Tag Archives: Texas History

Today in Texas History – October 2

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From the Annals of the Revolution – In 1835, fighting broke out at Gonzales between Mexican soldiers and Texian militiamen.  Gen. Domingo de Ugartechea learned that the colonists of Gonzales refused to surrender a small cannon that had been given that settlement in 1831 as a defense against the Indians, he dispatched Francisco de Castañeda and 100 dragoons to retrieve it on September 27. Though Castañeda attempted to avoid conflict, on the morning of October 2 his force clashed with local Texan militia led by John Henry Moore in the first battle of the Texas Revolution. The colonists motto of “Come and Take It” became a rallying cry.  The actual skirmish for the cannon was brief  and ended with the retreat of Castañeda and his force, but it also marked a clear break between the American colonists and the Mexican government.

Today in Texas History – October 1

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From the Annals of the Early Republic – In 1837, John P. Borden opened the General Land Office in Houston.  Borden was a veteran of the Texas Revolution and was appointed by Sam Houston to be the first commissioner of the new land office. His most daunting task was to catalogue and preserve the many Spanish and Mexican land titles issued before the republic. Borden worked alone as he had no funding or employees to assist him.  Within months, Borden had  successfully acquired documents from all over Texas. He also registered and surveyed new grants. When the General Land Office moved to Austin in 1839, Borden transported almost 5,000 pounds of documents by wagon.

Image from the General Land Office.

Today in Texas History – September 29

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From the Annals of Bravery – In 1864, Sgt. Milton Holland earned the Medal of Honor for action at Chaffin’s Farm and New Market Heights, Virginia.  Holland was born into slavery probably Austin in 1844.  He was the slave and perhaps son of Bird Holland who would later become Texas Secretary of State.  He was freed by Holland in the 1850’s and sent to the Albany Enterprise Academy in Ohio.  He enlisted in the United States Army in 1863 at the age of 19.  He joined the Fifth United States Colored Troops under the command of Gen. Benjamin Butler.   He quickly rose to the rank of regimental sergeant major.  During the engagements at Chaffin’s Farm and New Market Heights all of the white officers were killed or wounded.  Holland assumed command and led his regiment in action as it routed the Confederates.  He was wounded in the battle and for his actions received the Medal of Honor on April 6, 1865.  His commendation contained the following quote regarding his action after the regiment suffered heavy losses in the battle:

 “But, with a courage that knew no bounds, the men stood like granite figures. They routed the enemy and captured the breastworks. The courage displayed by young Holland’s regiment on this occasion called for the highest praise from Gen. Grant, who personally rode over the battlefield in company with Generals Butler and Draper.”

Butler promoted Holland to Captain for his service, but the War Department refused the commission because of his race.  After mustering out of the army on September 20, 1865, Holland lived in Washington, D.C., where he worked in the Auditor Office of the United States government.  He later became chief of collections for the Sixth District. He also established the Alpha Insurance Company, one of the first African-American-owned insurance companies. He died in 1910, at his farm near Silver Springs, Maryland, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Photo from the National Park Service.

Today in Texas History – September 28

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From the Annals of the Border – In 1859, Mexican rancher, politician, military commander and at times outlaw Juan Cortina rode into Brownsville with a band of 80 men and seized control of the town. Cortina had a long running feud with the Anglos in south Texas who were attempting to oust him from his family’s extensive holdings on the north side of the Rio Grande in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War.  For his efforts, Cortina was  viewed as a champion of Mexicans living along the border in the years after the War.  The first “Cortina War” arose from an incident on July 13, 1859, when Cortina saw the Brownsville city marshall, Robert Shears, arrest and brutally beat a Mexican who had once been employed by Cortina. Cortina shot the marshall in the shoulder and  rode out of town with the prisoner. Early on the morning of September 28, 1859, he rode into Brownsville again, and seized control of the town. Five men, including the city jailer, were shot during the raid.  Cortina’s hold on Brownsville was short-lived as residents of Matamoros convinced him to return to Mexico which he did on September 30.

Today in Texas History – September 24

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From the Annals of Assassination – In 1964, the Warren Commission, headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, delivered its report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which had occurred on November 22, 1963, in Dallas. The task was made difficult by the sheer incompetence of the Dallas Police Department.  The DPD had failed to protect, the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was in turn murdered by Jack Ruby, before any real investigation could be started.  The resulting turmoil and speculation, led LBJ to form the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy to investigate Kennedy’s death – which became known as the Warren Commission.  The WC concluded that Oswald had acted alone and that the Secret Service had failed to adequately protect the President.

The WC’s findings which were riddled with inconsistencies did little to stop the numerous conspiracy theories as to who was actually responsible.  The WC’s conclusion that Oswald was a “lone gunman” was disputed by many who witnessed the attack and others whose research found conflicting details in the commission’s report. To many, the assassination of JFK remains the great unsolved mystery of our time.  For his part, Red is particularly fond of the Joe DiMaggio theory.

