Jose Joaquín de Arredondo
Encyclopedia
Joaquín de Arredondo y Mioño (1768–1837) was a 19th-century Spanish–Mexican soldier who served as Chief Civil and Military Commandant of Texas
during the first Texas revolution.
, in 1768 to Nicolás Antonio de Arredondo y Pelegrín and Josefa Roso de Mioño. His father at one time was a Governor of Cuba
and a Viceroy of Buenos Aires
.
. In 1810 he was promoted to the rank of colonel
and given the command of the infantry regiment of Vera Cruz
. In 1811 he was made military commandant of Huasteca and governor of Nuevo Santander
. Arredondo took a rigid interpretation of the Laws of War
regarding guerrillas, partisans
, and insurgents. He applied his rigid rules of warfare in proactive campaigns in Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla's and the criollos revolts in 1811 and 1813, taking part of Ignacio Elizondo
's plot to capture Miguel Hidalgo. Arredondo was rewarded for his actions in suppressing the revolutionaries by being appointed as commandant of the eastern division of the Provincias Internas
(comprised by the provinces of Coahuila
, Texas, Nuevo Santander and the New Kingdom of León
), the region had a predominantly criollo royalist population, and the independence movement would not be supported by a majority of the population in those provinces until late 1810s, after Servando Teresa de Mier
's impulse toward the independence.
, the area of Texas then called Tejas was a primary frontier bulwark against the large-scale marauding attacks of hostile Indian nations such as the Apache
s, and Comanche
s. Because of the long-term hostility between Indian and European in the area, unlike other parts of New Spain
, much of the Kingdom of León, and especially Tejas was made up of a population almost wholly in European origin. Additionally, the area of Tejas as the most frontline area of the Kingdom to the Indian tribes and the growing American nation, was open to American settlement by Spanish authorities desirous of having the hardy, industrious, and martial characteristics of Americans. Thus, while the southern areas of the Kingdom of León remained primarily Spanish and royalists, the northern areas were primarily Anglo and ambivalent of either the revolution or the royal cause. However this neutrality quickly changed with the spread of independence fervor amongst the Spanish criollo population following the brutal suppression tactics of Spanish authorities and the threat of further absolutism in the province.
, who was a wanted man by Spanish authorities, in Texas. Both on his exit and return trip, through the Neutral Ground, on the Texas-Louisiana border, he received sympathy and encouragement by numerous factions, interested in Texas. In Natchitoches
, which had a long-standing predominantly American settlement, Gutiérrez laid plans to invade the rest of Texas from the east. He enjoined another adventurer and former US Army Lieutenant, Augustus William Magee, to carry out the mission in the field. William Shaler, an American consul to Havana, Europe and Algiers and writer, also supported the two. It is believed that Shaler was likely a member of the still little known early American Secret intelligence service
sometimes called Executive agents. In turn, it is likely, he had recruited Gutiérrez and Magee and had the blessing of the American government, as high as, Secretary of State
James Monroe
, however, the official US stance after the invasion was disapproval.
From their headquarters, in the Neutral Ground, Gutiérrez and Magee openly advertised and assembled recruits, from Louisiana and Texas, with impunity for the Republican Army of the North and adopted the emerald green flag, possibly because of Bostonite Magee's Irish background. Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition
volunteers were offered forty dollars a month and a league of to-be-captured land. From San Antonio, Texas governor, Manuel María de Salcedo
followed the developments, through his intelligence network and intensively tried to enlist more aid ,from his superiors and comrades in arms, south of the Rio Grande, to prepare for invasion and limit distribution of rebel propaganda. Governor Manuel Salcedo was continuously treated arrogantly, by his distal and protocol-oriented bureaucratic uncle and Commandant Nemesio Salcedo.
