General Rafael Benavides and the Texas-Mexico Border Crisis of 1877

The first page of the copy of the Benavides report sent by Gen. Juan Ogazón, secretary of war, to Ignacio L. Vallarta, secretary of foreign relations, File 11-19-20, “Benavides, Rafael, Gral.—Su comisión confidencial para vigilar e informar movimientos en la Frontera con los Estados Unidos de A.,” Archivo Histórico “Genaro Estrada” de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores de México. *jan 09 11/26/08 12:00 PM Page viii General Rafael Benavides and the Texas-Mexico Border Crisis of 1877 Michael M. Smith* S hortly after midnight on the warm, muggy morning of August 12, 1877, eight fully armed men silently approached Rio Grande City, Starr County, Texas, an isolated hamlet on the left bank of the Rio Grande, approximately one hundred miles upstream from Brownsville. All of the band were of Mexican descent, but of undetermined nationality. Some resided in Camargo, Tamaulipas, just across the river on the Mexican side, where, most likely, they had planned and launched the incursion. Under cover of darkness, sometime between one and two o’clock, the gang silently slipped into the center of town unnoticed by any of the still-slumbering residents of the overwhelmingly Mexican American community or the approximately three hundred United States soldiers stationed at the nearby Ringgold Barracks military post. When they reached the county jail, one of the intruders banged loudly on the gate and yelled to the two dozing guards inside that he had a prisoner in his custody and orders to turn him over for safekeeping. The instant one of the jailers unlocked the gate, the bogus lawman knocked the man to the ground, then shot and seriously wounded him. The other assailants pushed their way through the door, firing their weapons. They shot and killed the other guard and brutally pistol whipped and wounded an unidentified woman, probably the wife of one of the jailers. Roused by the disturbance, Starr County district attorney Noah Cox, who was sleeping in a room on the second floor of the building , rushed out to investigate. As soon as Cox emerged from his quar- * Michael M. Smith, a graduate of Texas Christian University, is professor of Mexican and Latin American History at Oklahoma State University. He has published books and articles on Spanish American colonial medicine, Mexican migration and community formation in the Great Plains region, and the Mexican Revolution. The author wishes to express his appreciation to the Oklahoma Humanities Council and to the Department of History and College of Arts and Sciences, Oklahoma State University, for their generous financial assistance and to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Professors Douglas W. Richmond and Joseph A. Stout, to Lic. Marta Ramos Luna, and, especially, to Mstra. María de los Angeles Navarrete Calatayud. Vol. CXII, no. 3 Southwestern Historical Quarterly January 2009 *jan 09 11/26/08 12:00 PM Page 235 ters, one of the assailants shot him with a revolver, seriously wounding the attorney and leaving him for dead.1 In the meantime, other members of the raiding party efficiently carried out the principal objective of the assault. They unlocked the cell doors and liberated the notorious Segundo Garza, a man who delighted in bragging that he had murdered twenty-seven Americans and who now faced trial for yet another killing when the district court convened in October. Although Anglo-Texans considered Garza to be one of the most dangerous thugs on the lower border, he enjoyed great popularity among many Mexicans and Mexican Americans. The attackers also freed Rodolfo Espronceda, a well-known former Mexican military officer serving a sentence for stealing horses. During the melee, all the other prisoners escaped and had already disappeared into the night. Once they had broken the shackles binding Garza’s ankles, the raiders, along with Garza and Espronceda, fled upriver on foot. Eluding the pursuit of a detachment of cavalry sent out from Ringgold Barracks, the ten-man party reached a place called Ranchería, about seven miles upstream from Rio Grande City, where they crossed safely to the Mexican side.2 The spectacular Rio Grande City raid was only the latest in a seemingly endless series of outrages that...