THE FIRST REPUBLIC OF TEXAS - 1813

Was Texas "taken" or "stolen" from Mexico? Many politically correct and revisionist historians want to present the claim that Texas originally derived from Mexico, when in terms of dates and declarations of independence, Texas is older than Mexico as a nation by nine years. The first Texas Constitution was adopted on 8/17/1813 -- while the Constitution of Mexico was adopted 10/4/1824.

Most Mexicans and Texans don't realize that Mexico's long fight for independence from Spain had its first series of victories in Texas in 1812 and 1813 with an army mostly comprised of American volunteers led by a Spanish-American revolutionary in Jose Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara and Boston born West Point graduate Augustus W. Magee. On 6 April 1813, less than a year after they invaded Spanish Texas from Louisiana, their Republican Army of the North having five days earlier captured the territory's capital at San Antonio, declared Texas its own Republic free from Spain. Let's not forget Gutierrez and his brave volunteer army who fought for freedom from tyranny and the rule of kings!

Don José Bernardo Maximiliano Gutiérrez de Lara was to the Mexican Revolution what Samuel Adams was to the American Revolution. Gutierrez was of Criollo (Creole) class, a Spaniard by blood, born in Spanish Mexico. Ironically, he was born in 1774 during the time in which his revolutionary idol (Samuel Adams) was soliciting for support in Massachusetts to raise a colonial army to fight for the American colonists freedom from British rule. While growing up on the banks of the Rio Grande in the frontier settlement of Revilla, Gutierrez heard the heroic tales of the American Revolutionaries. As he grew toward manhood he learned to speak and write in English and closely studied and followed the development of the young American government and her politics. Like other great Spanish-American revolutionary heroes (Hidalgo, Bolivar and San Martin) in Mexico, his obsession with America became an obsession with the idea of colonial independence from Spain. This would become his life's work.

At age 37, Gutierrez as a Lt. Colonel in Hidalgo's Army of the Americas traveled to Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia to enlist aid for his personal goals in the movement in Texas. Both on his exit and return trip through the Neutral Ground on the Texas-Louisiana border, he received sympathy and encouragement by numerous factions interested in Texas. In Natchitoches, Gutiérrez laid plans to invade Texas from the east. While there, he enjoined the aid of former US Army Lieutenant Augustus William Magee to carry out the mission in the field. 

From their headquarters in the Neutral Ground, Gutiérrez and Magee openly advertised and assembled recruits from Louisiana with impunity for the Republican Army of the North and adopted the emerald green flag, possibly because of Bostonite Magee’s Irish background. Volunteers were offered forty dollars a month and a league of to-be-captured land.

                             The Flag of the First Republic of Texas

From the Spanish provincial capital of Texas in San Antonio de Bexar, Texas governor Salcedo followed the developments through his intelligence network and intensively tried to enlist more aid from his superiors and comrades in arms south of the Rio Grande to prepare for invasion and limit distribution of rebel propaganda. Governor Manuel Salcedo was continuously treated arrogantly by his distal and protocol-oriented bureaucratic uncle and Commandant Nemesio Salcedo. Either the latter did not clearly understand the mounting difficulties on the Texas border, or found them of low strategic priority. Nacogdoches commander Captain Montero, supported by subdeacon Juan Zambrano of Bexar, maintained their forces on high alert appealing to Gov. Salcedo for reinforcements.

On 12 Aug 1812, the Republican Army of the North of about 150 men crossed the Sabine River and took Nacogdoches without resistance. Royalist Capt. Montero was unable to recruit a single civilian minuteman for the cause and as he retreated toward San Antonio, numerous members of his army and residents of East Texas joined the invaders. By late fall the Republican Army of the North controlled the area between the Sabine and Guadalupe Rivers.

Lt. Col. Gutiérrez announced his intentions and appealed for popular support in the capital San Antonio:

"Soldiers and citizens of San Antonio de Bexar: It is more than a year since I left my country, during which time I have labored indefatigably for our good. I have overcome many difficulties, have made friends and have obtained means to aid us in throwing off the insulting yoke of the insolent despotism. Rise en masse, soldiers and citizens; unite in the holy cause of our country! I am now marching to your succor with a respectable force of American volunteers who have left their homes and families to take up our cause, to fight for our liberty. They are the free descendants of the men who fought for the independence of the United States; and as brothers and inhabitants of the same continent they have drawn their swords with a hearty good will in the defense of the cause of humanity; and in order to drive the tyrannous Europeans beyond the Atlantic."

On 1 April 1813, after many months surviving siege from the royalist army at La Bahia, the Republican Army having moved along the San Antonio River toward San Antonio were engaged by Col. Herrera’s royalist forces at Salado Creek. Col. Herrera’s army was routed in the engagement known as the Battle of Rosilla (also called Battle of Salado) at the expense of 330 men killed and 60 captured. As the Republican Army moved toward San Antonio, Gov. Salcedo composed a twelve point plan of honorable surrender and delivered it to Col. Gutiérrez who was camped at Mission Concepcion. Five days later a new Republic was officially declared with Gutierrez as "President and Protector of Texas." On 3 August 1813, President Gutierrez left San Antonio for  council in Natchitoches, Louisiana.  His upstart republic would only survive for 15 more days. On 18 August, the Texas Republican Army was decimated by Spanish Royalist forces at the Battle of Medina in what was the bloodiest battle ever fought on Texas soil.

Their declaration of independence and subsequent constitution was delivered to the U.S. Secretary of State, James Monroe, who privately supported and recognized this new Republic. The copy of their 1813 Constitution delivered to Monroe as translated by William Shaler has been archived and preserved by the United States Government and remains in Washington, D.C.

     Jose Bernardo Gutierrez - The First President of Texas

For further reading on this topic in Texas history check out the following books: