Indep Villas Del Norte

The Revolution for Independence in the Villas del Norteby Martin Salinas

Colegio de Historia y Humanidades de Reynosaand Stanley Green

Texas A&M International University

Introduction

In Mexican history, the revolutionary movement for independence began in central Mexico and moved north. So also has the historiography. While once it had been said that not a single cartridge had been expanded in Nuevo Santander1, we now know that the conflict here was long and bloody, and never completely came to an end. In recent years, the historical focus has shifted from the national to the local scene, bringing to light a region also swept by revolutionary passions -- the Villas del Norte.

They were so called because they were set down on the Rio Grande as the northern tier of 24 settlements founded by Jose de Escandón in the new province (official term: Colony) of Nuevo Santander, which would become the state of Tamaulipas after Mexico's independence in 1821. From north to south, they were Laredo, the plantation of Dolores, Revilla, Mier, Camargo, and Reynosa - the first two being on the north side of the river. In the late 1700s, near the mouth of the Rio Grande the town of Matamoros would grow up (official name until 1826 Nuestra Señora del Refugio de los Esteros); due to increasing activity in the Gulf, the Congregacion de Refugio as it was informally called, would become the most important commercial center on the lower Rio Grande.

What was notable in the Northeast was the rapidity with which revolutionary movements could flame up, course through the towns and ranches and farms with a seeming inevitability, and then just as rapidly be smashed into submission by Spanish forces. On January 11, 1811, when Mariano Jimenez defeated the Spanish governor of Coahuila (Puerto de Carneros) where the royalist troops went over without firing a shot, it seemed independence was an accomplished deed. In Nuevo Santander, Governor Manuel Iturbe fled for the coast leaving the capital of San Carlos

1 ?p.129 in Saldívar, Gabriel. Historia comprendida de Tamaulipas. Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas: Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas. Dirección General de Educación y Cultura, 1988.

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to the insurgents, who promptly declared independence. The portion of Nuevo Santander loyal to Spain was reduced to a tiny sliver around Altamira in the southeastern portion of the Colony. Then the redoubtable Joaquín de Arredondo y Mioño arrived with his Regimiento Fijo de Veracruz, and within six weeks he and his lieutenants, through a policy of implacable military force and summary executions, reversed all the successes of the revolutionaries and brought the entire province back into the Spanish fold.

In this first outburst of revolution and counter-revolution, the response in the Villas del Norte was conditioned by their frontier status, and by their proximity to Texas. The presence of Spanish garrisons along the river prevented these citizens, called vecinos, from going over en masse to the independence side. But the Villas del Norte were in reach of revolutionaries in Texas, and here the revolution would never be as complete, nor submission as total, as in the communities to the south.

Prominent men - and women - in the towns themselves were not immune to the dynamics of the revolution -- even if the local oligarchies had been a partner, albeit a junior partner, in the Spanish system. A number of well-known figures answered the call of revolution out of a mixture of motives, a combination of ideology and personal interest. José Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara travelled to the vicinity of Saltillo to meet Hidalgo and Mariano Jimenez, who gave him the title of colonel, while his brother José Antonio received the charge to promote the revolution in the Villas del Norte. Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara would later be forced to flee to Texas, but even there was a force to be reckoned with by the Spanish commanders in Nuevo Santander. Arredondo hated Gutierrez de Lara with a loathing he could scarcely contain, and could not mention his name in dispatches without adding a string of insults.

Gutierrez de Lara found it possible to lose himself, as far as Spanish pursuers were concerned, in the Texas spaces. These Texas spaces also were home to other kinds of revolutionaries, the Native Americans who found the Independence Revolution a great opportunity. The Lipan Apaches fought on both sides, but eventually would expend most of their energy in their preferred role of raiding for booty. The hunting-gathering peoples of the Rio Grande Plain, on the other hand, reacted instinctively, and were ready participants in a contest that allowed them to get even with a people who had pushed them out of their

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customary habitations and stolen their women and children. These Indians, not the creoles or mestizos, would be the only peoples of the river to take an armed stand against their Spanish overlords.

The Villas del Norte had another function, that of revolution of last resort, a place where revolutionaries went when they were pushed to the edges by Arredondo's troops. Especially from 1813 on, this region would be a draw to men unable to continue their revolutionary ways in Coahuila, and especially in Nuevo Leon. It was a natural next step if things got too dangerous in more settled areas.

To a certain extent the year 1813 marked the end of large scale fighting - with rebel bands numbering over 100 or so. These had been hunted down, or chased away. But revolutionary feelings never died in the Villas del Norte. Even after 1813, in times of seeming peace, a sub rosa war against the Peninsulars went on. Spaniards living in the Villas del Norte found they did not have the same security and privileges they once had.

Villas del Norte in 1810

By 1810, the Villas del Norte were beginning to assume the outlines of settled, and almost mature, frontier settlements. Far from suffering the late Bourbon decline attributed to them by some historians, the Villas del Norte since 1785, peace treaties that brought a semblance of peace with the Comanche and Lipan Apache, who were now permitted only minor brigandage, had entered into a time of considerable prosperity. A study of their tithing revenue by Armando Alonzo showed that in 1798, the Villas del Norte had exceeded Saltillo in collections.2 Their economy had moved from regional commerce, to general long-range trading, with the animals of the brush country being sent as far away as Louisiana and New Mexico. The institutions, also, had moved several steps away from primitive frontier status, toward full-fledged churches, and the attendant related organizations such as brotherhoods. Since 1767, the Villas del Norte had been granted

2 ?Armando Alonzo, "La Revolución de Independencia y su impacto en la ganadería del Nuevo Santander y Texas". Presentation. Conference "La Independencia en el Noreste" Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Archivo General del Municipio. December 8,9, 2009.

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half cabildos.3

The individual settlements in the last 50 years had moved in directions not expected. With the international interest in Louisiana, the lower part of the river had shown considerable development. The southernmost of the villas, Reynosa in 1802 changed its location due to severe flooding, but it had recovered quickly, and was showing signs of prosperity. Fifty miles upriver from the settlement was Camargo, which started off in 1749 as the premier settlement, for its location at the juncture of the San Juan and Rio Grande rivers. But Camargo had entered into a period of decline, as commercial activity was shifting southward, and would soon be eclipsed by almost all of the other settlements. These two towns had the principle Indian missions, with the Indian population in the greatest near the mouth of the Rio Grande.4

The next town of river was Mier, and it was technically the oldest of the river settlements, as it was placed at the El Cantaro ford, one of the principal crossings to the salt beds, in present South Texas. Although it had been squeezed in between Camargo and Revilla, and had not even been allotted the normal quantity of lands for a municipality, Mier also showed signs of prosperity, and had even attracted foreign merchants. It would soon achieve even greater importance, as it marked the northern limit of river traffic. Some 35 miles north of Mier lay the town of Revilla, planted where the Salado River emptied into the Rio Grande. Although the Salado was brackish, as its name implied, the pastures around Revilla were amazingly fertile, and it would frequently claim the largest number of animals of any of the riverine settlements. Revilla was also one of the leaders in a developing political consciousness, and would soon acquire a reputation for combative federalism. To the north of Revilla was Dolores, a different type of settlement, since it had never been a municipality but the private holding of the greatest land owner in the region, José Vazquez Borrego. He had enjoyed unwonted privileges in the early years, as a trusted confidant of the governor, Escandon, but in the last 30 years of the colony, immigrants had little reason to move to Dolores, and it had entered into a long decline, with the initial great landholding

3 ?Stan Green, "Geopolitical factors in Escandon's Rio Grande villas 1748-1810". Paper Presented at Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, Saturday, March 6, 2010.


