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Texans oust Mexicans in battle of Nacogdoches
On this day in 1832, Texas settlers refused an order to surrender their
arms to José de las Piedras, commander of the Mexican battalion at
Nacogdoches. The ensuing battle of Nacogdoches is sometimes called the
opening gun of the Texas Revolution. Piedras had issued his inflammatory
order in the wake of the Anahuac Disturbances. The ayuntamiento of
Nacogdoches resisted the order, organized a "National Militia," and sent
messengers to outlying settlements requesting military aid. Those who
responded elected James W. Bullock their commander. On the morning of
August 2 Bullock demanded that Piedras rescind his order and declare for
Antonio López de Santa Anna and against the Centralist Mexican
government, but Piedras refused. Bullock's men entered the town that
afternoon and eventually captured the Old Stone Fort and other key
locations. That night Piedras evacuated his soldiers and headed for San
Antonio. A detachment of mounted Texans, including James Bowie, caught
them the next day; after a running fight along the Angelina River,
Piedras's men turned against him and surrendered him to the Texans. In
the battle of Nacogdoches, Piedras lost forty-seven men killed and forty
or more wounded. Three Texans were killed (a fourth died later) and four
were wounded.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- NACOGDOCHES, BATTLE OF
- BULLOCK, JAMES WHITIS
- PIEDRAS, JOSE DE LAS
- BOWIE, JAMES
- TEXAS REVOLUTION
- MEXICAN TEXAS
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Law arrives west of the Pecos (1882)
- Legislature grants Katy a Texas charter (1870)
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