The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 290

Dr. fokhn Sible and the ouisiana- exas
frontier , 1803-1814
JULIA KATHRYN GARRETT
[continued]
[A deposition made by fugitive Texas rebel, John Garnier be-
fore John Sibley, Justice of the Peace in Parish of Natchitoches]
Natchitoches Sept. 19th 1811
Before me, John Sibley one of the Justices of the peace in
and for the Parish of Natchitoches, come John Garnier & on
Oath declared that he was a Gunner belonging to the Royal
Artillery at St. Antonio & that about the sixteenth of August
last the Commanding Officer at St. Antonio received a letter
from Governor Cordero of Quaghuilla [Coahuila] stating that
Colonels Manshack8 & Bernard" with Captains Domingal &
9SCaptain Miguel Menchaca, a Texas rebel, fled from San Antonio after
the collapse of the revolutionary government in Texas in March, 1811.
He found refuge in the home of Jos6 Bernardo Gutierrez in Nuevo San-
tander. Soon afterward Menchaca and Gutierrez fled across Northern
Texas to Natchitoches. For details see Jose Bernardo Gutierrez, "To the
Mexican Congress, An Account of the Progress of the Revolution from
the Beginnings," Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar (Austin, 1921-
1928), Charles Adams Gulick and Katherine Elliott, eds., I, 7-8. (Here-
after cited, Gutierrez, "To the Mexican Congress," Lamar Papers.)
99Gutierrez was a merchant and blacksmith in Revilla on the Rio Grande.
He became a supporter of Hidalgo's revolution, and converted his clerical
brother Father Jose Antonio. Together they aided in revolutionizing the
cities of the Rio Grande, Nuevo Santander, and Texas. By February,
1811, Hidalgo and his rebel chiefs had encamped at Saltillo with Jiminez.
The royalists threatened to move northward against the rebel army. The
rebel chiefs held a war council. They decided to consolidate their military
strength by uniting the troops of the provinces of Texas, Coahuila, Nuevo
Le6n, and Nuevo Santander. Leaving an army in Saltillo to serve as a rear
guard, they planned to march with one thousand soldiers to San Antonio.
At that place, they would await supplies and troops from the United States
which would be sent there by Jimenez's envoys, Aldama and Salazar. After
reinforcing their ranks, the rebel chiefs would return to Mexico to continue
the revolution. During the session of this war council, news came of the
capture of Jimenez in San Antonio. Gutierrez was entrusted with their
mission. Soon afterwards Hidalgo and party were seized on their way to
Texas and the revolution in the northern provinces collapsed. In order to
save the revolutionary cause, Gutierrez prepared to fulfill the commission
entrusted to him by the war council at Saltillo. He fled across Texas to
the United States to obtain supplies and men for the rebels, who were
continuing the revolution in the interior of Mexico. Ibid.; Don Jos6 Ber-
nardo Gutidrrez de Lara, Breve Apologia (Monterrey, 1827), Segunda
edici6n, Aumentada con los Apuntes Biograficos del autor, por Jos4 L.
Cossio (Mexico, 1915): Lorenzo de la Garza, Dos Hermanos Heroes
(Guerra, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 1913).