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breaking up into several subsidiary ranches.5

Laredo was the northernmost of the Villas del Norte, and along with Dolores, the only town on the north bank of the Rio Grande. In the early days it had been a neglected settlement on the edge of Indian country, but this location eventually gave it military prominence, as the staging ground for campaigns against the "Barbarian Indians" as the Comanche and Lipan were called. It had evolved into a military settlement, small of population, but important in military thinking, home to one of the few military companies, and frequently to the commander of the Eastern Interior Provinces. It was here that Indians, when at peace, came to receive their allotment of gifts.6

In northern Nuevo Santander there clearly was a growing animus against Spaniards and the Spanish system, but it is not easy to document. Hostility between peninsular and creole does not leap out at the reader in the documents of the Villas del Norte. Such a thing would not have been politic for a vecino to write. But the Spanish officials in Nuevo Santander were under no such constraint. Most of them never wanted to be here in the first place, and tried their best to avoid an appointment that they saw it as a species of exile. Their correspondence reveals what they thought. Calleja's 1794 report on Nuevo Santander was full of negative comments about.7 And when Arredondo wrote to the Viceroy in 1811 expressing his dissatisfaction with the militia officers of Nuevo Santander, he wrote that they were "in general a herd of savages, without education, preparation, or principles from which originates the misfortunes of the settlements, as well as no discipline or military preparation...."8



7 ?p. 29 in Vizcaya Canales, Isidro. "Impacto del Grito de Dolores en el Nuevo Santander". In Zorrilla, Juan Fidel, Maribel Miró Flaquer, Octavio Herrera Pérez, Compiladores. Tamaulipas: textos de su historia, 1810-1921. Ciudad Victoria: Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas, Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 1990.

8 ?Arredondo to Venegas, Quartel General de Aguayo, July 2, 1811, Historia Operaciones de Guerra; Arredondo, José Joaquin,

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The vecinos of Nuevo Santander responded in kind. Their particular target was the heavy load of Spanish taxes, and other exactions such as forced loans and levies upon provisions. José Antonio Gutierrez de Lara wrote that he was driven to take up the revolutionary banner by "the sacking of his wealth and weapons and troops".9

There was another class, even more influential than the landowners, that was susceptible to anti-Spanish feeling. Father Jose Cayetano Gonzales de Hermosillo spent most of his adult life along the border, ordained in Monterrey in 1793, then serving as pastor at Revilla from late 1794 to September 1808 when he was transferred to Laredo, and after that filling in at both Laredo and Revilla until he died in 1833. He came from an insurgent family, and what his opinions on Spain were during the revolution we can only guess. He found it necessary to sign a petition at Revilla in 1815, required by Arredondo, which certified Revilla's services to Spain during the insurrection on the river. If he was truly pro-monarchy, his attitudes changed radically after independence, for his name appears on the minutes of an April 18, 1823, Guerrero (formerly Revilla) meeting of officials and prominent citizens, which supported the Federalist Plan de Guadalajara. His was the only speech considered worthy of documenting, and he was recorded as giving "an eloquent discourse in which he made clearly visible the natural rights of man...", and made a reference to 300 years of slavery under Spain. His changing political stance apparently did not damage his economic standing, as when he died in 1833 in Guerrero, his relatives gathered at his rural house to find out if they were included in his estate.10 It is possible that that it was Monterrey's Bishop Primo Feliciano Marin de Porras who was responsible for these seditious ideas of natural rights, for, although a staunch royalist, he had earlier tried to introduce Enlightenment

1811 á 1820 (AGN). Transcript at University of Texas, Center for American History, Box 2Q193. Vol.2, pp.78-79.

9 ?p.6 in Breve apología que el coronel don José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara hace de las imposturas calumniosas que le articulan en un folleto intitulado "Levantamiento de un general en las Tamaulipas contra la República o muerto que se le aparece al gobierno en aquel estado". Segunda edición, Aumentada con los Apuntes Biográficos del autor, por el Lic. José L. Cossío. México: Tipografía de la Imprenta del Niño Perdido núm. 10, 1915.

10 ?Sesión de Junio 29 1823. Borrador de correspondencia. Fondo XIX, Caja 1, Folder 3, Expediente 4.

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philosophy at the Episcopal seminary in Monterrey.The sacerdotal community was an assorted group in the Villas

del Norte. In the Spanish-support petitions required by Arredondo in the struggle against the "traitor" Gutierrez de Lara, the local parish priests were prominent participants. Those of Revilla, dated October 30, 1815, and of Mier, dated December 31, 1815 are extant. Some of these priests were pillars of the Spanish cause. One of the signers in the Revilla petition was Felix Yanze, curate of Revilla, who as a member of the local landowning gentry, drew some of his income from renting out sheep11 He certified that he had offered three masses, sung, with the customary ringing of bells and vivas and acclamations, upon the accession of Fernando VII to the Spanish throne.12

Yanze was outshown in his Spanish patriotism by Fray Antonio Manuel del Alamo of Mier, who was singled out for particular merit in the Mier petition, as one who could be counted on to preach to his parishioners to remain loyal to the king, give lodging to royalist officers, celebrate Spanish victories with masses of Thanksgiving, and make a generous contributions when almost any Spanish official or troops came to Mier.13 Even this petition did not do justice to del Alamo's incandescent royalist sentiments. For when he applied for the position of commissary for the Inquisition for the Villas del Norte in 1816, he did not stint in listing his services. In a letter of October 7, 1816, the 46-year-old del Alamo wrote that not only had he fulfilled his priestly duties during his 16 year tour in Mier, starting a girls school and baptizing some 350 souls, but he had been there at Bajan, with Elizondo, for the apprehension of Hidalgo and the other revolutionary captains. And, he added, "I myself laid hands on Hermosillo," and sent dispatches to Aguayo so that other insurgent chiefs could be captured.14

11 ?List of debts. Name of debtor not found on document. "Cuenta y razon que manifiesta los sujetos y cantidades á quienes yo devo". Revilla Julio 21, 1818. Archivo Histórico Guerrero, Caja 3.

12 ?Petition of principal citizens of Revilla enumerating Revilla's services to the Spanish cause, Octuber 30, 1815. Archivo Histórico Guerrero, Caja 3.

13 ?Petition by alcalde and sindicos of Mier, enumerating Mier's services to the Spanish cause, December 31, 1815. Caja 1824-1837. Archivo Histórico de Mier.

14 ?Antonio Manuel del Álamo to [?], Mier, Mayo 14, 1817.

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Fray Juan Nepomuceno María de Vaca of Camargo supported del Alamo's candidacy, in which candidacy he was successful, and so it may be assumed that de Vaca also was a staunch royalist. (But del Alamo paid the price, for when some followers of Herrera took over Mier in August 1813, the only house to be sacked was his.15)

It appears that del Alamo was responsible for the execution of a relative of one of his fellow petitioners, José Cayetano de Hermosillo. The Hermosillo del Alamo referred to was probably Rafael Hermosillo, who was detained in custody, and garrotted in Aguayo on April 27, 1813.

A Villas del Norte priest who took up the rebels' side was José Maria Garcia of Laredo. As he later stated, in a petition seeking a position in the cathedral chapter, that when the revolution hit, he was in Guemes, and in punishment for his having spoken out in favor of independence and liberty, was taken by a corporal and four soldiers to the barracks in Aguayo on the orders of Arredondo's military and political ally, Francisco Cao. This political statement did not seem to hold Garcia's career back, for when he was sent to Laredo in 1812 he served not only as the town's priest, but also as the military chaplain of the 3rd company.16

One priest with close ties to the Rio Grande who paid the ultimate price for his convictions was Juan José Vazquez Borrego. He was a son of José Vazquez Borrego, a founder of Dolores in 1750 - one of the original Villas del Norte, Dolores. Juan José became a priest and supported the cause of the revolution. He was apprehended, and executed in Chihuahua in 1813.17 For this, the Spanish government set its sights on the Vazquez Borrego family. There was no taking revenge on Dolores, for this old ranch settlement -- it had never become a municipality -- had been abandoned to the Indians. In 1811 in the middle of the night,

AGN. Ramo de Inquisición. Vol. 1459, ff. 354-354v; del Álamo to [?], Mier, Mayo 14, 1817. AGN. Ramo de Inquisición. Vol. 1459, ff. 354-354v.

15 ?Gonzalitos

16 ?Wood, Robert. D., S.M., Translator and Editor. Archivos de Laredo. Documents for the History of Laredo. San Antonio: St. Mary's University Duplicating Services, 2000. pp.4-5.

17 ?Cite is Rogelia O. García, Dolores, Revilla and Laredo, p.3, found in Zorrilla, Juan Fidel. El poder colonial en Nuevo Santander. Ciudad Victoria: Instituto Tamaulipeco de Cultura, 1989.

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Macario and Miguel Borrego were surprised by a royalist party of 10 men at the Borrego hacienda of Encinias in Coahuila, made prisoners, and taken to Chihuahua. Some men were left behind to search the house, and in the process the family papers were lost.18

Whereas the landowning class and the priestly class were divided in their allegiances, there was little question about the allegiance of the original inhabitants of the Rio Grande Plains - the Native Americans. Although they were not all seething with racial hatred, they had been fighting a losing battle for independent existence. Decimated by European diseases, some living beyond the settlements, and some living on the towns' outskirts, they were in the process of being absorbed into river ranching society as a servant class. Not all would answer the revolutionary call, but these peoples were to prove that they were not as peaceable as thought, and they would supply a large number of the insurgents.

Moving toward Revolution

In the Villas del Norte, the last colonial years were a time of world-shaking changes, and rumors of changes. In 1808 came reports that the French had invaded Spain, then in October 1808 news that equally great shifts had taken place in Mexico City, that the Viceroy being deposed, and Field Marshal Garibay installed in his place. Then, in 1810, that a Junta in Seville had been convoked, and citizens of new Spain were to be represented.19

While all of this was going on, the men of the North took it in, discussed it, and mixed it in with their day to day affairs. In the historic archives of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero (formerly Revilla) there survives a packet of letters. They were written by José Eulogio de Ochoa who resided in Cuatrocienagas, Coahuila, to his brother Juan José de Ochoa, an officer stationed in Revilla. One of the topics for discussion was news filtering in from Europe. José passed on an intersting piece of journalistic

18 ?Testimony of Simon Robles, February 12, 1829[SIC], Jose Maria Margil de Vidaurri to the public, Affidavit, in Vazquez Borrego Title Abstract. In possession of Stanley Green, Laredo, Texas.

19 ?pp.207, 209, 212-213, in Zorrilla, Juan Fidel. El poder colonial en Nuevo Santander. Ciudad Victoria: Instituto Tamaulipeco de Cultura, 1989. Juan Fidel. Tamaulipas en la Guerra de independencia. México: Librería de Manuel Porrúa, 1972.

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ficton, picked out of copies of Spanish newspapers that arrived in Coahuila, that Napoleon had been assassinated on his balcony by five arrows. He also passed on reports that the French were divided in their preference between Charles IV, Louis XVIII, and Ferdinand. And there was a possible peace between the Anglo Americans and the British. These political interests were mixed in with their daily worries, about the health of Juan José, while he was on campaign in Bejar, and in New Mexico. And José wanted to read stories about the "Barbarous Indians" those encountered on the campaigns to New Mexico and Texas. He prayed to God that his brother would be retired from the military. He sent his brother flour and beans and chile, plus a saber made of silver so that he could use it "in my name as it is more appropriate for you than for me". José sent his brother Juan a horse, which although it might appear small, was worth six of the horses that his brother had on hand. And José also wanted his brother to send him one of the Rio Grande horses for his riding pleasure. Both were concerned about the other brother paying any debts owed.20

The overwhelming appeal of Father Hidalgo's movement seemed to have caught northern Spanish officials off guard. For a while, in late 1810 and early 1811, it looked like the revolutionists had history on their side. The vecinos of the Villas del Norte heard about it in a November 5, 1810, proclamation from Governor Iturbe which called upon the colonies and residents to be on guard against the "vile ideas" of this "new Napoleon". The Inquisition had already declared him a heretic, and the people were warned especially to watch out for any travelers.21 But whatever Iturbe might say, it seemed that Hidalgo and his forces were sweeping all before him. Independence was proclaimed in Monterrey on January 17, 1811, by Nuevo Leon Governor Manuel de Santamaria.

The residents of the Villas del Norte were caught up in the excitement. Although insurgent sentiments were held in check along the Rio Grande by the Spanish soldiery, there is evidence of revolutionary leanings, and outright rebellion, even in the early stages. Revilla produced one of the foremost insurgent leaders of the North in José Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara, and he would later write about how his revolutionary career was touched off by the arrival in the Northeast of Mariano Jimenez. Some of

20 ?José Eulogio de Ochoa to Juan de Ochoa, [month?] 31, 1809, January 18, 1809, March 7, 1810, July 18, 1809, December 31, 1809. Archivo Histórico Nuevo Guerrero, Colonial Caja 2.

21 ?Circular of Gobernador Iturbe, November 5, 1810. Archivo Histórico Nuevo Guerrero, Colonial Caja 2.

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his first actions in these first months of the Revolution were to produce, as he stated, "a great number of proclamations and of paying some couriers and generously to get them into the canton of Aguayo."22

Convergence on Laredo

For a few weeks in early 1811, it seemed that the drama in the north, and indeed the national struggle had converged on Laredo. This settlement lay athwart the principal highway between Monterrey and Texas, and at this time was home base to the 3rd company, one of three military companies of Nuevo Santander, the other two being at San Carlos and Padilla. It also had the most famous Indian fighter in the Northeast, José Ramon Diaz de Bustamante y Berroterán. He was a northerner, having been born in 1756 in Nuestra Señora del Conchos, a small town near the confluence of the Conchos and Rio Grande rivers (then providence of Nueva Vizcaya), and a lifetime military man. He had led the garrison of Laredo since 1792. In the 1790s he went through a court-martial for financial irregularities, an experience not rare among frontier officers, and as was the case with many others, the court-martial did not deter his career. He served as governor on more than one occasion. In 1809 he married the grand daughter of Laredo founder Tomás Sanchez, a link that might explain his relative lack of aggressiveness toward the rebels in Texas.23

Bustamante, known as Captain Colorado, had a voluble personality. There was a famous quote by the historian Lucas Alaman, whose sister had married governor Iturbe, and who came to know Bustamante personally on an 1808 visit to Nuevo Santander. According to Alaman, Bustamante regaled the company with accounts of campaigns against the Indians, to such exaggeration, that for some time in Alaman's family, any overstated tale would be compared to the stories of Captain Colorado.24

22 ?p.5 in "1815 Aug. 1. J.B. Gutierrez de Lara to the Mexican Congress. Account of progress of revolution from beginning", pp. 4-19 in Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Vol. 1. 1968.

