Dawson Massacre
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The Dawson Massacre was an event in the history of the Republic of Texas, in which thirty-six Texans were killed by 400-500 Mexican soldiers with cannon at the Battle of Salado Creek outside San Antonio, Texas on September 18, 1842.
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[edit] Background
On April 21, 1836, the independence of the Republic of Texas was secured by a decisive victory over the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its southern border but only had the military power to control land north of the Nueces River. Although Antonio López de Santa Anna, the ruler of Mexico, signed the Treaties of Velasco cedeing Texas territory from Mexican control, his forces continued to invade the area of Texas between the Rio Grande and Nueces River hoping to regain control.
On September 11, 1842, a Mexican force of almost 1,000 entered San Antonio and took control of the city, with minimal resistance from the Texans. When the news of the fall of San Antonio reached Gonzales, Mathew Caldwell formed a militia of 225 men and marched toward San Antonio. Caldwell's troops made camp about twenty miles east of San Antonio near Salado Creek and planned their attack on the Mexicans.
[edit] The Massacre
On September 18, Caldwell sent a small band of rangers to draw the Mexicans toward the battlefield he had chosen. An estimated 850 Mexican soldiers moved out of San Antonio to attack the Texans.
A separate company of fifty-four Texans, mostly from Fayette County, under the command of Nicholas Mosby Dawson, arrived at the battlefield and began advancing on the rear of the Mexican Army. The Mexican commander, General Adrian Woll, afraid of being surrounded, sent 400 to 500 of his soldiers and one or two cannon to attack the group. The Texans were able to hold their own against the Mexican rifles, but once the cannon got range the Texan fatalities mounted quickly.
Dawson realized the situation was hopeless and raised a white flag of surrender. In the fog of war, both sides continued to fire and Dawson was killed. The battle was over after a little more than one hour. It ended with thirty-six Texans dead, fifteen captured and three escaped. At the front, Caldwell's men had repelled several Mexican charges and inflicted heavy casualties. Woll was forced to retreat back to San Antonio.
The next morning Caldwell's troops located the Dawson Battleground and buried the dead Texans in shallow graves. The dead Mexicans were not buried. Caldwell then unsuccessfully pursued Woll's forces south as they retreated from San Antonio. Caldwell returned to San Antonio, after the Mexicans successfully recrossed the Rio Grande.
[edit] Legacy
In late summer of 1848, a group of La Grange citizens retrieved the remains of the men killed in the Dawson Massacre from their burial site near Salado Creek. These remains and the remains of the men killed in the failed Mier Expedition were reinterred in a common tomb in a cement vault on a bluff one mile south of La Grange. The grave site is now part of the Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites.
[edit] References
- Abolafia-Rosenzweig, Mark. The Dawson and Mier Expeditions and Their Place in Texas History. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. 2nd printing April 1991.
- Interpretive Guide to: Monument Hill/Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
- "Dawson Massacre". The Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved Sep. 24, 2006.
