Go to Page | Index | Contents 347     | Biblio. | Page- | Page+

Federalist Wars: Final Phase

In the meantime, Arista issued a proclamation at Victoria on October 13 in which he referred to the Texans as "Pirates," led by that Mexican traitor and criminal Canales.

These naked bandits, full of misery and crime, [he declared, come from Texas] to rob the most industrious towns of N[uevo] León and Tamaulipas. . . . There is nothing to equal the immorality of those highwaymen; with their rifles in hand they insult our countrymen, saying they wish to discharge it into a Mexican Comanche Indian, as they call us. They have violated our women in front of their husbands. They kill whom they please and upon the body of their opponent falling to the ground, raise their pistol and say firmly: "good gun, it never fails!"

Fortunately, concluded Arista, most of the people of the northern towns do not adhere to them.[96]

Returning to Jordan and his Federalist cohorts, we find that after a few days at Jaumave, a council of war was held in which it was determined to proceed to Saltillo as planned and to avail themselves of the resources needed, for Jordan's men were nearly naked. The Mexican conspirators also held out the hope of uniting with Canales there, although Molano and López both knew that he was in retreat toward the Río Grande.[97]  After they had gone seven or eight miles, the Anglo-Americans discovered that the Mexican Federalists were taking them on the road to San Luis Potosí. The Texans now became suspicious of Molano's and López's integrity, especially when they realized that in the small towns and ranchos through which they had passed since leaving Victoria, Molano had repeatedly refused to accept volunteers who wished to join his small army. Captain Newcomb halted his men, and speaking the sentiment of most of the Texans declared that he would go no farther in that direction. Upon Jordan's inquiry as to what he proposed to do, he replied he intended to return to Texas if the march toward San Luis Potosí was continued. Many of the Mexican soldiers likewise remonstrated against going to San Luis, claiming that there were too many government troops there. Molano,



96. [Mariano Arista] El general en gefe del cuerpo de Egército del Norte á los habitantes de los departamentos de Tamaulipas, Nuevo León y Coahuila, Cuartel General en Victoria de Tamaulipas a 13 de Octubre de 1840, broadside. See also, Pedro de Ampudia, Cuerpo de ejército del Norte. la Division, 2a Brigada. Orden del dia 3 de Octubre de 1840, in El Ancla, Oct. 5, 1840.

97. S. W. Jordan to Gen. Lic. Canales, Laredo, Nov. 2, 1840, in John S. Ford, "Memoirs," II, 238-241, ms.

Go to Page | Index | Contents 347     | Biblio. | Page- | Page+

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