The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 463

Notes and Documents

their army, who surrendered prisoners of war-Salcedo remarking,
when he tendered his sword, that they could not contend with such
beings-they were not human-they were all devils incarnate. The
Americans marched into and took possession of the city the next
morning,102 where they found an immense concourse of citizens and
soldiers, greatly excited; the Comanche Indians having driven in all
the settlement on the river and run off most of the stock during the
seige of La Bahia.
They viewed the Americans as they marched into town, conducting
their Governor and chief officers of their army as prisoners of war,
with horror and dismay, thinking no doubt they were all devils in-
deed. The Americans advanced into the Main Plaza, posting their
six captured cannon at the entrance of the streets, taking up their
quarters around them. When the first excitement subsided and friend-
ly intercouse succeeded, they found many warm friends for the Revo-
lutionary cause. One of the first acts of Bernardo Guerteras was to
send a private express on the road to Nacogdoches, notifying all
persons advancing to join the Americans-that if they proceeded
they must serve without pay or emolument-that their services were
not required.108 This order, from such authority, turned back all those
on the road, promulgating this infernal edict throughout the country
on their return. The prisoners were also handed over by him to the
Mexican officers, and guarded by them, and then in conjunction with
Bernardo concerted the plan for their destruction. In order to prevent
any suspicion of their design by the Americans, Bernardo proposed
to them that the prisoners had best be sent to La Bahia, where there
was a small garrison left, with ample provisions, and a secure en-
closure, within which they could have exercise during the day, and
that there was neither provisions nor suitable accomodations for
their comfort and safe custody in San Antonio-that place being
literally stripped and destitute--the only means of subsistence being
retical superior, whereupon Salcedo stuck his sword in the ground as a sign of
contempt. Colonel A. J. Navarro gives the following list of the prisoners: Spaniards
-Manuel de Salcedo, Governor; Simon de Herrera, Governor of New Leon; Geron-
imo Herrera, Lieutenant-Colonel; Juan de Echeverria, Captain; Jose Groscochia,
Captain; Francisco Periera, Captain; Jose Mateos, Captain; Juan Ignatio Arambido,
Captain; Gregorio Amado, Lieutenant; Antonio Lopez, Citizen. Mexican-Miguel
de Areos, Captain; Louis, his son, Lieutenant; Francisco, his son, Ensign; Juan
Caso, Lieutenant. Thrall, Pictorial History, i g.
102Gutierrez and Hall both set this date as April 1, the third day after the
Battle of Rosalis. Gutierrez de Lara to the Mexican Congress, August 1, 1815, in
Gulick and others, Lamar Papers, I, 1g; Hall. The Mexican War of Independence
in Texas, 1812-13, ibid., IV, Pt. 1, 281.
x10This probably accounts, at least in part, for Shaler's fear that Gutierrez
thought his job finished with the taking of San Antonio, and that he had no inten-
tion of proceeding into the rest of Mexico. Shaler to Monroe, June 12, 181, Shaler
Papers.

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