Barranco Colorado
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Barranco Colorado was the name used for a Mexican military post established in 1830 on the lower Lavaca River in the period of Mexican Texas. It was the second of six new forts built in Texas under the overall command of General Manuel de Mier y Terán, to enforce provisions of the Law of April 6, 1830. Together with some Mexican military posted at the nearby town of Guadalupe Victoria (today’s Victoria, Texas), the overall command was known as “Comandancia Militar del Establicimiento de la Vaca”. The local military commander was Captain Aniceto Arteaga, and the civilian commissioner was Rafael Chowell. Like the other five new forts established in the period of 1830-1832, this establishment was only partially realized and was ultimately unsuccessful in its intended role, being abandoned by the late summer of 1832. The reasons for failure were many, but they all suffered from lack of resources (that is, proper provisions, including funds for pay and supplies), illness, deaths, desertions and the untimely death of General Terán. Also, revolution in Mexico in 1832 caused many military units in Texas to be withdrawn there. Unlike the other forts, Barranco Colorado is poorly known in modern references (probably due to its remote location and lack any notable conflict), which this article should begin to redress. The placement of these forts, their abrupt abandonment in 1832, and the ensuing lack of military control of Texas in 1832-1835 are under-appreciated antecedents of the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836.[1]
Arteaga first disembarked in Texas at the head of Lavaca Bay from the schooner General BustamanteItalic text in late June 1830 with a small military force composed of about three dozen members of the 11th and 12th Permanent Battalions (then posted at Matamoros), establishing himself at Guadalupe Victoria on 29-Jun-1830. This was then a new town, established as the headquarters of the Guadalupe or DeLeon Colony under the empresario Martín de Leon. Later trips using the schooner ConstanteBold text brought money, additional troops and also convict laborers. An isolated location was selected for Barranco Colorado at a bluff on the right (west) bank of the Lavaca River, which provided nearby timber (for lumber and fuel), springs (for healthful drinking water), clay deposits (for making bricks), and adjacent high prairie land to build a defensible fort. Convicts and their military guards moved there by October 1830, to build barracks and a brick kiln. Arteaga relocated his other troops there in January of 1831. Cavalry from the 3rd Active Company of Tamaulipas, under Captain José Manuel Barberena, relocated from Goliad to Victoria at the same time, under Arteaga’s overall command, bringing total headcount for the Lavaca detachment to almost 200 personnel. Reinforcements of infantry from the 11th Permanent Battalion (then at Goliad) in the summer of 1831 pushed headcount to over 200 for a few months. However, Barberena’s cavalry were withdrawn later that year. Arteaga’s command suffered from malaria, yellow fever, and scurvy – along with lack of pay and provisions – no doubt contributing to a significant number of deaths and desertions. In the late spring of 1832, he moved his remaining troops back to Guadalupe Victoria. That summer, the Anahuac Disturbances and Battle of Velasco caused much unrest, and Arteaga was recipient of many confusing and conflicting orders from several layers of his chain of command, to provide aid, then recall aid, then provide reinforcements – all of which he was ill prepared to do. Finally, Arteaga declared support for the Santa Anna party in the revolution then underway in Mexico, and secretly embarked with the majority of his command at Lavaca Bay in early August 1832, joining José Antonio Mexía’s fleet in their return to Tampico.
The site of Barranco Colorado was abandoned and lost to history, now thought to exist about 6 miles south of Edna, Texas in Jackson County, but is unmarked by any type of historical monument. The town of Texana was established on the Navidad River about three miles east of Barranco Colorado in the years following, using the same road from Goliad and Guadalupe Victoria. This road segment eventually became a more-southerly path for the older Atascosito Road, passing northeast from Texana to San Felipe de Austin and then points further east.[2]
The other five “Terán forts” of the 1830-1832 period (and on-line links), in order of construction:
- Fort Tenoxtitlán – April 1830 Wikipedia Handbook of Texas
- Fort Anahuac – October 1830
- Fort Lipantitlán –
- Fort Terán –
- Fort Velasco – April 1832
1. Chronological and Archaeological History of Barranco Colorado. Retrieved 17-Aug-2022 2. Shook, Robert W., Caminos y Entradas – Spanish Legacy of Victoria County and the Coastal Bend 1689-1890, Victoria County Heritage Department, 2007, especially pp. 342-352
References[edit]
- ↑ Chronological and Archaeological History of Barranco Colorado. Retrieved 17-Aug-2022
- ↑ Shook, Robert W., Caminos y Entradas – Spanish Legacy of Victoria County and the Coastal Bend 1689-1890, Victoria County Heritage Department, 2007, especially pp. 342-352
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