On 12 August 1812, the Republican Army of the North, of about 150 men, crossed the Sabine River and took Nacogdoches. without resistance. Royalist Capt. Montero was unable to recruit a single civilian minuteman for the cause, as the majority of the province erupted into support of the fledgling independence movement. Indeed, as he retreated toward San Antonio, numerous members of his army and residents of East Texas joined the invaders. By late fall the Republican Army of the North controlled the area between the Sabine and Guadalupe River
s.
After receiving reinforcements and conducting negotiations, Salcedo and Lt. Governor Muñoz de Echavarria deployed along the Guadalupe River east of San Antonio to meet the invading Republican Army. Learning of this, Gutiérrez and Magee turned south down the Guadalupe River valley, proceeded to La Bahia where they took control without much resistance, but where soon after, Gov. Salcedo began a prolonged siege of the Presidio La Bahia
, where the rebels were grouped. Neither could budge the other and the stalemate was tying up meager forces on both sides.
Following several weeks of attrition warfare, stalemate, and negotiations, Col. Magee died under mysterious circumstances, probably related to Gutierrez, who didn't trust him. Meanwhile, Gov. Salcedo and Col. Simon Herrera had lifted the siege and returned to San Antonio, causing a further loss of confidence, amongst the royalists and more defections. Meanwhile, the main Republican army, now under the commanded by Virginian Col. Samuel Kemper
, who took over after Magee's death, and buttressed by more recruits, from the Neutral Ground and coastal Lipan and Tonkawa Indians, had moved along the San Antonio River, toward San Antonio, where they defeated Col. Herrera's royalist forces, at Salado Creek
, also called Battle of Rosillo Creek
, or the Battle of Salado Creek. When the Republican Army moved toward San Antonio, Gov. Salcedo composed a twelve point plan of honorable surrender and delivered it to Col. Gutiérrez, who was camped at Mission Concepcion
.
However, the generous surrender was flouted by Guttierrez, when he ordered the execution of Royalist Gov. Salcedo. Col. Herrera and several other officers, while they dined with several of the Anglo-Tejano and American officers. Gutierrez then released all rebel prisoners, formed a provisional government, as governor, organized a tribunal, which found Salcedo and Herrera guilty of treason against the Hidalgo movement and condemned them to death. Anglo officers protested the decision and seemingly convinced self-appointed Governor and Generalissimo of the Republic, Gutiérrez, to spare them and send them to prison in southern Mexico or exile in Louisiana. Instead, the prisoners were placed under the escort of Mexican rebel Capt. Antonio Delgado, who executed, mutilated and stole the belongings of Gov. Salcedo, Herrera and 12 others, leaving them lying at the site, without burial. Delgado returned to San Antonio, boasting and joking of their butchery, which was announced publicly on military plaza.
This atrocity quickly sickened most of the Anglo-Tejano and American forces, supporting the independence movement. All of the Anglo officers and recruits were horrified, by the events and a party rushed to the execution site and provided the victims with Christian burial. Subsequently, most of the Anglo-Tejano and American officers immediately left the cause and returned to eastern Texas, Louisiana and further points east. Although some returned, Samuel Kemper, James Gaines, Warren D.C. Hall and many others took furloughs, to recover, and regroup, from the shock of the executions. Nonetheless, the pleadings of Col. Miguel Menchaca and other Mexican leaders persuaded many to stay and continue to help the cause of Mexican independence, through influence of the independent State of Texas, under the Republican Army of the North, which now initiated its plans, for full scale independence and prepared to meet a counter-offensive, from the south.
On 6 Apr 1813, Gutiérrez declared the province of Texas independent of Spain and introduced the first Constitution of Texas, which was more Centralist than Republican. This only further demoralized the remaining Anglo-Tejano and American volunteers, who provided the backbone of the army. Meanwhile, to the south, outrage for the execution of Salcedo and Herrera, caused neutral criollo
forces to join loyalist troops.
