Howdy folks. Have not been on here in a long time, but I wanted to update you on my book project.

I'm turning my masters' thesis on the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition of 1812-13 into a book. It's looking good right now. I'm 120 pages through, probably 1/3 of the way. Goal is 300 pages, and I think the second draft will involve some tightening up. As you may or may not know, I'm currently in Afghanistan, deployed. Working on the book in my off hours. All my research is on my computer and backed up on an external hard drive. I have the entire Bexar Archives digitized, along with various other collections of letters, papers, etc. that I've built up over the past 3 years.

I think this book will shake up a lot of stuff. I'm basically re-writing the origins of the expedition. Most historians and even the Handbook of Texas have said that the Madison Administration was behind the expedition, although a key historian who disagrees is the editor of the James Madison papers. Anyway, I've put ever letter ever written about the expedition into a spreadsheet and can show based on timing of the letters that it's nonsense. Furthermore, I found that the expedition was being organized long before Gutirrez, Magee, or the American special agent even showed up on the frontier. I've found some interesting stuff on who was really behind it. It includes elements within Texas and also former Aaron Burr conspirators, who are basically doing in 1812 what they failed to do in 1806.

The thing that will really shake up Texas history as taught is all the connections I'm finding between the 1812 revolution and the 1836 one. Like people who were among Austin's "Old 300" who were in fact Texas settlers going back to BEFORE AUSTIN WAS BORN.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get draft 1 done while here, then take a month or so off and finish up draft 2 when I get back and get it to a friend who's a literary agent who can pitch to publishers. I've already turned one publisher down. Their time schedule was not feasible and the focus of the book was pre-determined, whereas I'm going where the facts lead me.

Can't wait to read! This is a really interesting but little known chapter in the history of our state.

Keep us updated on the book's progress.

Thanks. I will, of course point out that this is more than just the Battle of Medina. If you think that's it, you're missing the larger picture. It was one key event among several. The biggest thing that's missing is context. It's much wider and deeper than people realize, and that's what my book's going to be about. You can't simply put it into a narrow box called "Texas history" and presume that external factors are not playing into this.

Some context:
1805-6: Aaron Burr conspiracy to invade Spanish Texas. What is often misunderstood is how people in the western states had longed to invade Spanish territories. See the Blount conspiracy, O'Fallon expedition, etc. But before you assume that this is proto-manifest destiny, tap the brakes. Many of these expansionists wanted to do this at the EXPENSE of the United States, not to its benefit. These Westerners were as much sons of the Whiskey Rebellion as they were of the American Revolution.

1806: Francisco Miranda's expedition to Venezuela uses American filibusters (from the East, mostly New York including, of all people, future Texas Interim President David G. Burnet, who is 18 at the time). The expedition is a failure and many members are captured and executed. What this shows is that Americans, particularly the Republicans who are pro-French and anti-England, are ready to embrace Napoleon's crusade against monarchy, and filibusters were as much for ideological purposes as for taking land. (Although every one of these guys thought they were going to make money in some form or fashion along with glory and spreading liberty).

1808: Napoleon invades his Spanish ally and deposes King Ferdinand VII. He puts his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne. This paralyzes the Spanish empire, which is caught between three impulses: Loyalists to Ferdinand, adherents to the "legitimate" King Joseph Bonaparte, and pro-independence folks. Eventually, the first and last begin to merge, which blurs the line between pro-republicans and pro-independence. Some are declaring independence from a standpoint of loyalty to Ferdinand, if that makes sense. And in most Spanish territories, the impulse to revolt is more about "good governance" than republicanism. Think about it like our revolution. We were revolting against the bad effects of monarchism (stamp tax, quartering of troops, etc.) before we embraced republicanism. This is true of the Spanish world, although it would be hard for Americans to understand this as they volunteered to fight for the cause.
Sep. 1810: Father Hidalgo, with his Grito de Dolores, calls for a revolution in Mexico. Agents, including Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara, spread Hidalgo's message into Texas through agents, particularly infiltrators into the army.

