring town of Soto La Marina, and, mounting a portion of his men, rapidly penetrated into the interior, win- ning victories at several places, as at El Valle de Maiz, in the Province of San Luis Potosi, at the hacienda of Peotillos and other points. The fortunes of the Mexican revolutionists were then, however, at such a desperate strait that Mina's ranks were not recruited as he had confidently anticipated and finally yielding to overwhelming numbers, he was compelled to surrender, on the 11th of November, 1817.
Colonel Young and a few of his companions survived to see the independence of Mexico finally and firmly established. Mina's two ships were captured by the Spanish navy. The men left by him to build and garrison a mud fort at Soto La Marina, after a long and heroic defense, signalized by great loss of life to the enemy, surrendered at last to General Arre- dondo, as prisoners of war, and were foully butchered.
Colonel Perry became dissatisfied before Mina's departure for the interior, and, with fifty-one followers, including Major Gordon, abandoned the expedition, and began a march toward Matagorda Bay, 300 leagues distant in Texas, and after en- countering innumerable hardships and dangers, reached the garrisoned town of La Bahia, the scene of his former exploits. This strong position he attacked.
So furious and resolute was this assault, that the Spanish commander was at the point of surrender, when receiving unexpected reinforcements, he renewed the fight with such determination that every man of Perry's command was killed. Perry, closely pursued, ran a short distance, and reaching the shade of a tree, deliberately blew out his brains.
There is some variance in the accounts of this affair and of the death of Perry, but the highest and decidedly most reliable authority (Robertson's memoirs of the Mexican revo- lution ), gives the facts as here stated.
Until about the year 1816 the island of Galveston remained in its primeval state - a low island formed in process of time
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by the sea throwing up sand and marine shells and reced- ing with the accretion of the soil. In width the island varied from about a mile and a half to a little over two miles. Its length was abont thirty miles. Near its southwest end, separated from it by a channel of perhaps twelve feet in depth and less than a mile in width, was a small island that bore the name of San Luis, but when or by whom it was named is not known. The name of Galveston (properly Galvez-ton ) was conferred in honor of Col. Galvez, Spanish Governor of Louisiana; Galveston Island was covered by marsh grass along the lower levels and by long prairie grass on higher eleva- tions and was well stocked with deer and wild fowl. Water, more or less brackish, was found in the sand of the higher portions from one to three feet below the surface of the soil. The conjecture that La Salle visited this island during his brief stay in Texas is without reasonable foundation, and is built upon the theory that he conferred upon the adjacent island the name of San Luis. That he did so is improbable, for the reason that San Luis is a Spanish name. It is further a duly authenticated fact that he styled his fort and proposed settlement on Matagorda Bay St. Louis.
Galveston Island had probably been occasionally visited by shipwrecked and other mariners, and from its abundance of fish, fowl and deer, it doubtless had long been a favorite resort and hunting ground for the Carancahua Indians, the once powerful and war-like tribe inhabiting so much of the coast of Texas, but it is believed that La Salle and his. com- panions made no landing there. Beyond these facts little or nothing of historic interest is known of the island prior to 1816.
Jean Lafitte was a Frenchman, born in Bayonne. The family removed to the West Indies. During an insurrection of the negro slaves they took refuge, as many others were forced to do, in New Orleans. Jean and his brother Pierre were blacksmiths. Their shop was on St. Philip street, be-
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tween Bourbon and Dauphin. The old building was standing until a few years ago. They were men of striking appear- ance, tall, erect and handsome. A stranger never passed Jean without turning to take a second look at him. When, in the course of time, it suited their purpose, they became agents in New Orleans for smuggling vessels that brought merchandise and slaves into the bayous along the coast of Louisiana.
Jean kept the trade of New Orleans in a demoralized con- dition until 1814, in which year his fort on the island of Barra- taria ( utilized as headquarters for their smuggling enterprises ) was broken up by Commodore Patterson of the United States navy.
At that time a war between the United States and Great Britain was in progress and Lafitte was offered a commission in the British navy. It was while considering this matter that Bean fell in with him. He declined the British offer, and as Bean had come from Nautla, Mexico, on one of his vessels, determined to accompany him to New Orleans and tender his services to General Jackson. This, after some preliminary correspondence and promises, he did, as we have seen, and in the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815, acted with such gallantry and rendered such important service, that President Madison granted him full pardon for whatever misdeeds he may have committed prior to that time.
The next authentic account we have of Lafitte places him on Galveston Island, just after its abandonment by Commo- dore Aury and General Mina, late in 1816, an account of which will be found further on. Lafitte held letters of marque and reprisal from the revolutionary government of Venezuela or Carthagena, as it is sometimes called, authorizing him to prey upon the commerce of Spain. He had a number of vessels and quite a force of adventurers. He also assumed to be Governor of Texas under the revolutionary government of Mexico, probably having received some such authority from Herrera, the Mexican commissioner in New Orleans.
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As Governor, he required all persons in the island, and the captains and owners of the vessels then in the harbor to take the oath of allegiance to the Republic of Mexico. The government established by him consisted of a Military Com- mandant ; Judge of Admiralty ; Notary Public; Marine Commandant ; Secretary of State and Treasury ; Administra- tor of Revenue, and Mayor du Place. The formation of this government took place on board the schooner Carmelita Gray, at anchor in the harbor. No papers authorizing the forma- tion of a government were produced, nor had the notary a seal.
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