Uncle Clarence's chronicles
from the Bowen family notebookInspired by Clarence Neal Bowen
Associated historical notes compiled & edited by Benjamin L. Bowen
Of Seymour Garey, Salado Creek, General Adrian Woll, The Dawson Massacre, The Mier Expedition and the Black Bean Episode.
Ben, good to hear from you again........Pawpaw ( Seymour Courtney Bowen) was 65 years old in 1962 and he retired on social security at that time but he kept working part-time for a while. Abraham ( Bowen) married widowed Adeline ( Prudence Courtney )Rice after her husband Oliver Rice died. Abe was eleven years younger than she was. She had four children by Oliver and then she had three Bowen children by Abe and they raised them all as one big happy family.
Our claim to fame is through Adeline. Her grandfather was Seymour Garey who came to Texas in 1839 and received a land grant in Gonzales county which was split in two to make Dewitt county and Gonzales county and his land was then in Dewitt county. And you will remember that his son, Elijah Garey was killed at San Antonio at the battle of Salado creek in 1842 when Santa Anna sent General ( Adrian Woll ) back into Texas to try to recapture San Antonio.
He in buried in a common grave with the others in La Grange (Texas). Sam Houston is reported to have attended the interment ceremony. There is a large standing Tombstone with his and the others names inscribed.You may make a rubbing of his name if you like. I did.Ben I got the story a little wrong. According to my sixth grade Texas history, On Sept 11 1842, San Antonio was occupied by a Mexican force of 1400 hundred men under Gen. Adrian Woll.,Texas Rangers and militia men rushed to the aid of the captured city and after some skirmishing Woll retired toward the Rio Grand. The most severe fighting occurred on Sept 18, when the Texans ambushed a portion of Woll's force on the Salado about six miles from San Antonio. Luck was not with the Texans however as the Mexicans surrounded Capt. N.M. Dawson and fifty three volunteers from Fayette County who were on their way to join the Texas force.
Thirty six of these men were killed among them was Elijah Garey, ( great uncle of Dora Bowen ) In retiring from San Antonio, Woll took with him a number of prisoners. By november the Texans had assembled a force of 300 men determined to invade Mexico. A Mexican force was assembled at Mier, Mexico. ( Mier expedition) The 2000 Mexicans and the 300 Texans struggled for control of the town and in the end the Texans had to surrender. At the first opportunity 200 hundred of them escaped
( the Texan prisoners later escaped at Hacienda Salado ) but were promptly rounded up. Gen. Santa Anna ordered every tenth man executed. They were given a jar with 159 white beans and seventeen black beans. Those who drew the black beans were blindfolded and shot.( The Black bean episode) The others were imprisoned in Perote castle. The members of the Mier expedition and the men who went with Capt. Dawson are honored by this towering shaft high above the Colorado river near Lagrange ( Monument hill).Uncle( Bubba ), Clarence Neal Bowen ( 3 - 2002 )
[ also see Rice and Bowen / Bowen and Rice of Southeast Texas ]
DAWSON MASSACRE.
After the capture of San Antonio on September 11, 1842, by Brig. Gen. Adrián Woll in the second of the Mexican invasions of 1842, Texan forces gathered on Salado Creek under Col. Mathew Caldwell to repel the raiders. While Texas arms were succeeding at the battle of Salado Creek on September 18, 1842, a calamity was occurring only a mile and a half away. In response to Caldwell's call for volunteers, Capt. Nicholas M. Dawson had raised a fifty-three-man company, mostly from Fayette County, and marched down from La Grange. Believing Caldwell's forces to be in grave danger, Dawson's men chose not to wait for Capt. Jesse Billingsley's company, which was following them, but to disregard the threat posed by numerous heavy Mexican cavalry patrols and to fight their way to the Salado. Near Caldwell's embattled line, between 3 and 4 P.M. on the eighteenth, the company was intercepted by a column of 500 irregular Mexican cavalry commanded by colonels Cayetano Montero, José María Carrasco, and Pedro Rangel and supported by a battery of two field pieces. According to the accounts of several survivors, the Mexican column was commanded by Juan Nepomuceno Seguín, but they were no doubt in error. Dawson dismounted his men in a mesquite thicket where Fort Sam Houston now stands and threatened to "shoot the first man who runs." The Texans were quickly surrounded but repulsed a spirited cavalry charge and inflicted a number of casualties on the enemy. The Mexicans then fell back out of rifle range and opened fire on the Texans with their artillery. Billingsley's company, which arrived while the fight was in progress, was too weak to go to Dawson's aid, and Caldwell's men on Salado Creek were heavily engaged throughout the afternoon. Montero once more ordered his cavalry, then dismounted, to charge. After a vigorous but futile resistance, the severely wounded Dawson sought to surrender. The Mexicans continued to fire, however, striking Dawson several more times. Seeing surrender to be impossible, he gasped out his dying words, "Let victory be purchased with blood." Alsey S. Miller took up the white mackinaw that Dawson had waved in token of surrender and rode with it toward the Mexican lines, only to be fired upon in his turn. Miller then galloped through the enemy toward the town of Seguin. Henry Gonzalvo Woods, after witnessing the death of his father and the mortal wounding of his brother Norman, also escaped. Some of the Texans continued to resist while others laid down their arms. Heroic in the fight was Griffin, a slave of Samuel A. Maverick, who, his rifle shattered, fought on with the limb of a mesquite tree until he was killed. By 5 P.M. the fight was over. Thirty-six Texans died on the field, fifteen were taken prisoner, and two escaped. The prisoners were marched away to Perote Prison in Mexico. Of these men, only nine survived to return to Texas. Thirty Mexicans were estimated to have been killed and between sixty and seventy wounded. Two days later the Mexican army retreated toward the Rio Grande, and the Dawson men were buried in shallow graves in the mesquite thicket where they fell.
