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Federalist Wars: First Phase

were accorded the privilege of reinstatement in the Mexican army at their former ranks or of withdrawing from the service if they so desired. Quickly the Federalist cause collapsed elsewhere, if but only temporarily. The liberal cause in the north, for many years to come, did not regain the ground it lost in the spring and summer of 1839. In Texas, the editor of the Telegraph and Texas Register[101]  witnessed with alarm the turn of events in Mexico by the middle of 1839, and felt that as soon as the civil war there was ended Texas could look forward to a renewal of the Mexican effort to subjugate her lost colony.

After the defeat of Mejía, Lemus captured Saltillo on May 24,[102]  but upon the approach of Governor Francisco García Conde, whom he had only recently caused to flee from the city, Lemus abandoned Saltillo about June 21 and moved to Monclova. Lemus' little detachment was pictured in the New Orleans Louisianan as "composed entirely of rancheros, a half-savage kind of people, undisciplined, not perfectly acquainted with the signification of the words federation and centralism, who have taken up arms with the sole view of avenging the horrors which they endured from the government troops in the Texian campaigns, and the various excursions which the army of Matamoros made in their province."[103]  At Monclova Lemus sought to gain control of the entire Federalist forces,[104]  and there was even suspicion that he would seek to dissolve the Federalists if he could not command them.

Such was the condition within the Federalist ranks when Juan Pablo Anaya, called the "Stranger," a well-known liberal from the South, appeared in the Río Grande area about August 1.[105]  Accompanied by two men dressed as muleteers, Anaya reached Monclova in disguise. Here he conferred with Canales and Zapata and an intrigue was commenced to supplant Lemus in command with General Anaya.[106]  Canales informed Anaya of Lemus' designs upon the army. Anaya and his co-



101. July 19, 1839.

102. Colonel Domingo Ugartechea was killed while attempting to defend the city. Bancroft, History of Mexico, V. 209 n.

103. Louisianan (New Orleans), quoted in the Austin City Gazette, Nov. 6, 1839.

104. Antonio Canales to Juan Pablo Anaya, Villa Aldama, Aug. 3, 1839, in Juan Pablo de Anaya Papers, ms.

105. Horace V. Harrison, "Juan Pablo Anaya: Champion of Mexican Federalism," Ph.D. dissertation, p. 396.

106. "Information derived from Dr. John Long, resident of Santa Rosa, Coahuila, Mexico," in Lamar Papers, ms.

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AFTER SAN JACINTO: The Texas-Mexican Frontier, 1836-1841
Joseph Milton Nance, 1963