Battle of Concepcion
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| Battle of Concepcion | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Texas Revolution | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Republic of Texas | Mexico | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| General Stephen F. Austin | General Cós | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ??? | 300 Dragoons 100 infantry 2 cannon |
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| Casualties | |||||||
| 1 dead | About 76 dead or wounded | ||||||
| Texas Revolution |
|---|
| Gonzales – Concepción – Grass Fight – Bexar – San Patricio – Agua Dulce – The Alamo – Refugio – Coleto – San Jacinto |
The Battle of Concepción was a 19th Century Battle between the Republic of Mexico and the rebellious Mexican state of Texas on October 28, 1835, during the Texas Revolution.
Contents |
[edit] Background
The Texan revolt had started in a haphazard and disorganized manner, but it was successful enough that most of what was left of the Mexican army in Texas sat in San Antonio cut off from communications and supplies. The poorly trained and dispirited force there under General Martin Perfecto de Cós was mostly made up of convicts. The revolt in Zacatecas a few months before had diverted most of Mexico’s resources, so the 647 men in San Antonio were ill-equipped to fight 30,000 Texian settlers and their Tejano allies.
On October 11, 1835, volunteers gathered around Gonzales, and elected Stephen F. Austin as their commanding general. The next day, the newly christened Army of Texas, wearing a spectrum of clothing from civilian to military, marched off to San Antonio. Captain Ben Milam met them on the way there with additional forces. On October 15, a scouting party encountered ten dragoons, exchanged fire with them, and chased them to San Antonio. The main force reached the outskirts of San Antonio on October 19.
General Austin decided that the only way to take the town was by siege. He organized a search party headed by Jim Bowie and James Fannin to find a suitable base of operations. Another addition to this group was a well-known scout named Erastus Smith, also known as "Deaf Smith" because he was hearing-impaired. Smith had planned to stay out of the revolt, but as he and his son-in-law, a black freedman named Hendrik Arnold, returned to San Antonio to see their family, a Mexican sentry disallowed them entrance and struck Smith on the head with a sheathed saber. From Smith, Austin learned that the morale of Cós’ soldiers was already very low.
Bowie’s old friend Juan Seguín arrived with news that the citizens of San Antonio supported the Texans. Austin made him a captain and ordered him to raise a company of mounted troops. He gave the same order to Lieutenant William B. Travis. Meanwhile, Bowie’s ninety-man search party found that the Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuna, or Mission Concepcion, appeared a suitable base of operations. It took them all day to decide this so they set up camp 500 yards from the mission. Bowie's delay infuriated Austin, who had ordered him to return before dark; now Austin's forces were divided. General Cós learned of the separation and led 300 dragoons, 100 infantry, and two cannons to attack Bowie’s forces.
[edit] Battle
On October 28, 1835, General Cós approached the Texians under a dense fog. There was a brief skirmish in the fog, but the main battle did not start until it lifted. The gunpowder Cós’ men were using was of such poor quality that their musket balls often fell short of their target and, in some cases, only caused bruises if they did hit. They also used brown besses which shot at a range of 75 yards while the Texans' gun could fire at 200 yards. The Mexicans fired grapeshot from their cannons at the Texans, who were well hidden in a ravine below the trees and brush, but it was also ineffective. The Texans were careful and deliberate in their fire and managed to take out the cannons with sniper fire.
The Mexicans, who were trained in formal European battlefield tactics and equipped with British "Brown Bess" muskets, were methodically thinned out as the Texans, many of whom were equipped with rifles, employed snipe-and-hide tactics. This type of warfare caused Cós’ forces to fall back. The Texans charged the unattended Mexican cannons, turned them around, and fired on the Mexicans. Cós and the remainder of his army fled.
The Mexicans had lost about 76 men, killed or wounded, while the Texans had lost only one man, Richard Andrews. Austin and the rest of the army arrived at the end of the battle. Travis and his mounted company gave chase to the fleeing Mexican soldiers as they headed back to San Antonio.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Winders, Richard B., Sacrificed at the Alamo; Tragedy and Triumph in the Texas Revolution, State House Press; ISBN 1-880510-80-4
- Hopewell, Clifford, James Bowie: Texas Fighting Man, Eakin Press; ISBN 0-89015-881-9
- Davis, William C., Lone Star Rising: The Revolutionary Birth of the Texas Republic, Free Press; ISBN 0-684-86510-6
- Hardin, Stephen L., Texian Iliad-A Military History of the Texas Revolution, University of Texas Press; ISBN 0-292-73086-1
