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I hope General Grant will not recognize the traitor and bandit Cortina . . . I have him where I want him, between two fires. José Mar ía de Je sús Carvajal O n April 1, 1865, at San Fernando on the coastal plain, some eighty- five miles south of Matamoros, Cortina reasserted his loyalty to Juárez and the Mexican republic. Consistently plotting to deliver Matamoros to the Liberals, his heart had never been with the Empire. Besides, he had never been given the money Mejía had promised when he originally gave up Matamoros. Cortina’s decision to cast his fate with the Liberals proved to be a serious blow to the Imperial cause and a decisive factor in turning the tide against the Empire in Tamaulipas. Telling Minister of War Miguel Negrete that he was “determined to resume”his “natural character,”Cortina was eager to be back in the Liberal cause. Only days after pronouncing against the Empire,Cortina cut the telegraph from Bagdad to Matamoros and took four hundred cavalry and a company of infantry and advanced on Matamoros in hopes of securing the artillery he had previously secreted in the city. Finding no guards on the outskirts of the city and only a few soldiers patrolling Plaza Hidalgo, he raced into the city with forty of his best men late on the evening of April 11. In a running gun battle on the plaza, Cortina killed an Imperialist colonel and several of his men while losing only one of his sergeants. “I held the streets for more than two hours,”he bragged. After securing his artillery, stealing some horses, and persuading several citizens to join him, Cortina courageously galloped out of town. He retreated to Santa Rosalía, six miles upriver from Matamoros, then moved his brigade to China. There, he was able to pay his men for the first time in months. He also sent José María to Juárez with a full report of his actions, hoping again to ingratiate himself with the president. Chapter Six TigerintheChaparral Tiger in the Chaparral 149 Although never fully trusting Cortina, the struggling Republican government was relieved to have him back in their ranks. Juárez “is pleased with General Cortina’s protests of patriotism,” Foreign Minister Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada reported from Chihuahua. Despite his renewed loyalty, Cortina remained politically and militarily autonomous, frequently refusing to follow orders from his Liberal superiors. Yet he remained on the offensive and attacked Matamoros on May 1, only to be bloodily repulsed. More than anyone else, Cortina could sniff the changing tide in Tamaulipas . Retaining control of several hundred loyal soldiers, he sent his older brother José María to Camargo. Although forces of the Empire frequently held Camargo, Cortina had always been popular in the town. He was also hoping men from Reynosa, Mier, and Guerrero would rally to his cause. After all, they had done so in the past. As José María rode upriver, he carried a manifesto from Cortina asking all the villages and towns along the Rio Grande help him in expelling the invaders. Continued French intervention would result in the “death of our nationality and the extermination of the [Mexican] family,” Cortina warned. He promised to fight to the death the Empire and all the Mexican traitors who supported it. Tamaulipas must be pacified at all costs. With fifty soldiers, José María seized the customs house at Camargo and $30,000 in revenues. Here on the banks of the San Juan River, only a stone’s throw from the Cortina family home near the plaza, Liberal forces began to gather. The same afternoon José María rode into town, Francisco de León arrived with 408 well-equipped cavalry.That night, Juan Cortina, a cousin of Gen. Juan Cortina, arrived from upriver with another 150 men. Within three weeks, Cortina had more than doubled the size of his army. From distant Chihuahua, the president seemed pleased that he was making progress against the Imperialistas on the lower Rio Grande. Realizing his success in Mexico was closely tied to events in the United States, Cortina met with Union officers outside Matamoros, urging them to advance on Brownsville, saying the sooner they took the city the sooner he could seize Matamoros. He also asked for the return of the artillery he had sent across the river in October 1864. In a meeting at Bagdad as late as May 26, General Mej...

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