23 ?Diligencias related to marriage petition of José Ramon Diaz de Bustamante y Berrotarán[SIC], seeking to marry María Josefa Faviana Vidaurri y Sánchez. Provincias Internas Vol. 240. Microfilm copy, Arizona State Museum.

24 ?Alamán, Historia, II, 174n.

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In January 1811, it would happen that Bustamante in Laredo was host to some of the protagonists of the Mexican Revolution for independence. The first of these was Bishop Primo Feliciano Marin de Porras of Monterrey. With insurgents closing in on the Northeast, the Bishop in late January decided to flee to Laredo, with plans to go on to San Antonio, and with him went 22 other Europeans. But the revolution outran him. On January 22 Captain Juan Bautista Casas instigated a revolution in San Antonio de Bejar, and imprisoned Governor Manuel María Salcedo. The bishop's escape route was closed off. Now Bishop Marin had to flee downriver, protected by troops assigned by Bustamante, and he had to move fast, as rebel troops were coming toward Laredo from Rio Grande Presidio (roughly across the Rio Grande from present day Eagle Pass).25

Bishop Marin de Porras would eventually make it to the coast and to Altamira, but it would cost him. The soldiers protecting him were no respecters of episcopal dignity, and relieved him of 50,000 pesos he was carrying. Keeping ahead of his pursuers, he stayed in the brush, to the cost of his comfort. He made a local celebrity out of one of Mier's more humble citizens, Onofre de la Rosa, who found him in the brush wet and cold, and conducted him to the house of the Mier priest del Alamo. He was then able to make his way to Reynosa, and eventually to Altamira, and would return to the seat of his see and do all he could to halt the revolution.26

In late January and early February, Captain Colorado was in a precarious position. Some 22 Spaniards, all hard-liners, had arrived with Bishop Marin. The insurgents (apparently in the Jimenez camp) had sent him a commission as colonel in the Revolution, but also directed him to embargo the property of these Spaniards, and ordered Bustamante to present himself before the revolutionary leaders. Captain Colorado did not take the offer of the colonelcy seriously. He had earlier made plans to

25 ?pp.468-469 in Wright, Robert E. "Popular and Official Religiosity: A Theoretical Analysis and a Case Study of Laredo- Nuevo Laredo, 1755-1857" Ph.D. Dissertation, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley California, 1992, citing Vizcaya Canales, 1976; Ramón, Regino Fausto. Historia general del Estado de Coahuila. 2 Vols. Saltillo: Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, 1990.

26 ?Petition by alcalde and sindicos of Mier, enumerating Mier's services to the Spanish cause, December 31, 1815. Caja 1824-1837. Archivo Histórico de Mier.; "Relación de D. Benigno Vela al Obispo de Monterrey". Gaceta (México) No. 45 (April 16, 1811).

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take his troops to Texas. But this option was eliminated by the Casas revolution. Now he was marooned in Laredo, with his loyalist troops a minor contingent in the military lineup of northeastern Mexico. Then, more Spanish refugees came to Laredo, this time from San Antonio, fleeing the persecution of the Mexican rebels.27 To add even more uncertainty to his professional options, he learned that Captain Ignacio Elizondo was en route to Laredo with 120 men. Elizondo's announced intention was to detain the Europeans (Spaniards) and to confiscate their property.28

For Bustamante, what to do about a troop of slightly more soldiers than his own was a matter to ponder. Here in the north, especially with the Revolution moving at high speed, the traditional Spanish tactics of military suppression and summary court martials were not possible.29

Bustamante was surrounded by hostile forces, but he did have one factor on his side. As the most experienced officer on the northeastern frontier, he would be a valuable military asset for either side, and it was not entirely clear what side he would take. Apparently Bustamante's long years in Laredo, and his marriage into the Tomas Sanchez family, had made his political position equivocal. His longevity, also, had given him a certain

27 ?"La contra Revolución de Béxar" [fuente: Documentos de la Independencia, Secretaría de Educación Pública, México, 1928, Volumen 1, ed. pp.395-397. Colección de documentos del Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Historia y Etnografía, Vol. IV.]. In Zorrilla, Juan Fidel, Maribel Miró Flaquer, Octavio Herrera Pérez, Compiladores. Tamaulipas: textos de su historia, 1810-1921. Ciudad Victoria: Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas, Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 1990.

28Vizcaya Canales, Isidro. "Impacto del Grito de Dolores en el Nuevo Santander". In Zorrilla, Juan Fidel, Maribel Miró Flaquer, Octavio Herrera Pérez, Compiladores. Tamaulipas: textos de su historia, 1810-1921. Ciudad Victoria: Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas, Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 1990.

29p.42 in Vizcaya Canales, Isidro. "Impacto del Grito de Dolores en el Nuevo Santander". In Zorrilla, Juan Fidel, Maribel Miró Flaquer, Octavio Herrera Pérez, Compiladores. Tamaulipas: textos de su historia, 1810-1921. Ciudad Victoria: Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas, Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 1990.

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independence. He was known to ignore orders from his superiorsAs it turned out, when Elizondo arrived in Laredo, instead

of entering into combat with the royalist garrison of Laredo, he entered into a long night's parley with Captain Bustamante. According to one of Nuevo Leon's senior historians, Ysidro Vizcaya Canales, that meeting was the hinge of the Mexican Revolution. Bustamante described the outcome of the conference in an April 8, 1811, letter to Ramon Iturbe.

I showed my feelings to the above-mentioned official [Elizondo], the night he stayed in that place, and having impressed him, we came to an agreement to learn about the enemy, and forestall the ruin that was threatening us.

"Manifesté mis sentimientos al referido oficial, la noche que se mantuvo en aquel puesto, y habiéndole impresionado, (nos) pusimos de acuerdo para averiguar del enemigo e impedir la ruina que amenazaba."30

What had happened was that in the course of the meeting, Elizondo decided to change sides, and to become once again a loyal Spanish officer. From Laredo, Elizondo would travel upriver to the Rio Grande Presidio to concert plans for a counter revolutionary force, and then to Monclova, and then to the Wells of Bajan where his men would on March 21 apprehend the Hidalgo-Allende host, and put an end to the first phase of a revolution for Mexican independence.

Bustamante's revolutionary diplomacy was not at an end. A few days after the departure of Elizondo (on or shortly before February 21), Field Marshall Juan Ignacio Aldama and Fray Juan Salazar arrived at Laredo, sent by Mariano Jimenez to negotiate a treaty with the United States, and to promote the revolution. They also carried an order from Jimenez for Bustamante to take his company to Saltillo for revolutionary service. As far as Aldama and Salazar knew, the revolution was in full tide, and they were in a position to issue orders to Spanish officers.