Consequently, in June, a one-time rebel, repelled by the revolutionary's behavior and now royalist, Lt. Col. Ignacio Elizondo
organized a volunteer regime of criollos. Against orders, he marched his force toward San Antonio to engage the Republican Army. On 16 June, the Republican Army, under Anglo-Tejano Henry Perry
, met and routed Elizondo's forces, which lost 400 men killed and many prisoners, at the Battle of Alazan Creek
outside San Antonio. He retreated to the Rio Grande
, where he was reprimanded by, but joined forces with, Gen. Joaquin Arredondo.
Meanwhile, the high-handed methods of Gutierrez, the mistreatment of the Spanish loyalists, the anti-Republican policies of the Gutierrez regime, had resulted in a total loss of confidence in President Gutierrez amongst the Anglo-Tejano and American community. On 4 Aug 1813, President Gutiérrez was deposed by these elements who installed chief propagandist, formal naval officer and member of the Spanish Cortes from Santo Domingo, José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois
.
With the Texas government paralyzed by these events, Arredondo launched his campaign on 18 August 1813. With his army, buttressed by criollos, provoked by the senseless slayings of Salcedo and his company, Arredondo now had about 1,800 troops. He immediately left for San Antonio de Bexar, with the firm intention of applying his rigid concepts of counter-insurgency warfare, on the entire Tejano population. Heavily supplied for a long campaign, his army marched forth.
the Texans hastily grouped their army and met Arredondo in the four-hour-long Battle of Medina
. The Spanish Army
completely destroyed the 1,300-man Republican Army of the North. Less than 100 Republican soldiers escaped, several hundred were captured, and the remainder killed. Arredondo summarily gathered the names of the captured men, executed the rank and file, torched the officers for further information, and then executed them. He then quickly gathered the families of the Texan soldiers and publicly executed them in the plaza of San Antonio. He then had their corpse or parts of their bodies, hung in trees. No effort was made to bury the remains of the Republican Army's dead, and the remains lay on the battlefield for nine years. For the next year he pursued the remaining leaders, including the civilian leadership of the Texas Republic, sparing few, and destroying all of the farms, buildings, and mills of the province except for a few located in San Antonio and newly built citadels such as near Goliad. The approximately 2,500 men killed in the Republican Army's campaign, exceeded the total number of Texans killed during the entire Texas Revolution twenty-three years later in 1836, and the death or expulsion of at least 15,000 other Anglo-Tejano and American settlers effectively ethnically cleansed and genocide
d the entire province.
After his victories and ethnic cleansing Texas province, he appointed Cristóbal Domínguez
as interim governor. After completing his assignment in Texas, he returned south to Monterrey
. He subsequently crushed the filibustering expedition of Francisco Javier Mina
by overrunning his defenses at the village of Soto la Marina in October 1817. He remained the primary military commander of the Coahuila and Texas
area for the next several years.
Consequently, on January 17, 1821 General Arredondo approved the petition of Moses Austin
to bring three hundred settlers within an area of 211000 acres (853.9 km²) in Texas. They were required to convert to Catholicism and provide arms and men in defending the routes into Mexico further south. Later, this settlements were further expanded helping to usher in additional waves of settlement of Americans from the United States into northern Mexico he wondered about the many bones and burned out buildings of the province, leaving them with the heavy impression of Spanish and Mexican venality and ruthlessness which later helped instigate another independence movement despite the fearful consequences.
, Cuba
. Arredondo died in 1837 shortly after Texas had successfully gained its independence under a fully American population.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
during the first Texas revolution.
Early life
Joaquín de Arredondo was born in BarcelonaBarcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, in 1768 to Nicolás Antonio de Arredondo y Pelegrín and Josefa Roso de Mioño. His father at one time was a Governor of Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and a Viceroy of Buenos Aires
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...
.
Military career
Arredondo entered the Royal Spanish Guards as a cadet in 1787 and was sent for service in New SpainNew Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
. In 1810 he was promoted to the rank of colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
and given the command of the infantry regiment of Vera Cruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
. In 1811 he was made military commandant of Huasteca and governor of Nuevo Santander
Nuevo Santander
Nuevo Santander was a region of the Virreinato de Nueva España, corresponding generally to the modern Mexican state of Tamaulipas and southern Texas. Nuevo Santander was named after Santander, Spain, and settled by Spanish American colonists in a concerted settlement campaign peaking in 1748-1750...
. Arredondo took a rigid interpretation of the Laws of War
Laws of war
The law of war is a body of law concerning acceptable justifications to engage in war and the limits to acceptable wartime conduct...
regarding guerrillas, partisans
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
, and insurgents. He applied his rigid rules of warfare in proactive campaigns in Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla's and the criollos revolts in 1811 and 1813, taking part of Ignacio Elizondo
Ignacio Elizondo
Francisco Ignacio Elizondo Villarreal, , was a New Leonese royalist general, mostly known for his victorious plot to seek to capture important insurgency precursors of the Mexican War of Independence such as Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, and Juan Aldama in Baján, Coahuila in...
's plot to capture Miguel Hidalgo. Arredondo was rewarded for his actions in suppressing the revolutionaries by being appointed as commandant of the eastern division of the Provincias Internas
Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas
The Provincias Internas or Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North was a colonial, administrative district of the Spanish Empire, created in 1776 to provide more autonomy for the frontier provinces in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, present day northern Mexico and southwestern...
(comprised by the provinces of Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
, Texas, Nuevo Santander and the New Kingdom of León
New Kingdom of León
The New Kingdom of León , was an administrative territory of the Spanish Empire, politically ruled by the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was located in an area corresponding generally to the present-day northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León.-Origins:...
), the region had a predominantly criollo royalist population, and the independence movement would not be supported by a majority of the population in those provinces until late 1810s, after Servando Teresa de Mier
Servando Teresa de Mier
Fray Servando Teresa de Mier was a Roman Catholic priest and a preacher and politician in New Spain....
's impulse toward the independence.
Texas
As part of the Kingdom of LeónKingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
, the area of Texas then called Tejas was a primary frontier bulwark against the large-scale marauding attacks of hostile Indian nations such as the Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
s, and Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
s. Because of the long-term hostility between Indian and European in the area, unlike other parts of New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
, much of the Kingdom of León, and especially Tejas was made up of a population almost wholly in European origin. Additionally, the area of Tejas as the most frontline area of the Kingdom to the Indian tribes and the growing American nation, was open to American settlement by Spanish authorities desirous of having the hardy, industrious, and martial characteristics of Americans. Thus, while the southern areas of the Kingdom of León remained primarily Spanish and royalists, the northern areas were primarily Anglo and ambivalent of either the revolution or the royal cause. However this neutrality quickly changed with the spread of independence fervor amongst the Spanish criollo population following the brutal suppression tactics of Spanish authorities and the threat of further absolutism in the province.
First Texas Rebellion
In 1811, idealist and Nuevo Santander blacksmith, Don Jose Bernardo Maximiliano Gutierrez de Lara became dedicated to the Hidalgo Independence movement. With his substantial contacts in the region and militancy he quickly received the rank of Lt. Colonel in Hidalgo's Army of the Americas and traveled to Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia, to enlist aid for his personal goals in the movement, in Texas. In Washington and Philadelphia, he met Caribbean adventurer José Álvarez de Toledo y DuboisJosé Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois
José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois was a politician and leader of a military force against Spanish rule in Texas.Toledo was born in Havana, Cuba. His father, Luis de Toledo y Liche was a native of Seville, Spain. He was educated at the Escuela Naval de Cádiz and then joined the Spanish Navy in 1806...
, who was a wanted man by Spanish authorities, in Texas. Both on his exit and return trip, through the Neutral Ground, on the Texas-Louisiana border, he received sympathy and encouragement by numerous factions, interested in Texas. In Natchitoches
Natchitoches
Natchitoches may refer to:*Natchitoches , an American Indian people*Natchitoches, Louisiana, a city*Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana...
, which had a long-standing predominantly American settlement, Gutiérrez laid plans to invade the rest of Texas from the east. He enjoined another adventurer and former US Army Lieutenant, Augustus William Magee, to carry out the mission in the field. William Shaler, an American consul to Havana, Europe and Algiers and writer, also supported the two. It is believed that Shaler was likely a member of the still little known early American Secret intelligence service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
sometimes called Executive agents. In turn, it is likely, he had recruited Gutiérrez and Magee and had the blessing of the American government, as high as, Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
James Monroe
James Monroe
James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...
, however, the official US stance after the invasion was disapproval.
From their headquarters, in the Neutral Ground, Gutiérrez and Magee openly advertised and assembled recruits, from Louisiana and Texas, with impunity for the Republican Army of the North and adopted the emerald green flag, possibly because of Bostonite Magee's Irish background. Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition
Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition
The Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition was an 1812–13 joint Mexican-American filibustering expedition against Spanish Texas during the early years of the Mexican War of Independence.-Background:...
volunteers were offered forty dollars a month and a league of to-be-captured land. From San Antonio, Texas governor, Manuel María de Salcedo
Manuel María de Salcedo
Manuel María de Salcedo y Quiroga , Manuel María de Salcedo y Quiroga , Manuel María de Salcedo y Quiroga , (Malaga, Spain, (1776 - executed, 3 April 1813), was a governor of Spanish Texas from 1808 until his execution in 1813. Salcedo gained leadership experience helping his father Juan Manuel de...
followed the developments, through his intelligence network and intensively tried to enlist more aid ,from his superiors and comrades in arms, south of the Rio Grande, to prepare for invasion and limit distribution of rebel propaganda. Governor Manuel Salcedo was continuously treated arrogantly, by his distal and protocol-oriented bureaucratic uncle and Commandant Nemesio Salcedo.
On 12 August 1812, the Republican Army of the North, of about 150 men, crossed the Sabine River and took Nacogdoches. without resistance. Royalist Capt. Montero was unable to recruit a single civilian minuteman for the cause, as the majority of the province erupted into support of the fledgling independence movement. Indeed, as he retreated toward San Antonio, numerous members of his army and residents of East Texas joined the invaders. By late fall the Republican Army of the North controlled the area between the Sabine and Guadalupe River
Guadalupe River
Guadalupe River may refer to:*Guadalupe River *Guadalupe River *Guadalupe River *Guadalupe River , in southern Spain*Guadalope, a river in northern Spain...
s.
After receiving reinforcements and conducting negotiations, Salcedo and Lt. Governor Muñoz de Echavarria deployed along the Guadalupe River east of San Antonio to meet the invading Republican Army. Learning of this, Gutiérrez and Magee turned south down the Guadalupe River valley, proceeded to La Bahia where they took control without much resistance, but where soon after, Gov. Salcedo began a prolonged siege of the Presidio La Bahia
Presidio La Bahía
The Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahía, known more commonly as Presidio La Bahia, or simply La Bahia is a fort constructed by the Spanish Army that became the nucleus of the city of Goliad, Texas, United States. Originally founded in 1721 on the ruins of the failed French Fort Saint...
, where the rebels were grouped. Neither could budge the other and the stalemate was tying up meager forces on both sides.
Following several weeks of attrition warfare, stalemate, and negotiations, Col. Magee died under mysterious circumstances, probably related to Gutierrez, who didn't trust him. Meanwhile, Gov. Salcedo and Col. Simon Herrera had lifted the siege and returned to San Antonio, causing a further loss of confidence, amongst the royalists and more defections. Meanwhile, the main Republican army, now under the commanded by Virginian Col. Samuel Kemper
Samuel Kemper
Samuel Kemper was an American adventurer and filibusterer.Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, Kemper was involved with his brothers in the 1804 rebellion in West Florida. He later participated in the 1812-13 Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition into Spanish Texas, becoming commander of after the death of...
