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Formation of Republic of the Río Grande

and taken by Ampudia to Guerrero," "theater of his iniquities," and stuck on a pole opposite Zapata's house, where it remained for three days as a warning to his wife, children, and the people who worshipped him."[47]



47. El Ancla, April 10, 1840, reports the court-martial trial of Zapata. See also El General Mariano Arista en gefe de la Division Auxiliar del Norte á los habitantes de las villas del Norte, Cuartel general en Santa Rita de Morelos, Marzo 29 de 1840, in ibid., May 8, 1840; this is Arista's proclamation to the people of Guerrero upon the erection of Zapata's head there. For other accounts, see "Information derived from Anson G. Neal," Lamar Papers, VI, 104; "Information derived from Mr. [Augustin] Soto [Alcalde de Laredo], in ibid., VI, 116; Samuel A. Maverick Diary, Oct. 7, 1842, in Maverick Papers, ms. Ampudia commanded the Mexican artillery during the attack on the Alamo in 1836. Carlos E. Castañeda (trans.), The Mexican Side of the Texan Revolution [1836]: By the Chief Mexican Participants . . . , pp. 72, 99, 103.

The severing of the head of a rebel leader and placing it on a pole at the scene of the crime or before his home as a warning to others of the fate that would be theirs should they imitate him was not uncommon. Juan Bautista de las Casas, the commander of the presidio at San Antonio de Béxar and leader of a revolt there in 1811 against Spanish authority, was captured, sent to Monclova, shot, and his head placed in a box and returned to San Antonio where it was hung on a pole in the middle of the plaza. Antonio Menchaca, Memoirs, Yanaguana Society Publications, II, [13].

Jesús Barrera, who was with Zapata and was captured, says the prisoners taken with Zapata were marched in chains under heavy guard via Monterey, Saltillo, and San Luis Potosí, where they were imprisoned a year until released. [Jesús Barrera's account of the Battle of Morelos], in Lamar Papers, VI, 131-132. Barrera seems to be in error. No other account that the author has found corroborates his statement.

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