30p.42 in Vizcaya Canales, Isidro. "Impacto del Grito de Dolores en el Nuevo Santander". In Zorrilla, Juan Fidel, Maribel Miró Flaquer, Octavio Herrera Pérez, Compiladores. Tamaulipas: textos de su historia, 1810-1921. Ciudad Victoria: Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas, Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 1990. Vizcaya Canales' research revises the traditional interpretation that Ignacio Elizondo had changed his mind during discussions with the Spanish governor Salcedo of Texas, whose incarceration he was entrusted with after their imprisonment as a result of the Casas Revolution.

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Salazar spoke hard words to Bustamante, threatening to loose Indian hordes on the province, or hand it over to foreigners, and threatening Bustamante with death.31

Bustamante might have arrested them, but on the days Aldama and Salazar were in Laredo, he received notice of a great defeat of the insurgents (which must have been the Bridge of Calderon), and he decided to let them continue to San Antonio, for reasons of higher strategy. It is unknown whether Bustamante had advance warning of the counter revolution being brewed in San Antonio, but in any event Juan Jose Manuel Zambrano organized the anti-insurgent forces, took over the city on March 1, arrested Casas the next day, and a few days later both Aldama and Salazar. All three would shortly be executed.

Laredo was not the only place along the Rio Grande where political maneuvering was going on. In February 1811, before he fled, Governor Iturbe reported that the Rio Grande valley was in a state of revolution and that terror ruled in the settlements.32

Counter-revolution

Bustamante, however, had decided to remain loyal to the Spanish side, and after the departure of Aldama and Salazar, took his men to Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, carrying out successful actions against the insurgents.

Bustamante's plottings and actions were part of a general counter revolution in the Northeast that was as sudden as had been the revolution. Although the best-known event was the arrest of Father Hidalgo and his principal supporters on the highway between Saltillo and Monclova, the individual who systematically hunted down and defeated the rebel leaders was Joaquin de Arredondo.

Arredondo had originally planned to land in Texas, to cut off Hidalgo's retreat, but navigational problems forced him to settle for the Panuco River (February 16, 1811). His first act was to ask the Viceroy to name a military chief for the colony of Nuevo Santander who was not timid, and could take the place of Governor Iturbe. The governor immediately handed over to

31"Sumaria de fray Juan Salazar", apparently p.225 in [CONFIRM p. ?]Vizcaya Canales, Isidro. En los albores de la independencia : las Provincias Internas de Oriente durante la insurreccio?n de don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, 1810-1811.

32Carlos Castaneda, Our Catholic heritage in Texas 5019-1936, VI: transition period, the fight for freedom, 1810-1836 (Austin, 1950),p. 3.

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Arredondo both military and civil authority. As Arredondo marched inland, he received news that the father Hidalgo party had been captured, and turned toward the town of Aguayo, which he occupied on April 12. After reorganizing his troops, and executing a large number of insurgents, Arredondo turned south into the mountains of Nuevo Santander, where he saw the greater danger. From the moment he first stepped onto Northern soil, he began issuing a great mass of proclamations, where he displayed his contempt for the rebels, and let the populace know that only unquestioning obedience was now acceptable. Arredondo made his name a symbol for terror, such that even the news that he was coming was sufficient to make potential revolutionaries think twice. One of Arredondo's junior officers was the young cavalry cadet Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who distinguished himself in several encounters and, according to tradition, absorbed from Arredondo his military principles of no quarter.33

Within days after arriving at Aguayo, Arredondo turned his attention to the north. An important part of the Northern strategy was to seal the border with Texas. On April 22 he sent out orders that nobody was to go to Texas, and that all of the river crossings were to be watched.34 Another side to the policy in 1811 was to disarm the northerners. He sent a captain Francisco Antonio Casipuore to confiscated Reynosa's weapons, so that they might not be turned upon their Spanish betters.35

The core of his Villas del Norte policy was to reinforce the northern military posts. He sent troops under Captain Lorenzo Sanchez Cortina to the Rio Grande to "restore order and punish traitors".36 Still fearing an uprising in the Rio Grande towns, he noted in his orders to the captains heading north, that local revolutionary leaders had sprung up, who wanted to take vengeance on account of their defeated revolutionary companions, or as he

33pp. 133-135 in Saldívar, Gabriel. Historia comprendida de Tamaulipas. Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas: Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas. Dirección General de Educación y Cultura, 1988.

34Circular, June 19, 1811. Archivo Histórico Nuevo Guerrero. Colonial Caja 3.

35ck image for DOC type. Reynosa, Caja 3 1821-1827 #34.

36p.81 in Aston, B. W. "Evolution Of Nuevo Santander, 1746-l821. M.A. Thesis, Department of History, Texas Technological College, 1964, citing Iturbe to Calleja, April 20, 1811, in Archivo General de la Nacion, Historia, Volume 2, transcripts University of Texas.

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phrased it, their "infamous companions". He felt it advisable, as he told the Viceroy, to clean up once and for all this "vile rabble" in the Villas del Norte.

"... teniendo exactas noticias de hallarse en los extremos de esta provincia, varios cabecillas, y estos levantando gente para querer vengar a sus infames compañeros, ya derrotados, tuve por muy conveniente, tanto para evitar alguna sublevación, como por dejarla limpia de un todo de esta vil canalla, mandando con esta fecha 50 hombres bien armados al mando del Capitán de Milicias Provinciales de Caballería don Lorenzo de la Cortina, con dirección a las cinco Villas del Norte, que son Laredo, Reynosa, Camargo, etc.; y otros tantos que al del Capitán del Reximiento de mi Cargo don Francisco Antonio Cao...."37

Arredondo was to have much success in cleaning up the southern part of the colony, and apparent success along the Rio Grande. As he and his captains would learn in the years from 1812 to 1815, however, these were settlements they would have to pacify again and again.

Insurgency of José Julián Canales 1812

After the arrival of the insurgency to what was to become again the Provincias Internas de Oriente, the small ruling elite had only partial control over the subjects of the Crown between 1811 and 1813. Their authority was seriously challenged by the mission Indians of Camargo on April 1811 and only through show of force they in some measure regained it back. The following sections cover the unstable situation created in Camargo, the loyalist actions to recuperate control along the Rio Grande and the events that led to the capture of the insurgent leader.

The short lived insurgency at the village of Camargo and the loyalist campaigns to capture the Carrizo Indian chief and his supporters happened primarily through the months of April and May in 1812. The uprising at Camargo led by José Julián Canales of Mission San Agustin de Laredo and was the result of a series of interconnected events that were on course since 1811. Subversive propaganda had begun circulating along the Rio Grande early in 1811, flowing primarily from southern Mexico and sometime from

37Arredondo to Venegas, Quartel General de Aguayo, July 16, 1811, Historia Operaciones de Guerra; Arredondo, José Joaquin, 1811 á 1820 (AGN). Transcript at University of Texas, Center for American History, Box 2Q193. Vol.2, p.97.

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the village of Revilla. Additionally, lower rank insurgent troops had been left wandering in the country and some rebels had disseminated along the Rio Grande. On October of the same year, the troops under Captain Francisco Antonio Cao of the Fijo de Veracruz regiment toured the Rio Grande, demonstrating the despotic control of Nuevo Santander under Arredondo. In Camargo, Captain Cao discharged José Julián Canales of his authority as captain of the Carrizo Indians and chief of Mission San Agustin de Laredo by taking his baton, a symbol of office and later of the discontent. The baton was kept at the house of the Alcalde Mayor until the beginning of the revolt on April 1812.

The Insurgency of Camargo

Two separate witness accounts detail the upraising in Camargo on April 1811.38 One was written by Captain Pedro López Prieto of the Militia of Provincial Cavalry of the Villa de Reynosa, during the siege of Camargo between April 3 and 17. The other are the statements taken in Monterrey and Valle de la Mota (the actual General Terán) in Nuevo León, from Salvador Manuel Rodriguez, a mulatto servant sent by his mistress to buy tobacco in Camargo during Abril 7 and 8. These documents are accompanied by the proclamation presented in Camargo and a letter sent by Canales to the priest of Valle de la Mota Juan Bautista Cantu and to the president Blás Gómez of the Junta Goberandora of Nuevo Leon, who denied any sympathy with the insurrection, reporting the events to the viceroy.39

Captain Pedro López, a six year veteran in Texas had retired to Camargo after illness early in 1812, never returning to his outfit in Reynosa. This captain had been in charge of 100 militia men from Nuevo Santander under the orders of the ex governor of Nuevo Leon, Simon Herrera and the commandant of the Louisiana frontier in Texas, guarding the new created frontier between Texas and Louisiana. During the first years of the 19th century, Pedro López Prieto had served as Justicia Mayor of Camargo.

38 Clotilde P. García, Cartas y documentos del capitán Pedro López Prieto, San Felipe Press, Austin, 1975, pp.21-28. Also published by Juan Fidel Zorrila, Maribel Miró Flaquer and Octavio Herrera, Tamaulipas textos de su historia, 1810-1821, Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas and Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 1990, pp.60-65., and by Ernesto Graza Sáenz, Segundas Cronicas de Camargo, Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas, UAT, 1994, pp. 89-106.

39 AGN, Infidencias, Vol. 116, f. 10.

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Captain López Prieto, the highest ranking militia officer at Camargo, with a few militia soldier limited amount of arms and ammunition at the time of the uprising, had no option but negotiate with Canales who lead 87 Indians of Mission San Agustin de Laredo and other Indians from neighboring areas along the Rio Grande, armed with a few muskets (escopetas) and plenty bows an arrows. Canales and his Carrizo Indians were joined by Garzas from El Cantaro (Mier), Comosellama, Pintos and unspecified Indians from Reynosa on April 8. During the following days, their numbers increased between 130 and 200 rebels, according to different figures given in documents.40

On April 3, the Justicia Mayor of Camargo, José Pérez Rey, had ordered José Julián Canales to tie up one mission man who had sequestered an Indian woman and to bring him to his presence. Canales objected, arguing that he had no authority since he did not have his baton. According to the Carrizo chief, in reprisal the Justicia Mayor summoned him to his place, where he tried to arrest him. Managing to get away, Canales took refuge at the mission, while Pérez Rey began sending letters through cordillera to Refugio, Reynosa, Cantaro and other places, saying that the Indians had rebelled and needed help to capture them.41 At the same time, Canales had sent for help to neighboring Indian encampments... During the same day, Captain Pedro López Prieto, aided by Fray José Calvete of Mission San Agustin de Laredo, managed to negotiate a peaceful but tenses agreement with Canales and his faction.

On April 7, Pedro López Prieto heard from a woman that Canales and Gregorio, the representative Indian chief of San Agustin de Laredo at the moment, were planning to take the mission and the village the next day by force. Within an hour, an official letter was sent to Mier and Revilla asking for help. That night, Captain López Prieto managed to place a few guards, not all carrying weapons, in some possible targeted houses, at the same time as the Indians had surrounded Camargo. At dawn, Canales and his Indians had taken two prisoners, bringing Lieutenant Tomas Gutierrez the commander of the guards, disarmed to the captain's house. When questioned by López Prieto about his belligerent armed intentions, Canales answered that he was armed "Because I am going to capture gachupines and take away the staff of authority from Don Jose Pérez Rey. If he resist I will fire on him, and if he runs I will fire on him." The only violent

40 Clotilde P. García, Cartas y documentos, pp.43; AGN, Operaciones de Guerra, Vol.22, Exp. 33, f. 328-330.

41 Ibid.

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confrontation took place at the roof (azotea) of the Justicia Mayor house; the Indians killed the Spaniards Manuel de Oribe and Melchor Ruiz and the Creole Gaspar García. After a brief confrontation from the façade of Pérez Rey's house, the Indians flanked the residence through the plaza and from behind killed the guards using bows and arrows. Garcia was the first to shut his musket and the last to die, mortally wounded managed to give his confession and receive the last rituals. Canales did not allow taking the bodies from the roof until some of the higher ranking authorities had surrendered their command to him. After the Indians retired, Juan de la Garza and Captain Pedro López Prieto followed them to the mission from where they returned to the house of the Justicia Mayor to retrieve the gun powder and the batons that belonged to Pérez Rey and the one that had been taken from Canales by captain Cao the previous year. Canales placed guards at the mission and closed all roads to Camargo, stopping news from liking to other place.

On April 10, López Prieto tried to send information across the blockade, using his teamster carrying a load of maize to his ranch. After destroying the cargo, Indians found a concealed letter on the teamster's underwear, for which the Indians judged to give him fifty whiplashes. López Prieto persuaded the Indians not to take reprisals against the teamster nor to the high ranking officials by convincing them that the idea was entirely his. The Alcalde Mayor José Pérez Rey, Juan de Estrada and Juan de la Garza were confined to prison while Captain López Prieto and Gutierrez were put into house arrest.

Two days latter on April 12 after forcefully attending Mass with Canales, López Prieto and Gutierrez were ordered to return to the residence of López Prieto, where a multitude and the rebels brought the three prisoners. There Canales read a circular followed by proclamation that had inspired the revolt. Raising his voice said "long leave the King, Religion and Country. And death to bad government." This lengthy document was days later retrieved from Camargo by Francisco Bruno Barrera of the Junta Gobernadora of Nuevo Reino de León. In this proclamation, Canales invited to fight for a just cause under the laws of the holy religion, for which countrymen, brothers and heroes had spilled their blood. This proclamation mentioned the insult to the Virgin of Guadalupe caused by the actions and procedures of Europeans and countryman with selfish interest, which harmed their own brothers. He asked to take arms on name of the King, Catholic Church and Country, for which he and his subjects were willing to

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die to the last drop of blood.42 After returning the prisoners to jail, Canales selected López Prieto as an alcalde of the village without given him the baton or symbol of authority. The same day, Canales wrote Captain Eusebio Solis of the Garza Indians, to join forces against gachupines.

