The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 461

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461

and a regiment from the adjoining provinces, commanded by Gen.
Herrero.93 The enemy were posted on the upper road, and the Ameri-
cans were marching on the lower or Mission road. Being without
breakfast, they intended taking up their quarters for the night at the
Mission,"' where they expected to find something to eat. The first in-
timation they had of the enemy was the discharge of their cannon
on the American's right wing-their advance having passed without
observing them. The Americans marched on and formed in line
parallel with the enemy's position, and laid flat on the ground at a
distance of eighty or one hundred rods from them.95 Bernardo, de-
tailing half of the Mexicans as a body "guard," taking post in the
rear. They advanced in slow march-scattering their cannon balls
around the Americans, tearing up the earth in their immediate
vicinity, without hitting a single man. They were permitted to
approach within less than one hundred yards, when the signal was
given by one tap on the drum, for a charge,96 and the Americans
rose to their feet and rushed to the very muzzle of their guns and
discharged a volley of ball and shot into their ranks."7 The Indians
charging their left wing on horseback at the same time, and the
mounted Mexicans, about one hundred in number, taking courage
8'Simon de Herrera was lieutenant-colonel and governor of Nuevo Leon. He had
been ordered to San Antonio in 18o6 by Don Nemesio Salcedo y Salcedo, com-
mandant-general of the Interior Provinces (not to be confused with Manuel Maria de
Salcedo, governor of Texas), and made commandant of the Louisiana frontier. In
18o6, he made the Neutral Ground agreement with General James Wilkinson,
United States Army. He was a firm loyalist and, in 1811, was imprisoned during
the abortive Las Casas revolt in San Antonio. He was sent, along with Governor
Salcedo, for detention to the home of Ignacio Elisondo. The prisoners persuaded
Elisondo to return to his loyalty to the crown. In July, 1811, Herrera was sent
back to San Antonio as ad interim governor, until relieved by Salcedo in Decem-
ber. Gutierrez and Hall set the date of this battle as March 29, 1813. Castafieda,
Catholic Heritage, V, 262-273; Gutierrez de Lara to the Mexican Congress, August
1, 1815, in Gulick and others, Lamar Papers, I, 13; Hall. The Mexican War of
Independence in Texas, 1812-13, ibid., IV, Pt. 1, 281; Haggard, "The Neutral Ground
Between Louisiana and Texas, 1806-1821," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXVIII,
1oo0-11i8.
89Probably Mission San Francisco de la Espada, located on the west bank of the
San Antonio River about seven miles below San Antonio. Castafieda, Catholic
Heritage, III, 114.
"8440 to 550 yards.
"ORoss gives the Spanish strength as 850 men, well armed with six pieces of
cannon. Firing commenced about noon and Colonel Kemper and Ross decided to
attack the Spanish artillery. A select corps of riflemen under Lockett was detailed
to shoot down the Spanish artillerymen. Ross said, "I was to make the charge
supported by Col. Kemper on the right. The signal to be a tap on the drum which
was not given. The colonel waited on me, I on the signal." Ross to Shaler (?),
Shaler Papers; William Kennedy, Texas (Fort Worth, 1925), 269.
"7Evidently a continuation of the practice used in the American Revolution of
loading two buck shot with each musket ball to increase the probability of a hit.

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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963, periodical, 1963; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101196/m1/497/ocr/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.

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