Today in Texas History – September 23

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From the Annals of Panic –  In 2005, Houston and the surrounding area was gripped in the midst of the worst traffic jam in the City’s history.  All freeways heading out of the City were turned into massive parking lots as residents fled from the oncoming Hurricane Rita.  The storm coming quick on the heels of devastating Hurricane Katrina threw officials and residents into panic mode resulting in the largest peacetime evacuation in U.S. history.  And it was mostly for naught – in Houston at least – as the storm veered eastward and came ashore south of Beaumont.  Sadly, the mishandled flight from the City killed almost as many people as Rita did. More than 100 evacuees died in the exodus. Drivers waited in traffic for 20-plus hours, and heat stroke impaired or killed dozens while 24 senior citizens were killed in a bus fire.  The evacuation exposed horrific flaws in the system and was largely mismanaged by the local governments as there was no effective plan to handle the amount of traffic generated by the call to evacuate.

Today in Texas History – September 22

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Josephine <i>Lucchese</i> Caruso

From the Annals of the Sopranos –  In 1920, soprano Josephine Lucchese Caruso of San Antonio made her operatic debut with the San Carlo Grand Opera as Olympia in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman at the Manhattan Grand Opera House.  Lucchese was born in San Antonio in 1893 and was the daughter of legendary bootmaker Sam Lucchese.  She trained entirely in the United States and primarily in San Antonio.  Lucchese toured in the United States and Europe for two decades giving both opera and concert performances and singing opposite such leading tenors as Tito Schipa and Giovanni Martinelli. Known in Europe as the “American Nightingale,” Lucchese was an operatic success at a time when it was considered impossible to achieve an international reputation without having first studied in Italy.

Today in Texas History – September 21

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From the Annals of Country Music – In 1968, singer Jeannie C. Riley because the first female recording artist to top both the Billboard Country and Pop charts with her monster hit Harper Valley P.T.A.   With her career-defining hit song, the 23-year-old Riley accomplished a crossover feat that no other woman would match for another 13 years until Dolly Parton scored with 9 to 5.  Riley had come to Nashville from her native Anson to pursue a singing career, but while working a day job as a receptionist she was noticed by the country-music producer Shelby Singleton.  Singleton thought her voice would be perfect for the protagonist in Tom T. Hall’s song about a small-town widow’s fight for her right to wear her skirts short and her heels high.  Singleton was right and Riley’s first single lit up the Pop and Country charts in mid-summer 1968.

Riley was not a one-hit wonder – at least on the Country charts.  She recorded 5 more top 10 singles but never again hit the top 40 on the Pop charts. Riley herself grew increasingly uncomfortable with her signature hit as she became a born again Christian espousing right wing rhetoric and in fact representing the hated values of the Harper Valley P.T.A.  Riley “socked it to” her fans by refusing to perform her biggest hit.

Today in Texas History

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From the Annals of the Republic –  In 1848, Sam Houston dedicated the Monument Hill cemetery just south of La Grange on a bluff overlooking the Colorado River. Those to be buried there had died in the Dawson Massacre and other conflicts between the Republic of Texas and Mexico in the years after independence.  On September 18, 1842, Capt. Nicholas Dawson and his fifty-eight volunteers fought a losing battle against 500 irregular Mexican cavalrymen and their two cannons. The Texans were slaughtered. A few escaped, and fifteen were carted off to Perote Prison.  Nine survivors from the brutal imprisonment were eventually released. The dead were later transferred to Monument Hill.

Photo from Texas Parks & Wildlife.

Today in Texas History – September 17

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From the Annals of the Civil War – In 1862, the Battle of Antietam was fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland.  The day was the bloodiest day in American military history with over 23,000 casualties on both sides.  The battle of Antietam was particularly hard on Texans fighting for the Confederacy. Over a thousand miles from their homes, the Confederate soldiers of Hood’s Texas Brigade would suffer the second-highest casualty rate of any unit during the Civil War. On the morning of September 17, the men of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Texas Infantry regiments were attempting to cook breakfast as the fighting opened. The meal was interrupted when the Federal army launched an assault on the Confederate left flank. Hood’s Brigade quickly formed and marched north, passing wounded and terrified Rebels streaming to the rear.  They entered the fighting in the vicinity of the Dunker Church where they were ordered forward in a counterattack. The Texans attacked the Union soldiers in a cornfield with initial success. But the attack was repulsed by intense artillery and musket fire.  The Texans attempted to continue their advance, but after suffering massive casualties Hood was forced to withdraw.  Over 550 of the brigade’s 850 soldiers had been killed, wounded, or captured. The First Texas Infantry suffered a casualty rate of 82% and lost their colors as well.

The technical victory for the Union at Antietam allowed President Lincoln to finally issue the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all slaves in Texas and the other Confederate states.

Photo of Antietam Cornfield from the National Park Service.