The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 98, July 1994 - April, 1995 Page: 514
682 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
1779, only recently has their main purpose been discovered, which
makes them doubly significant. The first formally authorized drives out
of Texas went east, not north, and their purpose was to provide food for
the Spanish forces of Gen. Bernardo de Gilvez (after whom Galveston is
named), who fought and finally defeated the British all along the Gulf
Coast from Louisiana to Florida during the American Revolution."
A more unique and interesting sidelight to the history of the Ameri-
can Revolution could happen "No Place But Texas," where truth is often
stranger-and much more interesting-than fiction. Let me explain.
After the Battle of Saratoga, which school history books describe as
"the turning point of the American Revoluton," France, Spain, and Hol-
land joined the American colonists in their fight against Great Britain.
After Spain declared war against Great Britain on June 21, 1779, King
Carlos III commissioned Louisiana Governor Bernardo de Gilvez to
raise and lead Spanish forces in a campaign against the British along the
Gulf Coast. Accordingly, Gilvez proceeded to raise an army of fourteen
hundred men, which by 1781 had swelled to more than seven
thousand.'" Then as now, the military axiom that "an army travels on its
stomach" held true.
But Gilvez knew where the food supply was; better yet, he knew where
there was a veritable "travelling commissary" for his troops. Ten years
earlier, as a young lieutenant, Gilvez had been stationed in Chihuahua,
where he led Spanish troops in several campaigns against Apaches, once
going as far as the Pecos River near present Horsehead Crossing. While
in Chihuahua, which was the military headquarters for all northern New
Spain, Gilvez first learned of the existence of great herds of cattle that
roamed the numerous ranches between B6xar and La Bahia in the
province of Texas. In 1778, after a visit to Texas, frontier diplomat
Athanase de M6zibres reported to Governor Gilvez about the great
abundance of cattle on the Bexar-La Bahia ranches. At that time, howev-
er, Texas cattle were prohibited from export to the neighboring
provinces and were worth only three to four pesos a head, valued mainly
for their hides, tallow, or local consumption, which could not make a
dent in their great numbers, estimated to be in the tens or possibly hun-
dreds of thousands.13
1 Robert H. Thonhoff, El Fuerte del Cibolo. Sentinel oJ the Bixar-La Bahia Ranches (Austin: Eakin
Press, 1992), 70-71.
12 See John Walton Caughey, Bernardo de Gdlvez in Louisiana, 1776-1783 (1934, reprint, Gret-
na, La.: Pelican Publishing Co., 1972), 149-214; Beerman, Esparia y la Independencza de Estados
Unidos, 43-170.
"~ Thonhoff, El Fuerte del Cibolo, 73, Elizabeth A. H. John, Storms Brewed in Other Men's Worlds
The Confrontatzon of Indzans, Spanish, and French in the Southwest, 1540-1795 (College Station:
Texas A&M University Press, 1975), 506.April
514
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 98, July 1994 - April, 1995, periodical, 1995; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101216/m1/584/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.