CAMP SALADO. Camp Salado was the campground occupied by the volunteers under Capt. John Coffee (Jack) Hays during the battle of Salado Creek on September 18, 1842. The camp is believed to have been adjacent to the battlefield on Salado Creek, six miles northeast of San Antonio within the bounds of present Fort Sam Houston.
MIER EXPEDITION. The Mier expedition, the last of the raiding expeditions from Texas into the area south of the Nueces River during the days of the Republic of Texas, was the most disastrous of the expeditions from Texas into Mexico. It developed out of the Somervell expedition, which captured Laredo and Guerrero. On December 19, 1842, Alexander Somervell, recognizing that his expedition had been a failure and concluding that a longer stay upon the Rio Grande might prove disastrous, ordered his troops to prepare to return home by way of Gonzales. Many of the men had reached the conclusion that there was little possibility of accomplishing their objectives of engaging the Mexican Army and of seizing and plundering Mexican towns, but they were so dissatisfied with the order to return home that they determined to separate from the command, cross the river, and attack the Mexican settlements to secure cattle and horses. Only 189 men and officers obeyed the order to return; five captains and most of the men refused to do so. Constituting what is known as the Mier expedition, they moved down the Rio Grande to a convenient campsite and selected William S. Fisher as their commander. Some wanted revenge and retaliation; many sought adventure; the leaders were nearly all political opponents of Sam Houston.
The expedition set out on December 20. Forty men under Thomas J. Green floated downstream in four vessels captured near Guerrero. A small group of Texas Rangers serving as a spy company under Ben McCulloch operated along the west bank of the river; the main body of men under Fisher went down the east side. On December 22 the 308 Texans reached a point on the east bank of the Rio Grande opposite Mier, and McCulloch's spy company was sent to reconnoiter the town. They found that Mexican troops were assembling along the river, advised Fisher against crossing, and abandoned the expedition when their advice was not heeded. Thereupon, John R. Baker, sheriff of Refugio County, succeeded to the command of the spy company. Leaving a camp guard of forty-five men, Fisher and the remainder of his men crossed the river on December 23 and entered Mier without opposition. A requisition for supplies levied against the town was fulfilled by late afternoon, but there were no means for transporting the goods to the river, and the Texans had no desire to carry the goods on their backs. When the alcalde promised to have the supplies delivered the next day to the Texas camp, the Texans withdrew from Mier, taking the alcalde with them to guarantee delivery of the supplies. All day on December 24 the Texans waited in vain for delivery of the goods. During the morning A. S. Holderman, who had crossed the river to look for horses, was captured by a small detachment of Mexican cavalry. His journal revealed to the Mexicans the size, character, and organization of the Texan force. On December 25 Fisher learned from a captured Mexican that Gen. Pedro de Ampudia had arrived at Mier and prevented delivery of the supplies. The Texans decided to go after their rations. On the afternoon of December 25 a camp guard of forty-two men under Oliver Buckman was posted, and 261 Texans crossed the Rio Grande once more, attacked Mier, and fought until the afternoon of December 26, outnumbered almost ten to one. Mexican losses were 600 killed and 200 wounded as against thirty Texans killed and wounded; but the Texans were hungry and thirsty, their powder was almost exhausted, and their discipline had begun to crack. Ampudia adopted a suggestion of sending a white flag to the Texans and demanding their surrender; the ruse was successful.
