TOLSA, EUGENIO (?–?). Eugenio Tolsa, soldier, commanded the second brigade of Antonio López de Santa Anna's forces that entered Texas in late 1835 to suppress the Texas Revolution. On March 24, 1836, Tolsa was ordered to reinforce JoaquÃn RamÃrez y Sesma at the Colorado River. As the Texas troops retreated toward East Texas, the Mexican troops were taken over the river on rafts in pursuit of the Texas army. Tolsa's orders, dated March 31, were to operate against Bolivar, West Bay, Chocolate, Hall's Bayou, Harrisburg, Lynchburg, and as far as the San Jacinto River and Goose Creek. Santa Anna joined Sesma and Tolsa on April 6 as they marched toward San Felipe, where Santa Anna took picked troops and went ahead. After Santa Anna's defeat at San Jacinto, Tolsa joined the general Mexican retreat on April 25. On May 26, 1836, he acted as one of Vicente Filisola's commissioners in ratifying the public treaty of Velasco, which was presented by Ben Fort Smith and Henry Teal to the retreating Mexicans, who had reached Mugerero Creek.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of the North Mexican States and Texas (2 vols., San Francisco: History Company, 1886, 1889). Antonio López de Santa Anna et al., The Mexican Side of the Texan Revolution, trans. Carlos E. Castañeda (Dallas: Turner, 1928; 2d ed., Austin: Graphic Ideas, 1970). Dudley Goodall Wooten, ed., A Comprehensive History of Texas (2 vols., Dallas: Scarff, 1898; rpt., Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1986).