, who took over after Magee's death, and buttressed by more recruits, from the Neutral Ground and coastal Lipan and Tonkawa Indians, had moved along the San Antonio River, toward San Antonio, where they defeated Col. Herrera's royalist forces, at Salado Creek
Salado Creek
Salado Creek is a waterway in San Antonio that runs from Northern Bexar County for about to the San Antonio River near Buena Vista.-Watershed:...
, also called Battle of Rosillo Creek
Battle of Rosillo Creek
The Battle of Rosillo Creek was a conflict of the Mexican War of Independence occurring March 29, 1813 in Coahuila y Tejas, approximately nine miles southeast of San Antonio near the confluence of Rosillo Creek and Salado Creek.-The Combatants:The battle was fought between the Republican Army of...
, or the Battle of Salado Creek. When the Republican Army moved toward San Antonio, Gov. Salcedo composed a twelve point plan of honorable surrender and delivered it to Col. Gutiérrez, who was camped at Mission Concepcion
Mission Concepcion
Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña was established in 1716 as Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais in East Texas. The mission was moved in 1731 to San Antonio...
.
However, the generous surrender was flouted by Guttierrez, when he ordered the execution of Royalist Gov. Salcedo. Col. Herrera and several other officers, while they dined with several of the Anglo-Tejano and American officers. Gutierrez then released all rebel prisoners, formed a provisional government, as governor, organized a tribunal, which found Salcedo and Herrera guilty of treason against the Hidalgo movement and condemned them to death. Anglo officers protested the decision and seemingly convinced self-appointed Governor and Generalissimo of the Republic, Gutiérrez, to spare them and send them to prison in southern Mexico or exile in Louisiana. Instead, the prisoners were placed under the escort of Mexican rebel Capt. Antonio Delgado, who executed, mutilated and stole the belongings of Gov. Salcedo, Herrera and 12 others, leaving them lying at the site, without burial. Delgado returned to San Antonio, boasting and joking of their butchery, which was announced publicly on military plaza.
This atrocity quickly sickened most of the Anglo-Tejano and American forces, supporting the independence movement. All of the Anglo officers and recruits were horrified, by the events and a party rushed to the execution site and provided the victims with Christian burial. Subsequently, most of the Anglo-Tejano and American officers immediately left the cause and returned to eastern Texas, Louisiana and further points east. Although some returned, Samuel Kemper, James Gaines, Warren D.C. Hall and many others took furloughs, to recover, and regroup, from the shock of the executions. Nonetheless, the pleadings of Col. Miguel Menchaca and other Mexican leaders persuaded many to stay and continue to help the cause of Mexican independence, through influence of the independent State of Texas, under the Republican Army of the North, which now initiated its plans, for full scale independence and prepared to meet a counter-offensive, from the south.
On 6 Apr 1813, Gutiérrez declared the province of Texas independent of Spain and introduced the first Constitution of Texas, which was more Centralist than Republican. This only further demoralized the remaining Anglo-Tejano and American volunteers, who provided the backbone of the army. Meanwhile, to the south, outrage for the execution of Salcedo and Herrera, caused neutral criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
forces to join loyalist troops.
Arredondo's revenge
Simultaneously, to meet the threat of the recently separated province, the Spanish crown appointed General José Joaquín de Arredondo to command of the Eastern and Western Divisions, of the Provincias Internas. He quickly re-organized the royalist forces, appointed new officers, drilled his troops, and awaited for additional supplies, while planning for a vast application of his counter-insurgency tactics. However, the anger of the royalist criollos, toward the Gutierrez regime, was such that many wished quick and violent retribution, by marching toward San Antonio, to capture and execute the first "President and Protector of Texas."Consequently, in June, a one-time rebel, repelled by the revolutionary's behavior and now royalist, Lt. Col. Ignacio Elizondo
Ignacio Elizondo
Francisco Ignacio Elizondo Villarreal, , was a New Leonese royalist general, mostly known for his victorious plot to seek to capture important insurgency precursors of the Mexican War of Independence such as Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, and Juan Aldama in Baján, Coahuila in...
