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Benavides crosses Rio Grande in pursuit of Mexican "Unionists"
On this day in 1863, Maj. Santos Benavides, the highest-ranking Mexican
American to serve in the Confederacy, led seventy-nine men of the
predominantly Tejano Thirty-third Texas Cavalry across the Rio Grande in
pursuit of the bandit Octaviano Zapata. Union agents had recruited
Zapata, a former associate of Juan N. Cortina, to lead raids into Texas
and thus force Confederate troops to remain in the Rio Grande valley
rather than participate in military campaigns in the east. Zapata was
also associated with Edmund J. Davis, who was conducting
Northern-sponsored military activities in the vicinity of Brownsville
and Matamoros. For these reasons, and because his men often flew the
American flag during their raids, Zapata's band was often referred to as
the "First Regiment of Union Troops." Benavides caught up with Zapata on
September 2 near Mier, Tamaulipas. After a brief exchange of gunfire,
the Zapatistas dispersed, leaving ten men dead, including Zapata.
Benavides later defended Laredo against Davis's First Texas Cavalry, and
arranged for the safe passage of Texas cotton to Matamoros during the
Union occupation of Brownsville. He died at his Laredo home in 1891.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- BENAVIDES, SANTOS
- ZAPATA, OCTAVIANO
- MEXICAN TEXANS IN THE CIVIL WAR
- DAVIS, EDMUND JACKSON
- CIVIL WAR
- LAREDO, TX
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Huge law firm founded in Houston (1917)
- Founding director of Barker Texas History Center retires (1969)
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