Episode 59 –Tejanos during the civil war
Episode 59 –Tejanos during the civil war
The Rio Grande, since it was the border between Texas and Mexico was important to both the Confederacy and the Union. The Confederacy wanted to use it to bring in supplies and the Union wanted to keep it bottled up. Regardless of their reasonings, both the North and the Sount did their best to recruit and draft Mexican Texans. The confederates set up camps in Laredo, Brownsville, Victoria, and Corpus Christi and trained approximately 2,550 Mexican Americans from Texas. They primarily served inside the state with the regular confederate army or with various companies of the state militia.
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José Agustín Quintero, who was actually a Cuban American and hailed from New Orleans, joined the Quitman Guards of Texas. That group saw action in Virginia and Quintero was later appointed by President Jefferson Davis to serve as the confidential agent (a sort of ambassador) of the Confederate government in Mexico.
While the majority of those who joined were either in their teens or early twenties, there were some who were in their sixties. The majority did join the confederate army, still an estimated 960 joined the Union army. In many cases, their reasons for joining came about partly because they or their family members remember how they had been treated during some of the events of the Texas Revolution and in particular how Mexican were treated after the revolution. (Check out my books Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. For more about those time periods and what took place.)
One such union group was the Second Texas Cavalry (U.S.), which was comprised largely of Texas Mexicans and Mexican nationals; not sure why, but this unit suffered a high desertion rate.
Much like people everywhere Mexican Americans of Texas (Tejanos) were divided over the whole issue of secession. Before the war even started there were accusations of subversion and disloyalty being thrown about, which made many reluctant to even become involved.
Part of the reasons that almost everyone who signed up to serve in a militia unit, especially from South Texas or from the frontier, was a healthy fear of being sent to serve in the deep south and thus away from their families. Several people avoided conscription simply by claiming that they were actually residents and citizens of Mexico.
There were at least 2,500 Mexican Texans who actually signed p to serve in the Confederate Army. Santos Benavides was perhaps the most famous of them, and he was eventually put in charge of the 33rd Texas Cavalry with the rank of colonel.
The 33rd Texas Cavalry was never defeated in battle even though they did not have the best equipment or supplies. In fact, Colonel Benavides, and his Refugio and Cristóbal, put together what can only be thought of as an incredible record in defending the border. In May of 1861, they became folk heroes to southern sympathizers, after they defeated a band of anti-Confederates who were led by Juan N. Cortina at Carrizo (Zapata) . They also led incursions into northern Mexico seeking revenge for Unionist-inspired guerilla raids into Texas. In March of 1865, they also succeeded in repulsing a small group of Union solders that attacked Laredo.
A few of the Tejano’s who joined Hood’s Texas Brigade actually were sent into Virginia where they fought in the battles of Gaines’ Mill, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Appomattox Court House. Some Thirty Tejanos from San Antonio, Eagle Pass, and the Fort Clark area signed up and joined Trevanion T. Teel’s artillery company, and thirty-one more joined Charles L. Pyron’s company, and ended up marching across West Texas to help in the fight to secure the Mesilla valley.
Some Tejanos from San Antonio served in the Sixth Texas Infantry and fought in several of the eastern campaigns, including the battles of Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Atlanta, and at Franklin and Nashville as a part of what Historian’s know as John Bell Hood’s disastrous invasion of Tennessee.
More than 300 Texas Mexicans from Refugio and Bexar counties joined the Eighth Texas Infantry and two companies commanded by Joseph M. Peñaloza and José Ángel Navarro were almost entirely Tejano.
As I mentioned earlier, not all Texas Mexicans served in the Confederacy. In fact, many who were resentful of growing Angle and non-Mexican political dominance of their local communities, enlisted to aid the Union Cause.
Of course, there were some who joined the Union Army for the bounty money they were paid upon enlistment. However, there were also numerous ones who opposed slavery or even to get even with Anglo landowners, attorneys, and politicians who had used the American legal system to steal land and rancheros from Tejanos following the Revolution and during early statehood.
Col. John L. Haynes, from Rio Grande City, led the federal Second Texas Cavalry, which was composed primarily of Tejanos and Mexican nationals. Even though the regiment suffered an incredibly high desertion rate, still fought in the Rio Grande valley and later further east in Louisiana. Some of their company commanders included George Treviño, Clemente Zapata, Cesario Falcón, and Mónico de Abrego. A number of Tejanos, actually acted as guerillas along and in the Nueces Strip. The most famous of the Union guerillas were Cecilio Balerio and his son Juan, who fought a bloody skirmish with Confederates at Los Patricios, fifty miles southwest of Banquete, on March 13, 1864.
For whatever reason, both Tejanos and Mexican Nationals played an active role during the civil war, serving both sides.
That’s going to do it for this episode. If you get a chance, please subscribe to the podcast. If you want more information on Texas History, visit the website of the Texas State Historical Association. I also have four audiobooks on the Hidden History of Texas, The Spanish Bump Into Texas 1530s to 1820s, Here Come The Anglos 1820s to 1830s, Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. You can find the books pretty much wherever you download or listen to audiobooks. Just do a search for the Hidden History of Texas by Hank Wilson and they’ll pop right up. Or visit my website https://arctx.org. By the way if you like audiobooks, visit my publisher’s website there’s an incredible selection of audiobooks there. In addition to mine you’ll find the classics, horror, science fiction, mental-health, and much more. Check it out visit https://ashbynavis.com
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