The Texans later claimed they had surrendered as prisoners of war, but no terms of capitulation were signed until after their arms had been grounded and the terms then stated that they would be treated with "consideration." Later President Houston stated that the men had acted without authority of the government, leaving the impression that they were not entitled to treatment as prisoners of war unless the Mexican government wished to assume that obligation. Warned by two of their comrades who escaped from Mier after the battle, the Texan camp guard, with the exception of George W. Bonnell and a man named Hicks, avoided capture and retreated into the settled area of Texas. The captured Texans were sentenced to execution, but on December 27 Ampudia had the execution decree reversed. The able-bodied prisoners were marched through the river towns to Matamoros, where they were held until ordered to Mexico City. En route to the capital they planned their escape frequently. Finally, at Salado, on February 11, 1843, a successful break was carried out. For seven days the Texans headed towards the Rio Grande, but in trying to pursue a circuitous route through the mountains during the dry season they became separated and lost. After extreme suffering, they surrendered singly and in small groups to Mexican troops sent in pursuit; in the end only three members of the expedition made good their escape to Texas. The 176 recaptured Texans were returned to Salado. Upon learning of the escape, Antonio López de Santa Anna ordered that those who had fled be executed, but Governor Francisco Mexía of the state of Coahuila refused to obey the order, and the foreign ministers in Mexico were able to get the decree modified. The government then ordered that every tenth man be executed. The seventeen men who were selected for execution in what is known as the Black Bean Episode were blindfolded and shot. Ewen Cameron, leader of the break, failed to draw a black bean of death but was later executed by special order of Santa Anna. During the months of June, July, and August 1843, the Texans did road work near Mexico City. In September they were transferred to the Perote Prison where the San Antonio prisoners whom they had set out to liberate were being held. A few of the Mier men escaped while stationed in the vicinity of Mexico City, others tunnelled out of Perote and succeeded in reaching home. A few of the wounded who had been left at Mier recovered, bribed the guard, and effected their escape. Many of the men died in captivity from wounds, disease, and starvation. From time to time a few of the prisoners were released at the request of certain officials in the United States and others at the request of foreign governments. The last of the Mier men were released by Santa Anna on September 16, 1844.
BLACK BEAN EPISODE. The Black Bean Episode, an aftermath of the Mier Expedition, resulted from an attempted escape of the captured Texans as they were being marched from Mier to Mexico City. After an escape at Salado, Tamaulipas, on February 11, 1843, some 176 of the men were recaptured within about a week. A decree that all who participated in the break were to be executed was modified to an order to kill every tenth man. Col. Domingo Huerta was to be in charge of the decimation. The victims were chosen by lottery, each man drawing a bean from an earthen jar containing 176 beans, seventeen black beans being the tokens signifying death. Commissioned officers were ordered to draw first; then the enlisted men were called as their names appeared on the muster rolls. William A. A. (Bigfoot) Wallace, standing close to the scene of the drawing, decided that the black beans were the larger and fingered the tokens successfully to draw a white bean. Observers of the drawing later described the dignity, the firmness, the light temper, and general courage of the men who drew the beans of death. Some left messages for their families with their companions; a few had time to write letters home. The doomed men were unshackled from their companions, placed in a separate courtyard, and shot at dusk on March 25, 1843. The seventeen victims of the lottery were James Decatur Cocke, William Mosby Eastland, Patrick Mahan, James M. Ogden, James N. Torrey, Martin Carroll Wing, John L. Cash, Robert Holmes Dunham, Edward E. Este, Robert Harris, Thomas L. Jones, Christopher Roberts, William N. Rowan, James L. Shepherd, J. N. M. Thompson, James Turnbull, and Henry Walling. Shepherd survived the firing squad by pretending to be dead. The guards left him for dead in the courtyard, and he escaped in the night but was recaptured and shot. In 1848 the bodies were returned from Mexico to be buried at Monument Hill, near La Grange, Fayette County.
WOLL, ADRIÁN (1795-1875). Adrián Woll, Mexican general, was born on December 2, 1795, in St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, educated for the military profession, and served as a lieutenant in a lancer regiment in the imperial guard during the First Empire. In 1815 he was a captain adjutant major in the Tenth Legion of the National Guard of the Seine. On the restoration of Bourbon rule in France, Woll sailed for America, carrying letters of introduction to Gen. Winfield Scott, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Scott apparently pointed to the opportunities that the Mexican revolutionary movement in progress against Spain offered a young man of energy, skilled in the military arts. On July 3, 1816, in Baltimore, Woll joined the staff of Gen. Francisco Xavier Mina as a lieutenant colonel. He landed with Mina near the mouth of the Santander River on April 15, 1817, and assisted in seizing Soto la Marina three days later. When the Mina expedition collapsed, Woll sought other ties to the Mexican War of Independence and cast his lot with Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna. With the achievement of Mexican independence, Woll remained in the Mexican army, became a naturalized citizen, and married Lucinda Vautrey Griggi. He became a colonel in 1828 and served as an aide-de-camp to Santa Anna during the capture of Tampico from the Spaniards in 1829. In 1832 he was promoted to brigadier general and awarded the Cross of Tampico. He and several other officers were commissioned by Santa Anna to conduct and place in the hands of the central government in Mexico City the flag taken from the Spaniards. In 1832 Woll supported the pronunciamento against President Anastasio Bustamante that brought Gen. M. Gómez Pedraza to the presidency. From Guadalajara Woll led a small, well-organized force that defeated Lt. Col. Joaquín Solórzano at Taxinastla; he entered Colima on November 15 and placed Pedraza adherents in office, then moved to Morelos. In 1835 Woll served as quartermaster general during Santa Anna's campaign that put down the Federalist uprising led by the pure-blooded Indian Juan Álvarez in the south and by Francisco García Zacatecas.
