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not to expel the French merchants and their families from Tampico and other areas that they might control.[39] It is probable that Mejía approached Admiral Baudin on the question of permitting the Federalists to pass through the French blockade of the Mexican ports. At Monclova the Federalist uprising of January 1839, was headed by Citizen Ramón Músquiz,[40] former political chief of Béxar, and supported by Bartolomé de Cárdenas, Severo Ruiz, commanding the Federal troops, José María Cantú, José María Flores, José María de los Santos Coy, Jesús Quintero, Francisco Borrego, José María Villareal, Manuel Cárdenas, and others.[41] On January 21 the Federalists, six hundred strong under Ruiz, advanced from Monclova against Saltillo, but were defeated (Feb. 20) by the combined forces of Governor Francisco Conde and those of Colonel Domingo Ugartechea from Monterey. Meanwhile, in pitched battles in the north on January 6[42] and 16[43] Colonel Eleuterio Méndez was repulsed by Colonel Ampudia on the outskirts of Matamoros,[44] falling back toward Reinosa, where Canales' forces were located. On January 12 the rebels were again defeated on the Llano del Chiltipín below Santa Teresa.[45] This gave some relief to Matamoros. Even Lemus, who commanded the Federal forces in this area, promised to return to obedience to the supreme government, 39. El Iris, Feb. 9, 1839, quoted in El Ancla, March 8, 1839. 40. Ramón Músquiz; served as political chief of Béxar from 1827 to March 17, 1835, when he replaced Juan N. Seguin as vice governor of Coahuila y Texas, later becoming governor on June 28, 1835. Under the orders of President Santa Anna, he was at Béxar on March 6, 1836, when that place fell to the Mexican troops. Upon the withdrawal of the Mexican troops from Texas after the battle of San Jacinto, he left San Antonio de Béxar, but returned again to the city in August, 1839, a refugee from Centralism. Handbook of Texas, II, 253; Erasmo Seguin to the Secretary of State [of the Republic of Texas], Béxar, Sept. 6, 1839, in Domestic Correspondence (Texas), 1836-1846, ms., Spanish. 41. El Centinela de Tamaulipas, Feb. 14, 1839. Many of these names were to be found later among those of Woll's division which captured San Antonio, Texas, in September 1842. 42. Vicente Filisola al Ministerio de Guerra y Marina, Enero 8 de 1839, in El Ancla, Feb. 8, 1839. 43. D. W. Smith to John Forsyth, Matamoros, Jan. 18, 1839, in Consular Dispatches (U. S.), 1837-1839 (Matamoros), ms., microfilm. 44. Valentín Canalizo á Gobernador del Departamento de Nuevo León, Cuartel General en Villa Aldama, Agosto 26 de 1839, in Gaceta de Tampico, Sept. 14, 1839. 45. Valentín Canalizo á E. S. Gobernador del departamento de N. León, Cuartel General en Villa Aldama, Agosto 19 de 1839, in Supplement to ibid., Aug. 31, 1839. |