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In
the aftermath of President
Mirabeau Lamar’s ill-fated expedition to Santa Fe, his successor, Sam
Houston, did his best to maintain an uneasy peace between Mexico
and the Republic of Texas. Houston even cautioned peace when Mexican dictator,
Santa Anna, retaliated by sending General Vazquez with a thousand troops
across the Rio Grande to occupy San
Antonio. An infuriated Texas Congress declared war on Mexico, but Houston
knew the nearly bankrupt republic was in no position to fight a war. “Texas
would defend itself if need be,” he stated after vetoing the declaration,
“but we must not attack.”
The political pressure on Houston to
take action continued to mount when Santa Anna again ordered the occupation of
San Antonio by General Adrian
Woll. The French mercenary’s twelve hundred soldiers not only occupied and
plundered the old mission town, but also fought a battle
at Salado Creek with the local militia and Texas Rangers under the command
of “Old Paint” Caldwell. Although heavily outnumbered, the Texans gave
an excellent account of themselves when the Mexicans assaulted their positions
dug in along the creek, killing and wounding nearly three hundred of the enemy
while suffering only one casualty.
However, it was an incident that occurred
during the fighting at Salado Creek that
did much to force President Houston’s hand. In response to Caldwell’s call for
volunteers, Captain Nicholas Dawson and 53 men from La
Grange and Fayette County attempted to fight their way to the Salado
through numerous Mexican cavalry patrols. Eventually, the Texans were cut off
and surrounded only a few miles from the creek where they dismounted and took
cover in a mesquite thicket near the present site of Fort Sam Houston.
The
Texans repulsed an initial cavalry charge, but the Mexicans stood off and used
their artillery to batter the volunteers into submission. Ignoring any attempts
to surrender, the Mexicans moved in and finished off the wounded, taking few prisoners.
In what was to be known as the “Dawson Massacre,” thirty-six Texans were
killed, fifteen were taken prisoner, and two escaped to reach Caldwell. The prisoners
were marched away to Mexico City and then to Perote prison in Vera Cruz.
Finally, on October 3, 1842, President Houston, bowing to the inevitable,
ordered General Alexander Somervell of Matagorda County to take command
of the militia and Texas Rangers he had called to muster in San
Antonio. However, Houston wisely hedged on an all out invasion of Mexico when
he gave General Somervell orders to make a demonstration in force along the border,
and "only cross the Rio Grande if he thought it could be done successfully."
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On
the 7th of November, 750 volunteers assembled at Mission San Jose. The
first task facing General Somervell was to move his small army to a camp on the
south bank of the Medina River and organize the men into regiments and
companies of infantry. Unlike the force Caldwell had commanded at Salado
Creek, made up of local militia and a few Texas Rangers fighting to protect
their families and homes, many of Somervell’s undisciplined adventurers had been
lured from afar with rumors of loot and promises of glory. The Texas Rangers commanded
by Jack Hays were clearly an exception. They would prove to be an invaluable asset
to the General during the trying times that lay ahead.
On November
25, the Rangers led the way south from the camp on the Medina, their homemade
flag proudly bearing the motto “We give but ask no quarter” hanging limp
in the pouring rain. The expedition was short on powder, lead, beef, bread, and
most other supplies, and even lacked the wagons necessary to carry what little
they did have. The lack of wagons, however, was in all likelihood a blessing because
rain had been falling for several days and the land that stretched between the
Medina and the Frio River was a virtual bog. |
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Three weary days later,
after slogging through miles of mud and standing water, the column reached the
Laredo Road and eventually forded the wide but shallow Frio River on December
1. The raging flood waters of the Nueces came next. When the Rangers
rode ahead to scout Laredo
, they were forced to undress and hold bundled clothes and weapons high over their
heads while their horses swam against the strong current. Without the aid of a
horse, swimming the river was next to impossible, so Somervell ordered the construction
of a crude bridge. The river was quickly spanned and the volunteers were waiting
on the south bank of the Nueces when the Rangers returned from their scout three
days later.
General Somervell was surprised when Hays reported Laredo
undefended, and he immediately ordered a forced march to the Rio Grande.
By daybreak on December 8, the Texans were encamped in a semicircle around
Laredo. Unfortunately,
hours earlier, the alcalde had ordered more than a thousand horses driven
across the river out of the Texans' reach, and Somervell's hope of mounting his
entire force was lost. |
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The Texans received
a silent greeting from the citizens of Laredo
when they entered town later that morning. Jack Hays personally hoisted the Texas
flag to the top of the church steeple. After demanding supplies from the alcalde,
Somervell pulled his men out of town and relocated them three miles south on a
hill near the Rio Grande. The remainder of the day passed without incident, but
well before sunrise the following morning, more than two hundred men slipped out
of camp and headed for town.
Ignoring General Somervell’s direct orders
to the contrary, the rowdy volunteers looted Laredo,
taking what they pleased from the terrified citizens, including an occasional
unwilling daughter or wife. With the assistance of the Texas Rangers, Somervell
was eventually able to clear the town of the undisciplined rabble and return most
of the booty. However, much to the alcalde’s annoyance, the General kept
all the stolen coffee, flour, sugar, and soap.
