ELIZONDO, IGNACIO (?-1813). Ignacio Elizondo, commander of a small force in the Casas Revolt^qv in January 1811, was sent as prisoners the royalist governors, Manuel María de Salcedo of Texas and Simón de Herreraq^qv of Nuevo León. The prisoners converted Elizondo to their side. On March 21 he captured Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla^qv and other rebel leaders at Acatita de Baján, southeast of Monclova, for which he was rewarded with command of 1,050 troops, which he led into Texas on June 12, 1813, to reconnoiter the forces of José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara,^qv who had captured San Antonio on April 1. Although Gen. Joaquín de Arredondo's^qv had ordered not to engage in battle, Elizondo camped on Alazán Creek, half a league west of San Antonio, from which he demanded the surrender of the town. On June 20, 1813, Maj. Henry Perry^qv led the republicans to recapture San Antonio from Elizondo, who retreated to the Rio Grande. In the meantime, General Arredondo, who was leading an army toward Texas to crush the rebellion, ordered Elizondo to join him. Then, with a force of 1,830 men under his command, Arredondo advanced toward San Antonio and defeated 1,400 republicans in the battle of Medina^qv on August 18, 1813. Arredondo occupied San Antonio, and Elizondo pursued fugitive republicans as far as Nacogdoches. By September 3 he had caught and executed seventy-one rebels and held more than 100 as prisoners. On September 12, while resting at the Brazos River on his return trip to San Antonio, Elizondo was attacked and wounded severely by one of his officers. He died a few days later and was buried on the banks of the San Marcos River.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of the North Mexican States and Texas (2 vols., San Francisco: History Company, 1886, 1889). Julia Kathryn Garrett, Green Flag Over Texas: A Story of the Last Years of Spain in Texas (Austin: Pemberton Press, 1939). Ted Schwarz and Robert H. Thonhoff, Forgotten Battlefield of the First Texas Revolution: The Battle of Medina (Austin: Eakin Press, 1985). Harris Gaylord Warren, The Sword Was Their Passport: A History of American Filibustering in the Mexican Revolution (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1943).

Robert H. Thonhoff