About The Mier Rolls

Mier Expedition Lists and Muster Rolls

These lists and rolls may be authenticated copies (signed by officers of the Expedition) of the originals that would have been lost in the fire at the Adjutant General's office in 1855. There are three command lists and six muster rolls that have survived, now at the Texas State Library and Archives. They are:

• Command by Company List. "List of the names of Col. Wm. S. Fisher's Command East bank of the Rio Grande December 1842 up to Feby. 1st, 1844" with update "to March 20th, 1844". An unsigned list of the command by company, used by J. M. Nance (see below) as specifying the official order of the companies. The list appears to be more of a working document than the following lists, having more added remarks, but no auditing check marks.
  
  
• Command by Name List. Part 1: "Names of 263 Men Composing Col. Wm. S. Fishers Command, Capitulated at Mier 26th Decemr 1842" and Part 2: "Names of the men detailed for Camp Guard, Supposed to have arrived safe in Texas". The list is approximately alphabetized by name and company letter and signed by William S. Fisher as being correct. Company letter designation is the same as the muster rolls below, but different from the above list, indicating this list was compiled from the muster rolls. The list contains check marks like the auditing check marks in the muster rolls below.
  
  
• Command by Name List (copy). An apparent copy of the above list, incorporating notes and corrections that had been added to the above roll. The list has some errors in copying names and some simplification of Remarks. Marked "(Signed) William S. Fisher". No auditing check marks. (Not transcribed)
  
  
• Muster rolls for the six companies, titled "Surrendered at Mier 26th Decemr. 1842". Rolls include members left in the Camp Guard. All six rolls signed by company officers, but without date of signature. Rolls have auditing marks and some have auditing notes and the signature of John M. Swisher, Auditor, suggesting the rolls may be copies of the originals made for that use. Swisher's notes indicate the purpose of auditing was to determine which men met provisions of several acts of the legislature (see acts of the legislature in Chronology).

Supporting References

We are fortunate to now have J. M. Nance's monumental work [1, 2] on the Mier Expedition and its men. Nance reportedly spent decades gathering all known material, including journals, letters and Republic records to better identify the participants of the Expedition. For some of the men, not public figures, Nance mentioned he could not find additional biographical information.

The Research Help page lists some of these Republic records which are now available as online images, such as the individual certificates of service for many of the men, signed by Col. Fisher the day of their release from Perote Castle (see Republic Claims on the Research Help page.)

A member of the Expedition, Thomas Jefferson Green, published his journal in 1845 (see below). From this journal we have his list of the participants.

List Comparisons

The Mier Expedition section of the Campaigns of 1842 includes two comparisons of list names: "Nance vs Fisher Lists" and "Green vs Nance Lists". In both cases the lists have been reordered to align names believed to be of the same soldier. The spelling of names varies from list to list for most of the men and it is important to note that other Republic of Texas records may be indexed with some of these name variations.

__________