On April 14 forced by the Indian chief, López Prieto wrote an official letter to Alférez José Benavides, who was already at Mier, telling to come in peace with an escort of four or five man to negotiate the best terms for God and King. For a moment villagers thought the Indians were going to murder the high ranking authority, then the rebellious Indians in battle formation playing drums and carrying a standard left to set camp outside Camrago

The Royalist Response

The loyalist troop reached Camargo by April 17. Captain López Prieto's cautiousness became distrust on the eyes of the royalist commanders and his negotiations with Canales were unforgiving. The three deaths at Pérez Rey's roof (azotea), including that of his son-in-law Oribe, the imprisonment of this official by the Indians was enough to associate Captain Pedro López Prieto with the insurgency by Captain Rafael del Valle, the first loyalist to arrive at Camargo with his regiment from Monclova, Coahuila.43 The distrust was written in the correspondence sent to Cornel Simon Herrera by the governor Juan Fermín de Juanicotena and in the letter sent to Ignacio Elizondo commander of the Rio Grande regiment before his arrival at Camargo on April 25.

News about the uprising at Camargo had rapidly spread in different directions to other villages. The letters send by López Prieto and Pérez Rey soon reached Alférez José Antonio Benavides in Laredo, who send for help to Bexar( San Antonio, Texas), Rio Grande (Guerrero, Coahuila) , Monclova, Palfox (Texas), La Punta (Lampazos, Nuevo León) and Monterrey. Information also got out from Camargo when Salvador Manuel Rodriguez, a mulatto servant sent to Camargo to buy tobacco, carried a letter from Canales to Padre Juan Bautista Cantú at Valle de la Mota (General Terán, Nuevo León) and to the president of the Junta Goberandora of Nuevo Reino de León, Blás José Gómez de Castro, who was living in Linares at the moment. After traveling southward up stream along the San Juan River and loosing in China a passport issued by

42AGN, Infidencias, Vol. 116, f. 10.

43 Ibid. Pp. 29-33.

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Canales, the servant reached Valle de la Mota and delivered the letter to Padre Cantú. He immediately rode without stoping to Linares to see the president, who forwarded the letter to other members of the Junta in Monterrey. In this letter, Canales referred to the offences sustained by Americans (Criollismo) from the superiors in Aguayo, asked the president for orders on how to govern and command the neighborhood (vecindario) and the mission of Camargo. Apparently, Canales and his followers had been misinformed about the side taken by Padre Cantú and members of the Junta who immediately denounced the events to Viceroy Francisco Javier Venegas and ecclesiastical authorities.44

During the months of January and February of 1812, the entire Province of Nuevo Reino de León and members of the Junta Gobernadora had been scrutinized on their participation with the insurgency that had started early the previous year, during Mariano Jimenez visit to Monterrey. Joaquin de Arredondo had insulted merchants from Nuevo Leon that had visited Aguayo (Cd. Victoria, Tamaulipas) to buy tobacco. After temporarily confiscating their tobacco boxes, Arredondo boasted to teach obedience to their monarch on that Province, with gun powder and grape-shot (metralla). Most of Arredondo's assumption came from rumors collected by loyalist merchants, who spied on Monterrey.45

At least half a dozen of royalist contingents were about to converge in Camargo from different posts in Coahuila, Texas, Nuevo Reino de León and Nuevo Santander. As said above, one of the first regiment to arrive was from Monlcova under the orders of Rafael del Valle, on April 17. Militia from Laredo, Revilla and Mier, had set camp at Mier under the order of Alférez Antonio Benavides most likely since April 14. After starting the first campaign against the Garza Indians, they reached Camargo on April 17. Although there is not sound information, troops were probably also present from Refugio and Reynosa. According to an official letter sent on April 14 to the Justicia Mayor Maximo Cavazos and the Alcalde Ordinario Pedro José de la Garza at Reynosa by the interim governor of Nuevo Santander Fermín de Juanicotena, a 30 men contingent had been sent from Aguayo under the orders of Nicolas Larumbe This group was planed to meet at El Zacate (Dr. Cos, Nuevo León) with troops sent by the Junta Gobernadora, about 35 miles southwest of Camargo The troops from Monterrey, made by 40 men under the orders of Bruno Barrera, probably arrived at Camargo without the Aguayo troops since April 17.. The first

44 AGN, Infidencias, Vol. 116, f. 10.

45 AGN, Operaciones de Guerra, Vol. 20, Exp. 10, f. 136-149 and Exp. 6, f. 112-114.

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campaign against the Canales and his followers began the second day after the arrival of these first troops. Lieutenant Colonel José Ramon Díaz de Bustamante, assigned by the interim governor of Nuevo Santander to direct the campaigns against the rebels, departed from Bexar with the largest regiment on April 15 and most likely reached Camargo after April 17. The last troops to arrive at Camargo were from the Presidio de Rio Grande under Colonel Ignacio Elizondo on April 25.46

The troops from Monclova and Presidio de Rio Grande were soon recalled by the governor from Coahuila, Colonel Anrtonio Cordero. Díaz de Bustamente reported in May 20 that he had send back militia and neighbors from Laredo and Revilla and 20 of the 40 soldiers from Monterrey. Provisions and money was scarce to maintain all regiments.

It is unknown how many times the Carrizo and their followers clashed with loyalist troops. There are at least six references about these encounters along the river in 1811. Most cases were barely mentioned. The first encounter was reported on April 14, when the militia and neighbors from Laredo, Revilla and Mier campaigned against the Garza Indians near Mier. A second event occurred on April 18, when the same troops commenced the campaign against the Carrizo from Camargo.47 The next month on May 20, Diaz de Bustamante reported three events in different places. One of these occurred at a site mentioned as La Casita, actually represented by small community southwest of Garciasville in southeastern Starr County. Another confrontation occurred in an unspecified site, where the Garza of Cántaro (Mier) and the Carrizo of Camargo had fractioned into three and four smaller groups each one, mentioning that the Indians had retired downstream to a place known as San Juanito. The fifth confrontation was reported on May 19, when the Alférez Vicente Hinojosa of Reynosa went to check the area of San Juantio with 16 militia soldiers and neighbors accompanied by 40 auxiliary Indians of Reynosa. Around three in the afternoon on May 16, they were resting at Laguna Cercada when they were suddenly attacked by insurgent Indians. The battle lasted several hours until sun set. Five Indians died in this battle and several were wounded, loosing four horses to the loyalist. The use of horses by Indians of the Rio Grande had been occasionally documented. The former Justicia Mayor of Reynosa, Sergeant Maximo Cavazos, died during this confrontation. There was more than one San Juanito site

46 MX28032AMR, Fondo Colonial, Caja 12, Exp. 41, f. 1; Clotilde P. García, Cartas y documentos, pp. 30-33, 36,43, 52-53.

47 Ibid. Pp. 30, 36.

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within jurisdiction of Reynosa at the time. Base only in speculations, this site could have been the actual San Juanito ranch west of the Nuevo Progresso crossing and La Laguna Cercada could have been the large oxbow north of Rio Bravo.

The Capture of José Julian Canales

The limited data known until now about the capture of Julián Canales comes from dairy at the Archivo Historico of Santander Jiménez.48 Between May 21 and June 1 of 1812, in this journal was recorded the 12 day roundtrip taken by loyalist troops from the village of Camargo to capture the insurgent Indians. Lieutenant Colonel of he Third Company of Laredo Jose Ramón Díaz de Bustamante commanded a 207 men army, integrated essentially by 50 veteran troops of the Third Company of Laredo who was accompanied by 50 auxiliary troops under the command of Captain Luciano García from Bexar, assigned by the commandant of the Louisiana frontier Simon Herrera. . The Third Company of Laredo had been in assignment in the Texas frontier at the time of the uprising in Camargo. The rest of the troops that chased Canales came from the villages down stream, 36 militia and neighbors accompanied by three auxiliary natives came under the order of Jose Garcés Solis from Refugio (Matamoros, Tamaulipas) and 16 militia and neighbors with 57 auxiliary Indians came under the orders of Lieutenant Vicente Hinojosa from the jurisdiction of Reynosa.

The auxiliary Indians troops had a long tradition in fighting enemy Indian groups. Indian auxiliaries were used since the 16th century as scouts, as front line troops for the militia and sometimes they had been sent to fight enemies of the Spanish Crown alone. During the second part of the 18th century, villages along the Rio Grande depended on local Indian groups to fight depredation caused by Lipan Apache and Comanche Indians. The Mexican Independence War changed everything; the auxiliary Indian troops were pressed to fight against neighboring Indian groups with whom they have maintained peaceful relations, sometime fighting against the interests of their own people.

On May 21, Diaz de Bustamante began the final chase of Canales and his Carrizo Indians, moving down stream from Camargo with his army of 100 enlisted men (plazas) setting camp at El

48 Juan Fidel Zorrila, Maribel Miró Flaquer and Octavio Herrera, Tamaulipas textos, pp. de su historia, 1810-1821, Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas and Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 1990, pp.60-65.

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Desierto, in the vicinity of Mission San Joaquin del Monte about 1.8 miles upstream from old Reynosa . At dawn, Diaz Bustamante had received communication from the governor of Nuevo Santander. Very early in the morning, they had marched towards old Reynosa, where they received news from Lieutenant Don Silverio García of Mier, who warned that Julianillo (Canales) and Joaquinillo and their Indians were upstream at Comitas ranch. According to their itinerary, it was believed the Indians were about to attack the village of Mier. Díaz de Bustamante immediately ordered Captain Luciano García to reach that village by dawn with his company of 39 men. At the same time, Colonel Díaz de Bustamnte had ordered Captain Jose Garcés Solis and the Lieutenant Vicente the Hinojosa at new Reynosa to move their troops upstream, arriving at sun set. In a ceremony that night in old Reynosa, the Indian auxiliaries took oath of fidelity to their King.49

More than 150 men marched upstream early on April 24 from old Reynosa, crossing the Rio Grande at Cuevitas ranch where they set camp, near the actual river crossing of Diaz Ordaz and Los Ebanos. The next day in the same place, Díaz de Bustamante waited for news from Indian spies sent previously upstream. The auxiliary Indians got to capture an insurgent named Julián Alvares, who carried a seditious letter from the Indians of Refugio to Canales. Captain Marcelino, of the auxiliary Indians of Reynosa, reported the capture of Alvarez at Rancho del Salado, probably on the actual Salado creek east of La Grulla. The letter was burned by Captain José Antonio Cavazos, the auxiliary Indian chief of Refugio. Alvarez mange to escape from the auxiliary Indians but he was later recaptured by Díaz de Bustamante's soldiers and sent prisoner to Camargo the following day.

On April 26 after taking a siesta at Las Anacuas crossing on the Rio Grande, the troops continued to el Rancho Los Olmos, where they set camp. This site is actually located on de left side of Los Olmos creek, east of present Rio Grande City. The next morning at eight o'clock, they arrived at the well of Carnestolendas, the site that latter became Rio Grande City. From this place, Diaz de Bustamante sent looking for a guide at El Sabino ranch and also notified Captain Luciano García at Mier to move northward and to try joining the contingent.

On April 28, Diaz de Bustamante's army moved rapidly northward along Los Olmos Creek going through Blanco and Franquilita ranches, stopping later at a place named Las Víboras. Charco Blanco ranch was located about seven miles north of Rio Grande City and Las Víboras is actually found about 23.5 miles

49 Ibid. 66-67.

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north from this city on Highway 649. At noon, they had observed the first Indian tracks. Early next day on May 29, Luciano García and his men joined the group and continued moving northward, reaching La Sandia and Tecomate ranches. Actually, there is a Sandia Creek on Los Olmos Creek drainage.

At noon of that day after observing smoke coming from Charco de las Cuevitas, the contingent divided into three smaller groups. This charco or pond is actually located in southwestern Jim Hogg County on a depression that extends from northeast to southwest at the actual Cuevitas ranch. This pond is also part of Los Olmos Creek drainage, known today as Charco Largo. The soldier silently approached the ranch encountering two women and a man who ran to the immediate Indian encampment (rancheria). Right away the soldiers discharged their weapons and trampled the Indians with their horses into the woods. During the skirmish twelve Indians died, including seven warriors, four women and one boy. An unspecified number of l Indians was wounded. The soldiers manage to capture 57 Indians, nine warriors and 48 women and children. Among the captives was the chief José Julián Canales. The loyalist troops had three wounded men and two horses dead.

After this military operation, the contingent started the return trip to Camargo around three, stopping at eleven at night. There, a wounded Indian woman died. The next day, they reached Rancho Buenavista on the actual site of Roma, Texas, where soldier and captive rested after a long journey. They set up camp at Carnestolendas on April 31 and crossed the Rio Grande from dawn to nine in the morning on June1. Diaz de Bustamante marched into Camargo around eleven in the morning with his troops and captives.

Until now, no documents have been found concerning the end of the 57 Indian prisoners and the Carrizo leader José Julián Canales. It is known that the Junta Gobernadora of Nuevo Reino de León wanted to summon Canales to Monterrey in order to clear the accusations against Padre Cantú and members of the Junta. Whether, Canales and other warriors were executed or incarcerated is not clear. The next year, several insurgents captured during the events related to El Moquete near Matamoros were either executed or sent to prison. Some rebel members led by Canales were later mentioned in different clashes against loyalist near San Carlos to the south and during the siege of La Bahía in Texas. The persecution led by loyalist did not end with all the Carrizo population. Several documents after the Mexican Independence mention the same Carrizo Indians living on the northern side of the Rio Grande. Jean Louis Berlandier found them living in 1829 on the north side of the River. At the time, he

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collected 104 words of the Cotoname language from them.50 In a news paper article about Camargo, the renown novelist Manuel Payno mention the Carrizos living on the other side of the river opposite to Camargo. At the time, their population had been reduced from 50 to only nine families.51 In 1852, the Carrizo Indians were living along Los Olmos Creek, when they were recruited by filibuster José María de Jesús Carvajal, participating in different campaigns in Matamoros and Camargo.52

50 Jean Louis Berlandier, Journey to Mexico, During the Years 1826-1834, Translated by Sheila M. Ohlendorf, Texas Historical Association and Center for Studies in Texas History, University of Texas, Austin, Vol. 2 pp. 428-431.

51 Manuel Payno, Panorama de México, in Obras completas de Manuel Payno, CONACULTA, México D. F., 1999, Tomo V, pp. 48-49.

52 Joseph E. Chance, José Maria de Jesús Carvajal, The Life and Time of a Mexican Revolutionary, Trinity University Press, San Antonio, 2006, pp. 141-143, 161.

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Indep Villas Del Norte

Documents

Transcript of Indep Villas Del Norte