Mier Expedition
In giving this account of the Mier expedition, I do so on account of the Fort Bend County men that participated in it. My readers will also bear in mind that in pronouncing Spanish names and words that has the sound of and a has the sound of a, etc. Mier pronounced Meer, Seca pronounced Saco, and soon. The cause of the famous Mier expedition, as it was called, on account of the Texans being captured at that town in Slexico, was in retaliation for the invasion of Texas by General Wall or Noll in 1842, when he captured San Antonio and carried quite a number of the citizens of that place prisoners to Mexico; and, although a force of Texans had hastily collected under General Caldwell and defeated the Mexicans at Salado Creek and drove them back to Mexico, still they were not satisfied and were anxious to invade the Mexican country and fight them there also. An expedition was gotten up, sanctioned
by President Houston, who ordered out two regiments of militia or
volunteers, as we might say, for the invasion of Mexico. One of
these regiments was to be raised in Montgomery County, which then
embraced what now constitutes Grimes and Walker Counties, and the
other was, to come from Washington County. The first regiment was
commanded by Colonel Joseph L. Bennett, who distinguished himself as
a soldier at San Jacinto. The second regiment was commanded by
Colonel Jesse B. McCrocklin, and the whole under General Alexander
Somerville, also a veteran of San Jacinto. The raising of the
different companies was not confined to the counties named; but were
enlisted in various places, and among these volunteers were many who
participated at San Jacinto, and others were noted Indian fighters
from the west, and, take it all together, no better set of fighting
men could have been enrolled in any country than those who marched
with Somerville for the invasion of Mexico in the winter of 1842. Of these were Captain William Ryon,
of Fort Bend County Captains from other places Additional Mier Records |
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