San Antonio de Bexar: A Guide and History Page: 28
vi, 166 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 27 cm.View a full description of this book.
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SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
The first permanent Barracks, in the city, were built on the north side of the
Military Plaza, in 1773, by Baron de Ripperda, and shortly after the seculariza-
tion of the Alamo, a company of volunteers from San Carlos de Parras was
quartered in the building.
After a period of nearly forty years of peace, the Mexican revolutions and
Texas counter-revolutions plunged the province into a series of military con-
vulsions between Republicans, Royalists, later Dictatorships and Texan patriots,
which culminated in the Fall .of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, a set-
tlement of the question only disturbed by two subsequent raids from across the
Rio Grande.
During all these disturbances, the color of the Military Post of San Antonio
varied with the fortunes of war, and the soldiers billets were the desecrated
Missions and the homes of afflicted citizens. These expeditions are treated at
length in other portions of the work, and their termination brings us to the period
of annexation in 1845-46, the occupation of Corpus Christi by Zachary Taylor
and his advance into Mexico.
These events led to action, on the part of the United States authorities, with
a view to establishing a permanent military post in San Antonio. Col. Harney
was on the ground as early as 1845; and in 1846 the City Council (Bryan
Callaghan, the elder, being Mayor; C. F. King, pro temp.) offered the Govern-
ment one hundred acres at San Pedro Springs for the purpose in question. The
location at the Springs was not accepted, and for obvious reasons, the ground
being comparatively low and easily commanded ; so on March 2d, 1846, the
Council appointed a committee to reconsider, and on January 2d, 1847, the
records say that the " grant " was " rescinded." In the meantime soldiers re-
mained in the city and, after a temporary sojourn in the Military Plaza, the Alamo
was occupied as a Quartermaster's Depot by Major Babbitt, this branch of the
service continuing there until 1878, with the exceptions of the period covered by
the Civil War and a subsequent removal of the troops to Austin, as noted
elsewhere.
The United States held possession of this property pending a suit between
Bishop Odin and the city, to try title, and demurred to a demand of the latter for
rent. The suit was won by the Bishop.
In 1849 the Council again proposed a site for barracks on Military Plaza,
this offkr was rejected on the score of insufficient room, and besides, the grant
was to be hampered with conditions, an element in titles which the United States
never entertains. At this time, General Worth, commanding, lived at the James
homestead on Commerce street, where he died May 7th, 1849, of cholera. He
was buried near the Head of the River, his body afterwards being taken to New
York. He established a camp at the Concepcion Mission and another at the
Head of the River whose Springs are officially known as the Worth Springs.
The Headquarters were then established on the North side of Main Plaza. After
the war the Arsenal was removed from a building near the Veramendi House,
corner Houston and Soledad street, to its present home on South Flores street,
which had been preparing for it since 1859.28
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Corner, William. San Antonio de Bexar: A Guide and History, book, 1890; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143549/m1/66/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.