Jan. 1811: The Casas Revolt - A revolt in San Antonio that occurred four months after the Grito. There was already a brewing pro-revolution sentiment in San Antonio (but as noted was not necessarily anti-monarchy). This broke out when the Spanish governor mustered the troops of Bexar to march them south to aid in putting down the revolution in Coahuila. The citizens of Bexar, afraid this would leave them exposed to be raided and possibly massacred by Comanches and Apaches, revolted initially to force the army to stay in town. Juan Bautista de las Casas arrested the governor and proclaimed fidelity to Hidalgo and the revolution.

Feb. 1811: The Texas governor and others sent south are freed by rebels who switched back to the loyalist side. They help plot (in fact, the Gov. of Texas is the lead on this) an ambush to betray and capture Hidalgo and other revolutionary leaders. Hidalgo will be tried and shot.

April, 1811: Zambrano counter-revolt. Casas is a poor administrator and dictatorial. He also didn't kill all the royalists, just let them fester and counterplot. Additionally, some of the people opposed to the governor removing the troops were not necessarily anti-monarchical. They just didn't want to be skinned alive by Apaches. Zambrano convinces both sides he's on their side and leads a coup against Casas. Then he shows his royalist colors, arrests some leading Republicans (puts them in a jail in the Alamo) and sends a group of soldiers to connect with royalists, who are rallying in the South. The Governor of Texas returns and reestablishes royal authority.

Meanwhile, the town of Nacogdoches has always been sort of rebellious, but for trade reasons. They're literally starving and the Spanish ban all trade with Natchitoches, La, 90 miles away (even when it was Spanish, they forbid trade), and forces them to trade through Saltillo and Veracruz). So smuggling is constant on the frontier, and makes many Spanish subjects feel closer to the Americans to the East than their brethren to the South. This is important because rather than just considering the expedition as an American "push" into Texas, there is a Tejano "pull" going on, which shows up most dramatically when virtually the entire Nacogdoches garrison throws down their weapons and welcomes the invaders while their commander and only 10 men flee.

The Republican Army is organized in the Neutral Ground between the United States and Mexico (between the Sabine and Arroyo Hondo in Louisiana). I won't go into all of the finding I've made on how it was set up, because that's part of what I have that's new, but think simply of those Burr-style westerners and Miranda-style idealists finding common ground with the people of Nacogdoches. Then arrives Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara, the guy who had been sending propaganda for the revolution into Texas (from the Southern side of the Rio Grande, where he is from). He's sent by the revolution to secure American aid. This is critical because Hidalgo built up an army of 100,000 but at one point only about 5,000 had firearms. The others were basically Indians with slings and arrows. The reason the revolution is failing is the lack of arms. But Mexico has lots of gold and silver. So they need to open up a pathway to connect the two, and with no Navy, Texas is their only option.
Gutierrez de Lara, after a visit to Washington, D.C., where he's told we love you man, but you need credentials before we can recognize your revolution, returns to the frontier, where he finds a filibuster already organizing. (I'm simplifying this, I assure you). He joins it and recruits an American officer, Augustus Magee to join him.

August, 1812: The invasion enters Texas and captures Nacogdoches easily (as noted). With them are several citizens of Texas, including Spaniards, Anglo-Americans (Spain allowed them into Texas very early on, and two of the men who join the expedition were residents of Texas before Stephen F. Austin was even born), and Frenchmen, most of whom had moved to Texas after the Louisiana Purchase, thinking that they were preserving their religion by moving to a Catholic country, but becoming disaffected with the impoverished situation and making common cause with the smugglers.

The army moves towards San Antonio, then finds that the Spanish are planning an ambush on the Camino Real where it crosses the Brazos (not far from College Station). They rebels slip to the south and flank the Royalists and take lightly-defended La Bahia (today's Goliad). The Royalists follow them and besiege them. This siege lasts for FOUR MONTHS. That's 8 times as long as the Alamo siege, if you're counting. There are a number of skirmishes, but the Spanish only have field guns and their numbers, while larger than those of the rebels, are not enough to storm the fort.

