198 Years Ago, The Bloody Tejano Battle Of Medina

By Dan Arellano

On April 7, 1812 the Republican Army of the North crosses the Sabine River into Spanish Texas. Flying the Emerald Green Flag of Liberty, Jose Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara and Augustus Magee bring with them 142 American and 158 Tejano volunteers. This ragtag army would be successful in every battle and every skirmish beginning with the capture of Nacogdoches, Trinidad, the four-month siege of the presidio in Goliad, the Battle of Rosillio, the capture of San Antonio and the Battle of Alazan.

Unfortunately, Spain was still a super power and would send an army to quash the revolution.

On August 18, 1813 the Republicans set out to fight in what would become the biggest and bloodiest battle ever fought on Texas soil. The Battle of Medina consisted of approximately 300 Americans, 100-200 Native Americans and 800-900 Tejanos. The well trained and disciplined Spanish Mexican Army had approximately 1,830 combatants. The Republicans were ambushed and out of the 1,400, only 100 would survive, 90 of those survivors would be Americans — which proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that the ones with the most to lose would fight the hardest, and that the Tejanos and their Native American allies stood and fought to the last man.

This battle raged on for about four hours with our Tejanos, like Leonidas at Thermopylae, were determined to achieve victory or die trying. Little did they realize the sacrifice they would pay would be the ultimate.

After the battle the victorious Spanish Army marches in to San Antonio and 500 Tejanos would be arrested and crammed in to a makeshift prison; 17 suffocating in the scorching heat of night. The next day several would be released, however 327 would be detained and executed. Three a day would be taken out and shot, beheaded, then their heads were placed on spikes and displayed around the square for all to see as a lesson to those that revolt against their Spanish monarch.

No one would be spared the wrath of General Arredondo, not even the women and children. Around 300 of the wives, mothers and daughters of the Tejanos would be imprisoned, many of them would be brutally and repeatedly raped, several dying as a result of the brutality. The women were forced on their knees from four in the morning until 10 at night to grind the corn to make the tortillas to feed the despised Spanish army. And through the windows of their make shift prison the mothers could see their children searching for food and shelter.

Short-lived as it may have been, this Republic was a real Republic and this was a real revolution, a revolution of the people, by the people, and for the people and these were our ancestors, and to this day they have remained unknown and unrecognized for their ultimate sacrifice.

Dan Arellano is a writer who lives in Austin, Texas and previously wrote about Cinco de Mayo and the Latino contributions to the American Revolution.