The Republic of the Río Grande
on the Frontier of Texas
THE REMNANT OF THE FEDERAL ARMY was completely dispersed with
its rout before Morelos. Out of some 400 Federalists, only Canales and about
150 of his loyal followers escaped across the Río Grande. At the water hole
of Los Sauces the shattered Federalist Army picked up the officials of the
Republic of the Río Grande and the refugee government protected by 35 men
from the squadrons of Teran and Moctezuma proceeded once more toward
the lower Nueces.[1] The
others accompanied Canales toward the Presidio
crossing of the Medina River. A small contingent of Federalists under Carlos
Lazo, the father-in-law of Philip Dimitt and a kinsman of Martin de León, the
empresario, was reported at the latter's Aunt Calvilla's
ranch.[2] The victory of
the Centralists at Peyotes over Vidaurri, the retreat of Canales from before
Monterey, and his crushing defeat at Morelos could be expected to inspire
the victors with the bold idea of invading Texas, the home of the filibusters,
or at least of penetrating into Texas as far as San Antonio where they might
"triumph with ease and reap heavy booty. . . . I trust," wrote Navarro earlier
in the year upon receipt of Canales' failures at Monterey, "that the
Government will take immediate steps to relieve us from our threatened and
dangerous position.[3]
On leaving the Río Grande the members of the provisional government of the
Republic of the Río Grande appointed the Lake of Espantosa, on the Nueces
River[4] as
the seat of government for the new
1. Hobart Huson, "Refugio: A Comprehensive History of Refugio County from
Aboriginal Times to the End of World War II," vol. II, chap. 23, p. 13.
2. El Ancla (Matamoros), June 12, 1840.
3. José Antonio Navarro to [M. B. Lamar], Béxar, Jan. 29, 1840, in
Lamar Papers, III, 321; see also Joseph William Schmitz,
Texan Statecraft, 1836-1845, p. 104.
4. Espantosa [Haunted] Lake was nearly 100 miles below Camp Wood
(formerly
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