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leadership of Captain Longinos Montenegro. Urrea, now a fugitive from Sonora, soon arrived in the city to assume command, and the Centralist commander José de las Piedras was captured and forced to leave aboard a vessel bound for Matamoros.[11] Antonio Canales in Guerrero, Tamaulipas, issued a pronunciamiento on November 5 against the central government and for the federal plan of 1824. Soon declarations of a similar vein were made by the towns of Reinosa, Mier, and Laredo,[12] and by the end of November the northern Federalists were in general revolt under such leaders as General Pedro Lemus, his brother -- José Lemus, General José Urrea, General José Antonio Mejía[13] (a long-time liberal leader, Texas land speculator, and organizer of the abortive Tampico Expedition of 1835), and lesser politicos, like Colonels Antonio Canales, Francisco Garay, Antonio 11. José Urrea to Sr. Comandante principal de esta plaza, Coronel D. Longinos Montenegro, Santa Anna de Tamaulipas, Nov. 12, 1838, in El Cosmopolita, Nov. 28, 1838; José Urrea to Ejército Libertador, Nov. 12, 1838, in ibid.; Valentín Canalizo, General en gefe de la tercera division del ejército del norte a _______, Campo en la Cruz de los Caminos, Nov. 11, 1838, reprint from El Telegrafo, in ibid.; Telegraph and Texas Register, Nov. 28, 1838. 12. D. W. Smith to John Forsyth, Matamoros, Dec. 10, 1838, no. 147, in Consular Dispatches (U. S.), 1837-1839 (Matamoros), ms., microfilm. 13. José Antonio Mejía, a Cuban who immigrated to Mexico in 1823, served as secretary to the Mexican legation in Washington from about 1829 to 1831. While in the United States he became one of the incorporators of the notorious Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company; and, subsequently, with General John T. Mason, one of its agents and lobbyists. As a supporter of Santa Anna during the popular disturbances of 1832 in Mexico he led the liberal army in the capture of Matamoros, after which he came on an inspection tour of Texas to prevent the dismemberment of the province by restoring order. He supported adherence to the constitution of 1824, and after Santa Anna's election became an important man in Mexico. Later he broke with Santa Anna when the latter turned to Centralism. Mejía supported the Texans in their early protestations against Centralism, and organized and led an unsuccessful expedition from New Orleans against Tampico in November 1835, which failed because of poor discipline, and insufficient troops, ammunition, lead, provisions, money, and clothing. George L. Rives, The United States and Mexico, 1821-1848, I, 306; Eugene C. Barker, "The Tampico Expedition, in Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, VI (1902-1903), 169-186; José Urrea á General de brigade D. José Antonio Mejía, Cuartel-general en Tampico, Enero 4 de 1839, and José Antonio Mejía á D. José Urrea, general en gefe del ejército libertador, Tampico, Enero 4 de 1839, in El Centinela de Tamaulipas (Ciudad Victoria), Jan. 17, 1839; Eleuterio Méndez ál Gobernador de esta Estado D. José Antonio Fernández Yzaguierre, 3a Division de Ejército Libertador Cuartel General en San Fernando, Enero 14 de 1839, in ibid., Jan. 19, 1839; Eleuterio Méndez á Sr. Gobernador del Estado Libre y Soberano de |