The Revolution for Independence in the Villas del Norte

by Martin Salinas
Colegio de Historia y Humanidades de Reynosa
and 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
to the insurgents, who promptly declared independence. The
portion of Nuevo Santander loyal to Spain was reduced to a

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.

1
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
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.

2
 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 half cabildos.3
The individual settlements in the last 50 years had moved
in directions not expected. With the international interest in

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.

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.

3
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 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

4 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.

5 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.

4
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
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

6 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.

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

5
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 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

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.

6
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
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

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.

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.

7
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, 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

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.

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,

8
 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 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

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.

9
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
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

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.

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.

10
 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
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

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.

11
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 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

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).

27 "La contra Revolución de Béxar" [fuente: Documentos de la

Independencia, Secretaría de Educación Pública, México, 1928,

12
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 independence. He was known to ignore orders from his
superiors
As 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.

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.

13
 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.
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

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.

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.

14
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
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

32Carlos Castaneda, Our Catholic heritage in Texas 5019-1936,

VI: transition period, the fight for freedom, 1810-1836 (Austin,
1950),p. 3.

15
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 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

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.

16
 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 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

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.

17
 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.
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

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.

40 Clotilde P. García, Cartas y documentos, pp.43; AGN,

18
 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 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

Operaciones de Guerra, Vol.22, Exp. 33, f. 328-330.

41 Ibid.

19
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 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

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

20
 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 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

43 Ibid. Pp. 29-33.

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

21
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 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.

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

Exp. 6, f. 112-114.

46 MX28032AMR, Fondo Colonial, Caja 12, Exp. 41, f. 1; Clotilde

P. García, Cartas y documentos, pp. 30-33, 36,43, 52-53.

22
 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 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

47 Ibid. Pp. 30, 36.

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.

23
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
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

49 Ibid. 66-67.

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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 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

25
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 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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