organized a volunteer regime of criollos. Against orders, he marched his force toward San Antonio to engage the Republican Army. On 16 June, the Republican Army, under Anglo-Tejano Henry Perry
Henry Perry
Henry Perry was a restaurateur who is considered the "father of Kansas City barbecue."Perry was born in Shelby County, Tennessee near Memphis and worked on steamboat restaurants on the Mississippi River and Missouri River before moving to Kansas City, Missouri in 1907...
, met and routed Elizondo's forces, which lost 400 men killed and many prisoners, at the Battle of Alazan Creek
Battle of Alazan Creek
The Battle of Alazan Creek, occurred on the banks of Alazan Creek in Coahuila y Tejas on June 20, 1813, during the Mexican War of Independence...
outside San Antonio. He retreated to the Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
, where he was reprimanded by, but joined forces with, Gen. Joaquin Arredondo.
Meanwhile, the high-handed methods of Gutierrez, the mistreatment of the Spanish loyalists, the anti-Republican policies of the Gutierrez regime, had resulted in a total loss of confidence in President Gutierrez amongst the Anglo-Tejano and American community. On 4 Aug 1813, President Gutiérrez was deposed by these elements who installed chief propagandist, formal naval officer and member of the Spanish Cortes from Santo Domingo, José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois
José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois
José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois was a politician and leader of a military force against Spanish rule in Texas.Toledo was born in Havana, Cuba. His father, Luis de Toledo y Liche was a native of Seville, Spain. He was educated at the Escuela Naval de Cádiz and then joined the Spanish Navy in 1806...
.
With the Texas government paralyzed by these events, Arredondo launched his campaign on 18 August 1813. With his army, buttressed by criollos, provoked by the senseless slayings of Salcedo and his company, Arredondo now had about 1,800 troops. He immediately left for San Antonio de Bexar, with the firm intention of applying his rigid concepts of counter-insurgency warfare, on the entire Tejano population. Heavily supplied for a long campaign, his army marched forth.
Battle of Medina
The rapidity of Arredondo's campaign caught the Texans by surprise. Under José Álvarez de Toledo y DuboisJosé Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois
José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois was a politician and leader of a military force against Spanish rule in Texas.Toledo was born in Havana, Cuba. His father, Luis de Toledo y Liche was a native of Seville, Spain. He was educated at the Escuela Naval de Cádiz and then joined the Spanish Navy in 1806...
the Texans hastily grouped their army and met Arredondo in the four-hour-long Battle of Medina
Battle of Medina
The Battle of Medina was fought approximately 20 miles south of San Antonio de Bexar on August 18, 1813 as part of the Mexican War of Independence against Spanish authority in Mexico...
. The Spanish Army
Spanish Army
The Spanish Army is the terrestrial army of the Spanish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is one of the oldest active armies - dating back to the 15th century.-Introduction:...
completely destroyed the 1,300-man Republican Army of the North. Less than 100 Republican soldiers escaped, several hundred were captured, and the remainder killed. Arredondo summarily gathered the names of the captured men, executed the rank and file, torched the officers for further information, and then executed them. He then quickly gathered the families of the Texan soldiers and publicly executed them in the plaza of San Antonio. He then had their corpse or parts of their bodies, hung in trees. No effort was made to bury the remains of the Republican Army's dead, and the remains lay on the battlefield for nine years. For the next year he pursued the remaining leaders, including the civilian leadership of the Texas Republic, sparing few, and destroying all of the farms, buildings, and mills of the province except for a few located in San Antonio and newly built citadels such as near Goliad. The approximately 2,500 men killed in the Republican Army's campaign, exceeded the total number of Texans killed during the entire Texas Revolution twenty-three years later in 1836, and the death or expulsion of at least 15,000 other Anglo-Tejano and American settlers effectively ethnically cleansed and genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
d the entire province.
