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NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LORETO PRESIDIO. On April 4, 1721, Capt. Domingo Ramónqv of the Aguayo expeditionqv established Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio, popularly called La Bahía,qv on the ruins of Fort St. Louis, probably on the west bank of Garcitas Creek about two miles above its mouth in what is now Victoria County. The name of the presidio also appears in Spanish records as Nuestra Señora Santa María de Loreto de la Bahía del Espíritu Santo, a designation chosen in honor of Our Lady of Loreto (Italy), and also in reference to the presidio's location on La Bahía del Espíritu Santo (the Bay of the Holy Spirit, now called Matagorda Bay and Lavaca Bay). The presidio was established to protect Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga Mission, and also to prevent further French encroachment on Spanish territory. Although both the mission and the presidio were called La Bahía, and though the mission padres also said Mass for the soldiers in the presidio's chapel, the presidio and mission should not be confused. The Marqués de Aguayoqv began construction of a permanent fortification on April 6, 1722. The completed fort was octagonal and had a moat, four bastions, and a tower. Aguayo left Ramón in command of the garrison of forty soldiers, which was later reinforced by fifty men from San Antonio de Béxar. Ramón was unable to keep the garrison disciplined, a fact that led to antagonism and hostilities with the Karankawa Indians whom the mission padres were working to redeem, and ended Ramón's life as well. Diego Ramón III succeeded his father as presidio captain but was removed for inefficiency and replaced by Juan Antonio Bustillo y Cevallos.qv Under Bustillo's direction and that of his successors, Nuestra Señora de Loreto achieved preeminence among Texas presidios. Continuing troubles with the Karankawas induced authorities in 1726 to move the mission and its presidio to the Aranama Indians about ten leagues (some twenty-six miles) farther inland, on the Guadalupe River near the site of present Mission Valley in Victoria County. Presidio La Bahía itself was rebuilt of quarried stone on a site that later became part of Fernando De León'sqv Rancho Escondido. For the next twenty-six years the La Bahía mission and presidio prospered; successful farming and cattle ranching enabled the presidio and mission to supply themselves and other Texas missions with ample food. In the fall of 1749, however, the presidio and mission were again moved, this time in accord with the recommendations of José de Escandón,qv whom the Spanish government had authorized in 1747 to explore ways to prevent further encroachment of the English and French. Escandón had been aided by La Bahía presidio commander Joaquín de Orobio y Basterra, the officer who oversaw the actual move of the presidio and mission. The new location, which Captain Orobio had named Santa Dorotea during the 1747 Escandón explorations, was about ten leagues away on the San Antonio River near the site of present Goliad and was chosen because a fortification there could better protect the Old San Antonio Road.qv Despite its recommendation, however, the government denied Orobio extra assistance to make the move, and also rejected Escandón's plan to settle twenty-five Mexican families from Nuevo León or Coahuila in a proposed village to be called Villa de Balmacedo. By February 1750, merely four months after this move, the presidio, now under the command of Capt. Manuel Ramírez de la Piszena, consisted of a large barracks and forty temporary houses built of wood and caliche for the garrison soldiers and their families, the captain's house of several rooms built of stone at his own expense for emergency protection, and a roomy chapel. The well-armed garrison had six eight-pound cannons and numbered fifty men, who were stationed not only at the presidio but also at Espíritu Santo Mission and Nuestra Señora del Rosario Mission. The soldiers guarded the herd of horses pastured several leagues downriver and escorted convoys and supply trains from San Antonio and the Rio Grande. These troops became crucial as Lipan Apache and Comanche Indians increasingly raided the area by the mid-1750s. Among the children born to the soldiers of La Bahía were Mexican patriot Carlos de la Garza,qv founder of Carlos Rancho,qv and Ignacio Seguín Zaragoza,qv future Mexican hero of the Cinco de Mayo. Under Captain Ramírez's direction, permanent structures were built at La Bahía presidio and mission and at Mission Rosario. These establishments and those at San Antonio were the only ones not ordered abandoned by royal decree after the Marqués de Rubí'sqv inspection of 1766-68. Presidio La Bahía remained the only Spanish fortress for the entire Gulf Coast, and on at least two occasions-in 1769 and 1771-served to thwart Dutch, French, and English intruders. The place became run-down by the 1790s, and repairs were authorized by the Spanish government. The old fort took on new importance with the founding of Nuestra Señora del Refugio Mission in 1793, as the civic settlement of La Bahía grew near the presidio, as Lipan and Comanche attacks increased, and as political unrest in Mexico against Spain exploded in local episodes of revolt, especially the insurrection of Miguel Hidalgo y Costillaqv in 1810, the Gutiérrez-Magee expeditionqv of 1812-13, the Henry Perryqv campaign of 1817, and the James Longqv expedition of 1821. After Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821, Presidio La Bahía served as a fortress for the protection and supervision of DeWitt's colony, De León's colony, and the Power and Hewetson colony.qqv The family of Martín De Leónqv was intimately connected with La Bahía. Rafael Manchola,qv a son-in-law of De León, was the commandant of the garrison; he aided his father-in-law in removing DeWitt's Old Stationqv settlement