During the siege, Magee dies of disease and is replaced. The republicans at first feel trapped, but over time, they are winning. Remember how the people of Bexar were terrified of being deserted by the royalist troops over the Comanches and Apaches? Well, the Indians raid Bexar, and it's horrible. Many killed and lots of horses, etc. stolen. The supplies coming to the Royalists basically stop, and they're suffering. They try an attack to break the deadlock and the Republicans beat them back, with huge casualties. Finally the royalists break the siege and retreat to San Antonio. After waiting to rebuild their food supplies and let in reinforcements, the rebels (about 600 Americans and 200 Spanish/Mexicans, plus another 200 or so Indians), marches after the Royalists.

The Royal army makes a last stand at the Battle of Salado (also called Rosillo, to distinguish it from the 1842 battle of Salado). The rebels attack and crush the royalists, who flee in panic to San Antonio, where a couple of days later, the governor surrenders the city to the Rebels.

March, 1813: Gutierrez proclaims Texas independent and part of the new Mexican Republic. So far so good, but then he decides to execute the Spanish Governor, the Governor of Nuevo Leon (who is in Texas assisting the army) and a dozen other royalists. This starts to make the Americans disaffected, but they note that the people of San Antonio are happy about this (the governor had, after all, executed some of their family members), so they resign themselves to it.

June 1813: The Royalists return with an army, but their advanced guard under Elizondo is defeated with great loss by the American/Mexican force at the battle of Alazan Southwest of San Antonio and flees. The republicans return to San Antonio.

August, 1813: Gutierrez, like Casas, rules a bit dictatorially and when another Spanish leader, a Cuban named Toledo, arrives in Texas, a coalition of the Americans (still stewing over the execution of their prisoners and some Tejanos) oust Gutierrez in favor of Toledo. Within days of this change, news comes that the Spanish army under the very capable Gen. Arredondo (with Lt. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana along with him) is approaching. The Republicans march south hoping to repeat Alazan. At the Battle of Medina, Arredondo cleverly lures them into a trap and routs them. They flee, but he sends cavalry to hunt down as many as he can. Elizondo, who was defeated at Alazan, captures hundreds of refugees (including women and children) at the flood-swollen Trinity River. After promising to treat them fairly, he massacres dozens of them and brings the rest of them back to San Antonio as prisoners, where they will all be massacred by Arredondo. (This is reserved for the Tejanos, because after the first few Americans were slaughtered, Arredondo lets others go to avoid giving America cause to intervene).

Elizondo's brutality is so bad that one of his own soldiers, shocked by the carnage, stabs him and kills him.
Over the next several months, Arredondo unleashes a reign of terror. This is well-documented in Bradley Folsom's new book "Arredondo: Last Spanish Ruler of Texas." He basically kills anyone with even a close tie to the rebels, even people who were neutral. From 1813-1814, one quarter of the population of Texas is killed or driven into exile. He draws and quarters hundreds of people in downtown San Antonio.
This has huge consequences, because Texas, never economically successful, goes into a nosedive. Arredondo, eventually realizing what he's done, tries to rebuild by bringing in settlers, and as part of that process, approves an empresario contract with Moses Austin in 1820.

So, as you can see, it's a much bigger and broader story than simply one battle.

Damn man, really looking forward to this!

Update August 3:

I'm now 23 chapters and about 230 pages in. Some really good stuff I'm finding, both really important historical bits that rewrite the history, but also fascinating human stories that have been overlooked. If you're a Tejano looking for Tejano heroes, I've got them for you. If you want some badasses, I've got them for you. If you want cool threats "I'm going to cut out your gut and turn it into a drum", I've got that for you. If you want awesome Texas women not taking any ****, I've got them for you.

I also recently discovered that the rebels who were killed in San Antonio were left to rot in the town square for 6 months, something I discovered in an obscure letter in the San Fernando church cemetery archives.

I even have a mulatto assassin from the Canary Islands who was formerly supposed to kill Napoleon Bonaparte, who is hired by the Spanish Ambassador to kill a Texas Revolutionary commander in Philadelphia.