After his victories and ethnic cleansing Texas province, he appointed Cristóbal Domínguez
Cristobal Dominguez
Cristóbal Domínguez was an Argentine chess master.He has been one of the most significant developers of the chess game study techniques since the early 1960s, when he began preparing a young generations of players with major national and international projection, in the sea-side resort city of Mar...
as interim governor. After completing his assignment in Texas, he returned south to Monterrey
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
. He subsequently crushed the filibustering expedition of Francisco Javier Mina
Francisco Javier Mina
Francisco Javier Mina was a Spanish lawyer and army officer and a Mexican revolutionary.-Biography:...
by overrunning his defenses at the village of Soto la Marina in October 1817. He remained the primary military commander of the Coahuila and Texas
Coahuila y Tejas
Coahuila y Tejas was one of the constituent states of the newly established United Mexican States under its 1824 Constitution.It had two capitals: first Saltillo, and then Monclova...
area for the next several years.
Resettlement of Texas
The utter crushing of the Texas province however, had removed the primary obstacle to the marauding Indian nations further north. Between 1817 and 1821, expeditions of Comanche and Apache Indians numbering several thousand penetrated deep into the provinces further south of Texas. Ravaged by the war of Independence and the subsequent Indian raids, the Kingdom of León fell backward in wealth and population, and along with the rest of Mexico essentially entered into a period of intense depression and anarchy.Consequently, on January 17, 1821 General Arredondo approved the petition of Moses Austin
Moses Austin
Moses Austin played a large part in the development of the American lead industry and is the father of Stephen F. Austin, a leading American settler of Texas. He was the first to be allowed to gather Anglo Americans for settlement in Spanish Texas...
to bring three hundred settlers within an area of 211000 acres (853.9 km²) in Texas. They were required to convert to Catholicism and provide arms and men in defending the routes into Mexico further south. Later, this settlements were further expanded helping to usher in additional waves of settlement of Americans from the United States into northern Mexico he wondered about the many bones and burned out buildings of the province, leaving them with the heavy impression of Spanish and Mexican venality and ruthlessness which later helped instigate another independence movement despite the fearful consequences.
Mexican allegiance
When Mexico achieved independence from Spain he endorsed the Plan of Iguala and swore allegiance to the Republic of Mexico on July 3, 1821. Arredondo surrendered his command and went into retirement in HavanaHavana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. Arredondo died in 1837 shortly after Texas had successfully gained its independence under a fully American population.
Further reading
- Derr, Mark-"The Frontiersman; Davy Crockett" William Morrow and Co. ISBN 0-688-09656-5
- Davis, William C.; Lone Star Rising-The Revolutionary Birth of the Texas Republic; Free Press; ISBN 0-684-86510-6
- Davis, William C; Three Roads to the Alamo; Harper Collins; ISBN 0-06-017334-3
- Roberts, Randy & Olson, James S.; A Line in the Sand-The Alamo in Blood and Memory; Simon & Schuster; ISBN 0-684-83544-4
- Dingus, Anne, The Truth About Texas, Houston: Gulf Publishing Company (1995) ISBN 0-87719-282-0
- Nofi, Albert A.Albert NofiAlbert A. Nofi , is an American military historian, defense analyst, and designer of board and computer wargaming systems.A native of Brooklyn, he attended New York City public schools, graduating from the Boys' High School in 1961...
, The Alamo and The Texas War for Independence, Da Capo Press (1992) ISBN 0-306-81040-9 - Crisp, James E., Sleuthing the Alamo, Oxford University Press (2005) ISBN 0-19-516-349-4
- Hardin, Stephen L., Texian Iliad, Austin: University of Texas Press (1994) ISBN 0-292-73086-1
- Lord, Walter, A Time to Stand,; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1961) ISBN 0-8032-7902-7