The Republic of the Rio Grande

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Texans of the 19th century were audacious gamblers, putting their lives and all they had at risk while settling their frontier and securing their borders. Enemies were everywhere, often outnumbering them. Texans had the Alamo to remember, and a lot more, too. The new Republic of Texas was experiencing plenty of growing pains.Texas had gained its hard-earned independence from Mexico by winning the Battle of San Jacinto in April 1836, and Sam Houston, the victorious general who was elected president of the Republic of Texas that fall, gained American recognition for the republic in 1837. Still, relations with politically unstable Mexico were hardly rosy. Border conflicts were inevitable, especially when it wasn’t certain where that border was.

During the winter of 1839, the second president of the Republic of Texas, Mirabeau Lamar, had a meeting with a Mexican border lawyer, Antonio Canales, about the possibility of creating a buffer nation between Texas and Mexico. But to carve a second nation out of Mexican territory, Canales and his followers in the river towns of the Rio Grande needed Texas’ help.

For more than two years, Texas had been engulfed in Indian warfare. The so-called Great Comanche Raid into the very heart of Texas had forced the republic to put together a string of outposts in its wake. The outposts resulted in new grasslands opening up on the frontier for settlement, and these attracted footloose young Americans looking for adventure and a fight. Many Texans were surprised that the loser at San Jacinto, Antonio López de Santa Anna, and his Mexican army had not tried to reconquer Texas during this time. But the Mexican dictator was kept busy suppressing a revolt in northeast Mexico, just south of Texas.

The foot soldiers of that revolt included Mexican peasants and vaqueros along the Rio Grande; Cane Indians, who were the original natives of the Rio Grande Valley; and Texans and Americans still full of fight after the Comanche conflict. Santa Anna sent General Mariano Arista to crush the revolt in northeast Mexico, and by the fall of 1839, Canales and other rebels had no choice but to flee into Texas.

At that time, Texas encompassed the lands between the Red River to the north and the Nueces River to the south and as far west as the 100th meridian line. The Rio Grande was thought of as a source of life-giving water and a means of transportation through endless desert and mesquite. But the river was not generally considered the boundary between Texas and Mexico until after the Lamar presidency.

Canales did not consider himself in Texas until he stepped onto the north bank of the Nueces and rode into San Antonio. There, he promised any Texan who would fight for his cause $25 a month, a half league of land in a new republic being formed and equal shares in any loot taken. Signing up some men, he headed north for the capital, Austin, in order to enlist others into his small army and to meet in secret with Texas President Lamar.

The land around the Rio Grande is webbed with ravines cut deep by centuries of short downpours. It is otherwise a flat land of mesquite, rattlesnakes and small groves of trees under a constant glaring sun. Near its waters were the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila, along with the Nueces Strip (that section of land south of the Nueces River and north of the Rio Grande). Canales proposed to Lamar that Texans assist in the transformation of this land into a Republic of the Rio Grande. Such a river republic could act as a buffer if Mexico ever decided to march north to reclaim its former Texas province.

Britain and France had already recognized Texas’ independence, and Lamar was officially trying to win Santa Anna’s recognition through the offices of the British Foreign Ministry. Secretly, though, Texas was also offering to assume Mexico’s debt to Britain in exchange for the Nueces Strip and public recognition of the Rio Grande as Texas’ southern border.

It is not known if Canales was aware of Lamar’s negotiations with Mexico through the British. He was aware that the Texan Congress had already declared that the Rio Grande marked the southern and western borders of Texas, thus cutting away half of his proposed river republic.

Lamar was certainly a gambler and an aggressive one. As Texas’ president, he would send the Texas navy to the Yucatan to assist the rebellion there against Mexico, and he would also send a military expedition across the barren Staked Plains in an attempt to seize Santa Fe and all New Mexico. For Lamar, a Republic of the Rio Grande offered a fallback plan against possible Mexican aggression. For Texas’ long-term benefit, the river republic could be absorbed later. Lamar officially declared Texan neutrality in the enterprise while privately either giving an approving word or turning a blind eye to Texans joining Canales’ cause. In less than a month, two officers from the Texas army, Colonels Reuben Ross and Samuel Jordan, resigned their positions and enlisted in the Army of the Rio Grande as commanding officers.