on the Brazos River. Manchola also served as alcaldeqv of La Bahía and was responsible for changing the "meaningless name" of the villa to Goliad, itself an anagram of hidalgo. Presidio La Bahía was of central importance during the Texas Revolutionqv of 1835-36, since it guarded the supply route from the port of El Cópano to San Antonio. During the Goliad Campaign of 1835qv the old fort was captured by Texas forces under George M. Collinsworth and then commanded by Philip Dimmitt.qqv It served as the base of operations for the Lipantitlán expeditionqv and was the site of the signing of the Goliad Declaration of Independence.qv It served the Texas army during the controversial Matamoros expedition of 1835-36.qv During the disastrous Goliad Campaign of 1836qv Col. James W. Fannin, Jr.,qv rebuilt the presidio and christened it Fort Defiance.qv The fort was then recaptured by Mexican general José de Urreaqv and was the site of the notorious Goliad Massacreqv on March 27, 1836. During the Republic of Texasqv period, La Bahía suffered the invasions of Rafael Vásquez and Adrián Wollqqv in 1842. In early statehood United States soldiers discharged after the Mexican Warqv of 1846-48 damaged the place. Most of the presidio was now in ruins, but from 1846 to about 1854 Judge Pryor Lea,qv a notable public official and railroad promoter, used the chapel, still intact, as a residence and the old parade ground as an experimental garden. About 1853 the Catholic Churchqv reestablished its ownership of La Bahía Presidio and its chapel and again began conducting services there. The presidio chapel, virtually intact since 1749, was restored as a New Deal public-works project about 1935, and in 1936 the structure was recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey. At the urging of Bishop Mariano Simon Garrigaqv and with permission of the Catholic bishop of Corpus Christi, Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio was completely reconstructed of stuccoed limestone between 1963 and 1967, with funds from the Kathryn Stoner O'Connorqv foundation and under the direction of architect-restorer Raiford Stripling and archeologist Roland E. Beard. Stripling and Beard had also directed the restoration of Mission Espíritu Santo. The fort was rebuilt in accord with an old picture by a New York lithographer and with use of the notes and map drawn by Joseph M. Chadwick,qv Fannin's topographical engineer and supervisor of fortifications. The excavations revealed nine layers of previous occupation and thousands of artifacts, such as sherds and guns, now on display in the museum located in the restored officers' quarters. The restoration is praised as one of the most authentic in the United States and as the finest example of a presidio. The site was signed over to Bishop Thomas Drury on August 25, 1966. On April 9, 1968, Claudia A. (Lady Bird) Johnson, in her role as first lady, dedicated the national historic landmark plaque now located at the presidio entrance. A state historic landmark medallion was affixed in 1969. La Bahía is now owned and operated by the Catholic Diocese of Victoriaqv and is closely associated with Goliad State Historical Park.qv Annual Cinco de Mayo celebrations are held at the site in honor of Zaragoza. In 1985-86, as part of the Texas Sesquicentennial celebration, the Crossroads of Texas Living History Association reenacted scenes of life during the Collinsworth, Dimmitt, and Fannin occupation. The probable original location of Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio on Garcitas Creek was examined by historian Herbert E. Boltonqv in 1914 and was archeologically investigated by the Texas Memorial Museumqv in 1951 and by Kathleen Gilmore in 1973. Numerous French and Spanish artifacts were unearthed and are now at the museum. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bexar Archives, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Herbert E. Bolton, "The Founding of Mission Rosario: A Chapter in the History of the Gulf Coast," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 10 (October 1906). Herbert E. Bolton, "The Location of La Salle's Colony on the Gulf of Mexico," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 2 (September 1915); rpt., Southwestern Historical Quarterly 27 (January 1924). Herbert E. Bolton, Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1915; rpt., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970). Elaine Bostic, "La Bahía: The Forgotten Fortress," Texas Highways, March 1968. Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936-58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). Roy Grimes, ed., 300 Years in Victoria County (Victoria, Texas: Victoria Advocate, 1968; rpt., Austin: Nortex, 1985). Joseph Milton Nance, Attack and Counterattack: The Texas-Mexican Frontier, 1842 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964). Kathryn Stoner O'Connor, The Presidio La Bahía del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga, 1721 to 1846 (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1966). Juan Antonio de la Peña, Peña's Diary of the Aguayo Expedition, trans. Peter P. Forrestal (Preliminary Studies of the Texas Catholic Historical Society 2.7 [January 1935]). Tommie Pinkard, "Return to Goliad," Texas Highways, May 1978. Domingo Ramón, Captain Don Domingo Ramón's Diary of His Expedition into Texas in 1716, trans. Paul J. Foik (Preliminary Studies of the Texas Catholic Historical Society 2.5 [April 1933]). Victor Marion Rose, History of Victoria (Laredo, 1883; rpt., Victoria, Texas: Book Mart, 1961). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin (Presidio La Bahía; Goliad State Historical Park; Goliad, Texas). Theodore Lawrence White, Marquis de Rubi's Inspection of the Eastern Presidios on the Northern Frontier of New Spain (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1953).
Craig H. Roell
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