In 1836 Woll was quartermaster general of Santa Anna's army in the invasion of Texas. On March 8 he reached San Antonio de Béxar and reported to Gen. Vicente Filisola, second in command of the Mexican forces. After the battle of the Alamo, Woll accompanied Gen. Joaquín Ramírez y Sesma, who had orders to march with 725 men through Gonzales to San Felipe de Austin and thence to Harrisburg and Anahuac. The force included three infantry battalions, two six-pounder cannons, and forty dragoons. Ramírez y Sesma confronted Gen. Sam Houston and a Texan army on the opposite bank of the Colorado River at Beeson's Ferry, near the site of present-day Columbus, and began crossing. Houston retreated. On April 5, when Santa Anna reached Atascosito Pass on the Colorado, Woll assigned a battalion to construct rafts to ferry across the remainder of the army, which was arriving under Filisola. Santa Anna then proceeded with a division to San Felipe-and defeat at the battle of San Jacinto. On April 26 Woll became Filisola's chief of staff. Informed of Santa Anna's surrender, Filisola dispatched Woll to the Texan camp as an emissary under the pretext of learning the terms of the armistice, but actually to gain information on the strength, armament, and resources of the enemy. On April 30 Woll rode in under a truce flag and was detained. Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, commanding the Texan army, transferred Woll to Velasco, where he was given safe conduct to Goliad and released. Woll joined the retreating Mexican army on June 12. In 1842 Woll claimed that during the Texas campaign he had persuaded Santa Anna to cancel his order to shoot James W. Fannin and his men, but the order could not be recalled in time.
After the Texas Revolution, Woll played an inconspicuous role in Mexican affairs. During the brief "Pastry War" with France in 1838-39, he resigned his commission to avoid fighting against his countrymen, but the Mexican government rejected his request and placed him on inactive duty. When the French troops withdrew, Woll joined Santa Anna and the Centralists in their struggle with the Federalists. Late in November 1840 he went to New Orleans and negotiated for military supplies and other items, some of which may have been involved in a smuggling operation conducted by his wife at Saltillo. In December Woll was assigned to service on the northern frontier. In early June 1842, Woll was appointed second in command to Isidro Reyes in the Army of the North and made head of the Department of Coahuila. During the summer he received orders to invade Texas (see MEXICAN INVASIONS OF 1842). Woll was to capture San Antonio, then reconnoiter the Guadalupe River down to Gonzales-all within one month. He had crossed the Rio Grande at Presidio with his Second Division by August 30 and, following a new route, entered San Antonio on September 11. He was repulsed by Texan troops in the battle of Salado Creek on the eighteenth, evacuated San Antonio two days later, and returned to Coahuila. The Mexican government hailed Woll's Texas campaign as a success, promoted him to major general, and awarded him its Cross of Honor. In February 1843 Woll became commander of the Army of the North. He served until the northern army, on December 6, 1844, joined a revolt led by José Joaquín Herrera and Gen. Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga against Santa Anna. Woll was arrested and imprisoned, but freed under a general amnesty decree of May 24, 1845.
Earlier, while commanding on the frontier, he had served with a government commission to arrange an armistice between Mexico and Texas. James W. Robinson, a Texan prisoner at Perote Prison, had offered proposals to settle the differences between the two countries, and Santa Anna allowed Robinson to return to Texas and present his case. Houston declared a truce on June 15, 1843. The commissioners of both governments signed an armistice on February 15, 1844, at Salinas, on the Rio Grande. However, the Mexican government quickly recalled its commissioners upon learning that the Texans were negotiating in Washington for annexation to the United States and that the Texas commissioners had no authority to discuss a permanent peace. On June 19, Woll, on instructions from Mexico City, sent Houston a formal declaration of war, and hostilities resumed. During the United States invasion of Mexico in 1846, Woll served in the Mexican army until Santa Anna's defeat in 1847, then sailed for Europe. In 1852 he landed in Havana, Cuba, and joined Santa Anna on his return to Mexico. On April 20, 1853, at Santa Anna's installation as president, he appointed Woll governor and commandant general of Tamaulipas. When revolutionary disturbances flared, his authority was extended over Nuevo León and Coahuila. Santa Anna declared himself a dictator on December 16, 1853, but his support faded and he fled Mexico. Woll also left.