The two officers found Canales’ army camped south of the Nueces under the command of the colorful vaquero Antonio Zapata from the Rio Grande community of Guerrero. Zapata had a well-earned reputation as an Indian fighter along the border. Once when returning from a punitive raid, he and his 40 men ran into 200 Comanche warriors along the Nueces River. Zapata charged the Comanche war chief, who shot an arrow that struck the vaquero in the thigh, pinning him to his saddle. Zapata pulled the arrow out, chased down the chief and, overtaking him, pulled him off his mount by the hair. He then kicked the war chief to death using his spurs.

Zapata was building Canales’ army with hard-riding vaqueros and Cane Indians armed with lances when Ross and Jordan led hundreds of Texans into his camp. The army was quickly divided into two divisions — one commanded by Zapata and Jordan (with Ross), and the other under Canales himself. It took the small army of 600 men 10 days (September 20-September 30, 1839) to march from the Nueces to the Rio Grande. Canales was hoping to catch the Mexican army in Revilla by surprise, but Jordan was spotted crossing the river, and the Mexican military withdrew downstream to Mier. Canales followed close behind.

At 11 a.m. on October 3, 12 miles outside Mier along Alcantro Creek, the small army found the Mexican military in battle formation. Canales ordered an officers’ call to formulate a battle plan, but the Texans under Jordan and Ross were already attacking the Mexican army with effective rifle fire. Ross waited for Canales to reinforce the Texan line, but when it became obvious Canales and the rest of the small army were only going to be spectators, Ross ordered his men to charge the Mexicans. Twenty minutes of close hand-to-hand fighting followed, with the Mexican soldiers finally breaking and running. They regrouped five miles away within the walls of a hacienda, only to find that the Texans had surrounded them. Texan Major Joseph Dolan demanded a surrender. He was surprised when the young Mexican general, Pavlon, came out to give up his sword to the young Texan. When Dolan suggested Pavlon give his sword to Canales, the Mexican replied: ‘No, sir. I surrender to the brave Texans. They are my conquerors!’

The Mexican army had suffered at least 150 casualties in the fight. Dolan took 350 prisoners, but they quickly enlisted in Canales’ forces. But as Canales entered Mier, the local population was enraged to see Texan troops marching alongside his. Ross and Jordan were asked to take their men outside of town to make camp.

Canales stayed in Mier for 40 days, waiting for an omen that would inspire him to go downriver to attack Matamoros. He had evolved into a man who took no decisive action without a sign that he should, and he had failed to reveal this quirk to President Lamar. When Canales finally marched on the river port, it took his army 28 days to cross 165 miles with four cannons and 1,000 men in arms. The Mexican army under General Valentn Canalizo, with 1,500 regular troops and 18 cannons, was waiting for him.

Faced by a more formidable foe, Canales froze. Mathematics may have been the omen. The only fighting took place on December 15 when Zapata, with a force made up of Texans and vaqueros, raided a Mexican army outpost near the port city, killing 13 soldiers. The next day Canales held an officers’ call and announced that since the Mexican army would not come out of Matamoros to fight, he was going to withdraw. Ross and Jordan were shocked by such logic, offering to lead a Texan attack on the city. When Canales turned the Texans down, Ross and 50 of his men left for Texas.

Canales had plans to go into the interior to take Monterrey. Jordan and the remaining Texans decided to stick to their commitment to the Republic of the Rio Grande. Monterrey was under the personal command of General Mariano Arista. The two opposing forces lined up their cannons 800 yards apart and slugged it out for a day without a casualty. The next day, Canales sent 300 cavalry out under Zapata as bait. Arista bit, leaving Monterrey unguarded as he chased after Zapata. Monterrey was Canales’ for the taking. But instead of marching in, the Army of the Rio Grande took over a convent just outside of town.

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Tags: Westward Expansion, Wild West, Women's History

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