The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989 Page: 546
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
dition. Had there been one, the flag of the expedition would have been
carried by a member of the expedition's "command," at the head of the
column as the main army advanced along the east bank of the Rio
Grande. At the time of the battle of Mier, December 25-26, 1842, the
Texans had but one flag, and it "belonged to the La Grange Company
and bore the inscription 'REVENGE OR DEATH!'"'
General Ampudia's rage knew no bounds when the troops he had
sent across the Rio Grande to bring in the Texan camp guard returned
without effecting the capture of the men comprising it. According to
James D. McCutchan, a member of the Texan expedition: "He accused
Fisher of breaking the treaty [i.e., the terms of surrender], alledging
[sic] that he had surrendered his whole force; to which Fisher replied
that he had surrendered those that could be taken by the Mexican
troops. He ultimately became reconciled, and turned his attention to
trophies of victory." McCutchan's account continues:
He demanded a stand of collors [szc], and was told that there was none. The
Texians had but one flag at the time of the Battle; this belonged to the La
Grange Company and bore the inscription "REVENGE OR DEATH!" When
its bearer [James J. Blanton, second sergeant of the company] found that a sur-
render was evident, he cut the flag into "mince pieces," and disposed of the
fragments in some secure way, no one knew how. Finally, Ampudia was told
that the flag had been cut-up; whereupon, it is said, he offered one hundred
Dollars for the pieces, but they were not produced.'
5Joseph Milton Nance (ed.), Mier Expedition Diary: A Texan Prisoner's Account by Joseph D. Mc-
Cutchan (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), 62 (2nd quotation); see also, "Thomas Jeffer-
son Green and the Texas Flotilla," Military History of Texas and the Southwest, XIII, no. 4 (1976), 5
(Ist quotation). The La Grange Company was organized at La Grange and was commanded by
Captain William Eastland. John H. Jenkins of Bastrop says in his memoirs that when Eastland's
company organized at La Grange, it "received from the ladies the flag of the Lone Star ... At
Mier it was riddled with bullets, and when the Texans found they could no longer save it they
burned it, preferring anything to seeing it fall into alien hands." See John H. Jenkins (ed.),
Recollections of Early Texas: The Memoirs of John Holland Jenkins (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1958), 132. None of the Mier diaries, nor any of the numerous extant letters written by
Mier men, mention any Texas Lone Star flag being flown in Mier during the battle or the burn-
ing of any flag whatsoever. It would also seem that any "Lone Star" flag that accompanied the
Somervell expedition would have been under the command and control of the expedition's
commander and would not have been used as a "company flag." History is full of accounts of
community members presenting to a company about to march off to war some sort of flag with
symbols sewn on it. There is documentary proof that the flag of the La Grange Company bore
the letters "REVENGE OR DEATH." It is not likely that the women of La Grange would have felt
called upon to make an official flag of the Republic of Texas, knowing that the expedition that
the company was preparing to join would have such a flag. The flag that they presented to the
local company bore more of a personal feeling toward the marauders who had preyed upon
the Texans and toward the Mexican troops who had slaughtered Captain Nicholas M. Dawson's
men, largely from the La Grange area, on the battlefield near Salado Creek. No description of
the colors of the flag or of the arrangement of the words "REVENGE" and "DEATH" has been
found.
6Nance (ed.), Mier Expedition Diary, 62.546
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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/m1/612/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.