When the Texans pulled
out of Laredo the
following day, Somervell decided to march down the east bank of the Rio Grande
to avoid the prying eyes of the Mexican cavalry. The decision proved to be costly.
Time and again mesquite thickets and thorny chaparral forced the column to circle
well away from the river, and often there was no choice except to chop a path
through the prickly undergrowth. After six miserable days the volunteers were
exhausted, hungry, and practically out of supplies. That evening nearly 200 men
voted to return to San Antonio.
The following morning, the remaining Texans crossed the Rio Grande and advanced
to Guerrero, some sixty miles below Laredo.
There Somervell gave the alcalde a choice; either hand over 100 hundred
horses and five days’ provisions or the town would be sacked. The Texans retreated
back across the river to await the delivery of the horses and supplies, but when
the alcalde failed to meet his demands in the morning, Somervell realized
little could be gained by sacking Guerrero. Whether they liked it or not, his
men were relatively safe on the Texas side of the Rio Grande and he intended to
keep them there.
On
the morning of December 19, General Somervell made a reluctant decision to abandon
the entire mission. The expedition would march north to Gonzales
where it would be disbanded. As Somervell had expected, many of the men were furious
with his decision. William S. Fisher, one of the expedition’s captains,
asked for permission to continue the march down the river with those men who were
unwilling to disband, but Somervell denied the request, warning of the dangers
in such a move. |
| Ignoring the General’s
warning, 305 volunteers promptly resigned from his command and elected Fisher
to lead them in a private invasion of Mexico; in actuality more of a quest for
revenge and plunder than a military action. Jack Hays and most of the Texas Rangers
were among the 189 men who departed for Gonzales
in the early afternoon, but Rangers Sam Walker and Bigfoot
Wallace made the decision to stay behind and join Fisher’s command. |
| Captain
Sam Walker
wikipedia |
After consulting with
his officers, Fisher dispatched the Texas Rangers who had remained with
him down the Mexican side of the Rio Grande with the dual mission of screening
his force from the Mexican cavalry and scouting the area around the town of Mier
for any sign of the enemy. The newly elected Colonel then marched the majority
of his small army south along the Texas
side of the Rio Grande, ferrying the remainder of the men down the river
on boats captured by the Rangers during the crossing to Guerrero.
On December
22, the Texans marched into the Mexican town of Mier unopposed. Colonel
Fisher met with the alcalde in the main Plaza, loudly demanding enough
horses to mount his entire force and sufficient provisions to feed the men for
a week. As General Somervell had before him, he threatened the town with destruction
if the horses and supplies were not delivered to the Texas
side of the Rio Grande by morning. However, unlike Somervell, Fisher meant to
keep his promise. Sensing the sincerity in the bitter tone of Fisher’s words,
the alcalde agreed to meet his demands, and the Texans returned to their
camp across the river. |
| General
Pedro de Ampudia
wikipedia |
The Texans were no
sooner across the Rio Grande than Mexican General Pedro Ampudia arrived in Mier
with 3000 troops and refused to allow the alcalde to deliver the promised
supplies. Fisher was furious. Ignoring odds of ten to one against him, he marched
the Texans back to Mier on December 24, and launched an immediate
attack. The struggle was close and bloody, but the outnumbered Texans fought their
way to the main plaza before nightfall.
The following day General Ampudia
ordered three separate suicidal charges across the plaza directly into the muzzles
of the Texans’ rifles. In spite of being so heavily outnumbered, Fisher’s small
army held firm until shortages of water, food, powder, and lead finally forced
them to surrender the following morning. Only thirty-one Texans were killed or
wounded during the intense fighting while the Mexicans suffered 200 wounded and
nearly 600 killed. In an act of revenge for their terrible losses, the Mexican
soldiers stripped the bodies of the dead Texans and drug them through the streets
of Mier.
The survivors were marched in chains to Matamoros and
then on to Salado. On February 11, 1843, led by Sam Walker and Bigfoot
Wallace, the prisoners managed a mass escape by disarming their guards and
overpowering the soldiers guarding the arms and ammunition. Unfortunately, most
of the Texans were soon lost, wandering for six days in the mountainous desert
north of Salado until they were nearly dead from thirst and hunger. |
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|
Black Bean Episode by Frederick Remington |
One hundred and seventy-six
prisoners were recaptured and marched to Saltillo where Mexican President
Santa Anna sentenced them to death en masse. The harsh sentence was later commuted
to death for one man in ten at the urging of the American and British ambassadors.
In what was to later become known as the infamous “Black Bean Episode,”
the prisoners were forced to draw beans from a jar. The seventeen men who drew
black beans were stood against a wall and executed by firing squad.
The
remaining prisoners were marched to Mexico City where they spent the summer
laboring on a road gang. In September 1843, most of the Texans were transferred
to the infamous Perote Prison in Vera Cruz, although some found
their way into other Mexican prisons. Over the course of the next year, a few
escaped, including Sam Walker who made his way to Tampico and managed to board
a ship for New Orleans. Many others died of wounds, disease, and starvation. |
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Monument
Hill Tomb Historical Marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, February 2009 |
The
48-foot 1936 Centennial Monument marks the mass grave of the remains of the 1842
"Dawson Massacre" and the 1843 "Black Bean Death Lottery"
Photo
courtesy Sarah
Reveley, February 2010 |
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