About three and a half years later, Woll reappeared in Mexico as an adherent of President Miguel Miramón, whose Centralist regime had been attacked by Benito Juárez and the Constitutionalists. On March 22, 1859, Woll landed at Mocambo with several prominent reactionists (Díaz de la Vega, Victor Blanco, and two sons of Santa Anna), reported to Miramón at Veragra, and was given an army command. During the ensuing Guerra de la Reforma, he defeated Gen. S. Degollado, a liberal leader, on August 30 near León and occupied Zacatecas in November. In May 1860 he successfully defended Guadalajara. The Miramón government collapsed on December 24, and Juárez became the Mexican president. Woll again returned to France. In 1862, when Napoleon III declared war on Juárez, Woll accompanied the French troops sent to Mexico and was named commandant general of the state of Vera Cruz. In March 1863 he met with A. Superviele, a Confederate agent, who urged the French government to seize Matamoros. Woll also served on the Junta Superior de Gobierno, a group of thirty-five formed by the French. The group chose three Mexican citizens to act as a temporary executive and selected 215 citizens to serve as an Asamblea de Notables. Appointed on June 29, 1863, the Asamblea met jointly with the Junta Superior and formed a monarchy. The executive committee, called the Regencia del Imperio Mexicano, sent Woll and eleven others as a deputation to offer the Mexican imperial crown to Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria. Maximilian accepted the crown on April 10, 1864. He asked Woll to draft a plan for organizing the armed forces needed in Mexico. Woll was designated the adjutant general of the occupation forces when Maximilian landed in Mexico on May 28. He also was named chief aide-de-camp and promoted to commander of the French order of knighthood, the Legion of Honor. When Maximilian became displeased with Marshal François Achille Bazaine and demanded his recall, he dispatched Woll in the fall of 1865 to explain matters to Napoleon. Woll learned that Napoleon planned to withdraw the French troops from Mexico beginning in January 1866, and he never returned to Mexico. The French soldier of fortune died at Montauban, just north of Toulouse in southern France, in February 1875.
The Mexican view
Report from General Adrian Woll to General Isidro Reyes
concerning the battle of Salado and the Dawson massacre, 20 Sept. 1842
Most Excel. Sir:
In the afternoon of the 18th inst., the Division under my command should have started out on its march to Rio Grande and San Fernando; we had taken this city (Bejar) by force, compelling its presumptuous defenders to surrender unconditionally; 150 horsemen had scouted the Guadalupe River up to the Gonzalez River, without any other incident than putting to death three Texans who tried to defend themselves against our skirmishers; the 16th of September, glorious anniversary of our National Independence, was solemnly celebrated, an event that had been forgotten in this city for the last six years; our spies had again confirmed the news we already had, that neither in Goliad, nor Copano or Corpus Cristi was there any enemy force to be seen. Our mission was completed.Unfortunately, the scouts sent out along the road that leads from this city toward Seguin village, did not do their duty, and reported to me that there was no news as far as the Cibolo. Consequently, although secretly warned that some enemy parties were approaching along the said road, I could not decide to believe it, since our spies and scouting parties continually sent out mornings and evenings toward the Salado, were returning without having seen any enemy; nevertheless, counseled by plain prudence, I ordered that the horse and mule herds belonging to the Division, should rest every night within corrals located in the center of the town; the troops confined to barracks, were kept at hand for whatever might happen. No sooner did the advance and reconnoitering parties that used to report at dawn of every day what they had explored in every direction, return, when from the post at the Alamo, where the Santa Anna's Regiment had been quartered, the trumpet call of "Enemy" was sounded, immediately followed by the one of "General Assembly." Instantly, I mounted my horse and rode off toward the said point, after warning the chiefs of all units that their troops remain in formation in front of their quarters, until my further orders. Reaching the Alamo, while the Santa Anna dragoons were already saddling, I rode forward, accompanied by the Major General, the Quartermaster, and by my Adjutants, over the Seguin road, and seeing not more than some 12 or 15 enemies, I sent ahead Brevet Lt. Colonel, Capt. of the Bejar Defenders Antonio Perez with 25 of his men, supported by 60 Presidial soldiers under Capt. Francisco Castaneda; seeing that the enemy turned suddenly and fell in with another group in the strength of possibly 50 or 60 men, all of whom then retreated in a certain order, although with great haste; thinking that this could be a stratagem to draw me into some ambush, I ordered Col. Sebastain Moro del Moral to take charge of the post with half of his Battalion, while I marched ahead with 200 Infantry, 100 dragoons of the Santa Anna squadrons, and two Artillery pieces; meantime the Bejar and Rio Grande Defenders had joined the Perez unit, so that added to the Capt. Castaneda detachment, they counted 130 men whom I ordered to follow the enemy and keep him under fire without leaving him time to organize, while sending me continual reports; all this was executed with great precision, until reaching the Salado creek at a distance of 3 leagues - 12 miles - from the city, the Texans suddenly veered off into the woods, and I learned that they had assembled a strength of about 300 men under Col. Caldwell, who had the intention of setting himself up during the day in the inextricable position at a water hole close to the city, there to await the numerous parties he had notified to join up with him from all directions, and then to attack us.
In view of such information, it became urgent to prevent the enemies' reunion, putting fear into them with an armed action, and although my instructions prohibited me attacking them in the woods, the case had become so pressing, that I decided to go ahead just the same; to this effect, I reconnoitered the terrain minutely, and crossing Salado creek more downstream, I assembled in rear of the enemy in two lines, the first consisting of 200 Infantry of the Santa Anna Battalion with a cannon of the Light Brigade; to my left, I placed the Bejar and Rio Grande Defenders, and to my right, Capt. Castaneda's Presidial soldiers, extended by 25 more men under Brevet Capt. Francisco Herrera; this line-up gave me the advantage of cutting the enemy off completely from any retreat toward his reinforcements, and of being able to maneuver my Cavalry over a fairly clear terrain; I left the part of the woods and the stream that faces Bejar, without any troops, in the thought that the Texans would not try to escape in that direction, and if they did, it would have been easy to intercept them.
In the beginning, the enemy would come out of the densest part of the woods and daringly open fire against our entire front; but having ordered our Defenders and Presidials to dismount, and having deployed a skirmish line of 50 infantrymen, we advanced palm by palm across the underbrush, until the enemy, thrown back, did not return to present himself past the stream; in this position, I ordered all our skirmishers to halt, and sent out scouts for some distance over the Seguin road. The report was sent me that nothing had happened there, except that one enemy had left the woods and had escaped in that direction thanks to the excellent mount he rode; considering that it was getting late, I resolved to give the signal agreed upon, which was a cannon shot, and ordered to sound "Attack!" It is impossible for me to describe to Y.E. [Your Excellency] with what gallantry the action was joined by our valiant men who stormed into the woods, irrespective of the rapid fire with which the enemy received them at first, but who pursued and attacked with unequalled intrepidity, lost terrain and, befuddled, no longer sustained anything but a languid defense that could not last much longer, because I intended to lead into the fight, 100 more infantrymen of the 150 I had in reserve, when suddenly a report was sent to me, that in our rear, on the way from Seguin, an enemy force of not less than 150 to 200 men was arriving. The game was critical; there was no time to lose, and after having convinced myself of the truth of that message, I immediately made my decision; I sent at once Brevet Colonel Cayetano Montero, commandant of the Santa Anna Regiment, to march against this new enemy with one Squadron, trying to overwhelm him on his right, while meantime, my Quartermaster, Brevet Colonel José Ma. Carrasco was ordered to make the 2nd Squadron advance under Brevet Colonel Pedro Rangel, and execute the same maneuver against the enemy's left; and I instructed the Major Gen., Brevet Lt. Col., Squadron Commandant Juan Fernandez, to move the light artillery piece to the middle of these squadrons with utmost speed. I was asked for ammunition for the Cavalry, but replied that our dragoons had lances and sabers with which to stab and hack away.
These audacious soldiers, led by their intrepid chief, advanced at a gallop against the wooded mound captured by the Texans; the light piece, expertly served sustained a steady fire and was gaining ground; and on reaching the first trees of the mound, our dragoons dismounted, encouraged by their chiefs and officers, particularly the Brevet Colonels Cayetano Montero, Pedro Rangel and José Ma. Carrasco, and entering the wood, started cutting down every enemy they encountered. A quarter hour later all was finished. Meantime, the advantages obtained in the forest had been conserved, the enemy did not return our fire any more. However, not knowing as yet the result of what had happened at my rear guard, and wishing to be prepared for any eventuality in view of the approaching night, I ordered to sound "Assembly," which was executed with great reluctance by our valiant men who did not want to let our prey escape; the enemy did not dare to molest them, since taking advantage of the circumstances and of the darkness, he penetrated deeper into the forest, fleeing terrified far out of the sight of our soldiers. [The foregoing action obviously refers to the Dawson Massacre in numerous Texian versions of the engagement--WLM].
