The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989 Page: 545
682 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Was There a Mier Expedition Flag?
longed to the town of Mier, for it would have been sent off immediately
as a trophy of victory by the commander of the victorious Mexican
troops to the Department of War and Marine in Mexico City.
The personnel of the Texan expedition consisted largely of the offi-
cers and men of six companies of the Somervell expedition, along with
a sprinkling of men from other companies belonging to Brigadier Gen-
eral Alexander Somervell's Southwestern Army, which had attacked
the northern frontier of Mexico in retaliation for several Mexican ma-
rauding attacks upon the frontier of Texas, including those of General
Rafael Vasquez in March, 1842, and General Adrian Woll in Septem-
ber, 1842. Somervell's army captured both Laredo and Guerrero with-
out a fight with Mexican troops; but because of problems in command,
as well as the apprehension that Mexican troops were massing in
greatly superior numbers to attack him, Somervell ordered a return of
the army to the settled area of Texas by way of Gonzales. His return
march was set to commence on the morning of December i 9 from his
camp on the Texas side of the Rio Grande opposite Guerrero. At that
point, the captains of six companies sought from Somervell permission
to continue down the Rio Grande to obtain horses and badly needed
provisions, as well as to "rake down" the Mexican settlements below.
Somervell refused to grant the request and commenced his march for
home, taking the Lone Star flag of his expedition with him. A few men
from the six companies remaining behind upon the east bank of the
Rio Grande returned with Somervell, while some from the homeward-
bound companies transferred to the companies left behind.4
Those left upon the river convened as a body and elected Captain
William S. Fisher, commander of one of the companies, as colonel and
commanding officer of those who were set upon capturing and levying
contributions upon the Mexican towns along the river below Guerrero.
The expedition became known as the Mier expedition simply because
Mier, Mexico, was the first and only town that the Texans attacked; for
their audacity, they were forced to surrender on December 26, 1842, to
superior forces commanded by General Pedro de Ampudia, who had
rushed from Matamoros to the defense of the Mexican frontier.
The men of the Mier expedition had disobeyed the order to return
home, and they carried no Lone Star flag of Texas. Any flag or banner
that they might have had would have been that belonging to a company
or to some unit ("Navy") of the expedition and not the flag of the expe-
4For an account of the Somervell expedition to the Rio Grande in November-December,
1842, the split of the expedition opposite Guerrero, the return of Somervell, and the formation
of the Mier expedition, see Joseph Milton Nance, Attack and Counterattack- The Texas-Mexican
Frontier, I842 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964), 509-578.545
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989, periodical, 1989; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101212/m1/611/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.