It was then that I received the report sent by Colonels Montero and Carrasco, and a short while later the said officers rejoined me with the two squadrons that had covered themselves with glory. Whereupon, I instructed to sound "Reveille" again, cheers were resounding for Mexico and for the illustrious General Santa Anna, our wounded were picked up and immediately sent back to the city with my instructions to Dr. Montanari who had accompanied us throughout this brilliant day's work. Roll was called of all the participating units, while the enemy remains were being collected. In the meantime, the bulk of our troops rested on their arms in the same order and place they had been occupying throughout the duration of this action. At 10 o'clock that night, we set out on our march, since as I had the honor of notifying Y.E., our exhausted troops did not taste food all through the day; it was necessary to allow them some rest, and so it was that we entered anew into the city, to the sound of Reveilles and the tolling of bells, at 12 o'clock that night. The enemy's loss was considerable, because apart of the 120 who died at the hands of our Cavalry, and the 15 prisoners we took, more than 60 of his corpses remained stretched out dead in the forest; the number of his wounded must be immense, but since these were taken along on the retreat, we could only recover five of them. On our part, we had 29 dead and 58 wounded; this so great and deplorable loss will testify to Y.E. how embattled these actions had been, which a part of this Second Division has sustained simultaneously and with so much glory.
Captain Vicente Cordoba, of Nacogdoches, died as he had always lived, defending his Fatherland! Officers Francisco Castaneda of the Bahia Company, and my Adjutant Ambrosio Martinez, as well as Capt. Manuel Flores of the Rio Grande Defenders, and the Ensigns Victor Manero and Bartolo Olascuagua, both of the Santa Anna Cavalry Regiment, were all wounded; may I draw Y.E. attention to these valiant men, hoping that you will kindly recommend them to the Supreme Government. Although all men of the Division under my command have behaved with the honor and boldness that distinguishes them, I cannot but cite among those who took out most conspicuously, Brevet Colonel, Lt. Col. Cayetano Montero, the Brevet Colonels Pedro Rangel and José Ma. Carrasco; right next to them, Brevet Lt. Col., Squadron Commandant Juan Fernandez, Major General of the Division; Captains Antonio Ramirez, Macedonio Soria, Andres Mena and Francisco Lopez; the Lieutenants Francisco Borja, Francisco Plaza, Luis Pardihas, as also Ensigns Andres Sierra, Santiago Zuhiga, Mariano Zurita, Dionisio Bravo, José Ma. Delgado, Camilo Anguiano, José Ma. Robles, José Ma. Torres, Sabino Zepeda, Felix Espinosa and Cristobal Castro, all of them belonging to the invincible Santa Anna Regiment. Particular mention is due to Capt. Andres Videgaray, Lt. José Ceballos, Ensigns José Washington Eayrs and Tomas Santa Cruz, who as my Adjutants have carried my orders defying all peril, with a promptness, intelligence and bravery that do them great honor. Sublieutenant Felix Esquivel, Ensign José Ma. Ugartechea and Lt. Bernardo Cavazos, Adjutants to the Major General the first two, and to the Quartermaster the latter, rendered good services, Artillery Lt. Manuel del Frago and Ensign of the same arm Zeferino Rodriguez, have behaved with dignity. Lt. Colonel Mariano Fernandez, at the head of his Infantry, displayed the same calm and valor he had always customarily shown; Brevet Captains, Battalion Commandants Juan Garrido and Ildefonso Vega, and the Subadjutant Anselmo Jugrez, as well as all the other subaltern officers, imitated the conduct of the above mentioned Colonel. I must particularly recommend to Y.E. the valiant Capt. Ignacio Ruiz and Sublieut. Pedro Martinez, who had thrown themselves against the enemy with unequalled fearlessness, while leading the Infantry skirmishers. The Presidial Capt. Francisco Castaneda, who sustained a grave wound, and Lt. breveted to Capt., Francisco Herrera, carried out my orders to full satisfaction.
Mr. Juan N. Seguin, Commandant of the Bejar Defenders, and the intrepid Brevet Lt. Colonel, Capt. Antonio Perez, the Captains Manuel Leal and Manuel Flores, have rendered important services; and so did Lieutenants Manuel Carbajal and Manuel Patiho. Finally, Y. E., I will conclude bringing it to your superior cognizance, that the behavior of all was such, as to cause admiration among the enemy prisoners themselves, who declared frightened, that they could not have imagined the Mexican soldier to fight with so much intrepidity and serenity.
I am looking forward to Y.E. kindly bringing all this to the knowledge of the Supreme Government, requesting H. E. the Secretary of War and Navy to assure our illustrious President, the immortal Gen. Santa Anna, that the heroes of the Second Division of the Army of the North Corps, will uphold with dignity, and even unto death, the honor of the National Arms. God and Liberty. San Antonio de Bejar at 6 o'clock in the morning of September 20th, 1842.
Adrian Woll (Signature). To the Most Excel. Sir, the Commander in Chief.
Bibliography
"DAWSON MASSACRE." The Handbook of Texas Online.
Thomas W. Cutrer
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/DD/qfd1.htmlBIBLIOGRAPHY: Joseph Milton Nance, Attack and Counterattack: The Texas-Mexican Frontier, 1842 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964). Juan N. Seguin, Personal Memoirs (San Antonio, 1858). L. U. Spellmann, ed., "Letters of the `Dawson Men' From Perote Prison, Mexico, 1842-1843," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 38 (April 1935). William P. Stapp, The Prisoners of Perote: A Journal (Philadelphia: Zieber, 1845). Leonie L. Weyand, Early History of Fayette County, 1822-1865 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1932).
"CAMP SALADO." The Handbook of Texas Online.
Art Leatherwood ;
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/CC/qcc54.htmlBIBLIOGRAPHY: Gerald S. Pierce, Texas Under Arms: The Camps, Posts, Forts, and Military Towns of the Republic of Texas (Austin: Encino, 1969).
"MIER EXPEDITION." The Handbook of Texas Online.
Joseph Milton Nance;
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/MM/qym2.htmlBIBLIOGRAPHY: John R. Alexander, Account of the Mier Expedition (MS, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin). Bernice Baker, The Texas Expedition to the Rio Grande in 1842 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1929). James M. Day, Black Beans and Goose Quills: Literature of the Texas Mier Expedition (Waco: Texian Press, 1970). Thomas J. Green, Journal of the Texian Expedition Against Mier (New York: Harper, 1845; rpt., Austin: Steck, 1935). J. J. McGrath and Walace Hawkins, "Perote Fort-Where Texans Were Imprisoned," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 43 (January 1945). Joseph Milton Nance, Attack and Counterattack: The Texas-Mexican Frontier, 1842 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964). William P. Stapp, The Prisoners of Perote: A Journal (Philadelphia: Zieber, 1845). Houston Wade, Notes and Fragments of the Mier Expedition (La Grange, Texas: La Grange Journal, 1936). Jacob F. Wolters, Dawson's Men and the Mier Expedition (Houston: Union National Bank, 1927).
"BLACK BEAN EPISODE."
The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/BB/qmb1.htmlBIBLIOGRAPHY: John Crittenden Duval, The Adventures of Big Foot Wallace, the Texas Ranger and Hunter (Macon, Georgia: Burke, 1870). Thomas J. Green, Journal of the Texian Expedition Against Mier (New York: Harper, 1845; rpt., Austin: Steck, 1935). Sam W. Haynes, Soldiers of Misfortune: The Somervell and Mier Expeditions (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990). Harold Schoen, comp., Monuments Erected by the State of Texas to Commemorate the Centenary of Texas Independence (Austin: Commission of Control for Texas Centennial Celebrations, 1938). Houston Wade, Notes and Fragments of the Mier Expedition (La Grange, Texas: La Grange Journal, 1936).
"WOLL, ADRIAN." The Handbook of Texas Online.
Joseph Milton Nance
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/WW/fwo3.htmlBIBLIOGRAPHY: Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Mexico (6 vols., San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft and the History Company, 1883-89). Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of the North Mexican States and Texas (2 vols., San Francisco: History Company, 1886, 1889). William Campbell Binkley, ed., Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution, 1835-1836 (2 vols., New York: Appleton-Century, 1936). John Henry Brown, History of Texas from 1685 to 1892 (2 vols., St. Louis: Daniell, 1893). Anson Jones, Memoranda and Official Correspondence Relating to the Republic of Texas (New York: Appleton, 1859; rpt. 1966). Joseph Milton Nance, "Adrián Woll: Frenchman in the Mexican Military Service," New Mexico Historical Review 33 (July 1958). Joseph Milton Nance, Attack and Counterattack: The Texas-Mexican Frontier, 1842 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964). Joseph Milton Nance, trans. and ed., "Brigadier General Adrian Woll's Report of His Expedition into Texas in 1842," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 58 (April 1955). Adrián Woll, Expedición hecha en Tejas, por una parte de la 2a División del Cuerpo del Egército del Norte (Monterrey: Impreso por Francisco Molina, 1842).
"Report from General Adrian Woll to General Isidro Reyes
concerning the battle of Salado and the Dawson massacre,20 Sept.1842"From Lamego, Gen. Miguel A. Sanchez. The Second Mexican-Texas War 1841-1843. Hill Junior College Monograph 7, Texian Press, Waco, TX, 1972 which was copied from a document, pages 49 to 58 of the booklet "Expedition Undertaken to Texas by Part of the Second Division of the Army of the North Corps", as published by General Adrian Woll, at Monterrey, in the year of 1842
[ Also see Texas Bowens ' ] [ Monument Hill casualties of The Dawson and Mier Expeditions.]
[ Journal of the Texian Expedition Against Mier by Gen. T.J. Green, 1845 ]
Personal account of the massacre at Goliad
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/treasures/republic/goliad/duval01.html
Placed on the Bowen family web 3-2002
