Mier expedition

The Mier Expedition was a failed raid by a Texan militia on the Mexican border settlement of Cuidad Mier on December 26, 1842. The attack was partly in hopes of financial gain and partly in retaliation for the Dawson Massacre, in which 36 Texans were killed by the Mexican Army.

Background

Although Antonio López de Santa Anna, the ruler of Mexico, was defeated at the Battle of San Jacinto and signed the Treaties of Velasco in 1836, cedeing Texas territory from Mexican control, his forces continued to invade the Republic of Texas hoping to regain control.

On September 18, 1842, Texan and Mexican forces engaged at Salado Creek, east of San Antonio. A company of 54 men, mostly from Fayette County, under the command of Nicholas Mosby Dawson, began advancing on the rear of the Mexican Army. The Mexican commander, General Adrian Woll, sent 400 to 500 of his soldiers and one or two cannon to attack the group. The Texans were able to hold their own against the Mexican soldiers, but once the cannon were within firing range the Texan fatalities mounted quickly. The battle was over after a little more than one hour. The battle ended with 36 Texans dead and 15 captured in what became known as the Dawson Massacre.

The expedition

On December 20, 1842, around 308 Texan soldiers ignored orders to pull back from the Rio Grande to Gonzales and instead moved toward Cuidad Mier. They camped on the Texas side of the Rio Grande. 261 soldiers participated in the raid, while the others remained behind as the camp guard. The Texans were unaware that 3,000 Mexican troops were in the area. Although they inflicted heavy casualties on the Mexicans (650 dead, 200 wounded), the Texans were forced to surrender on December 26. 243 Texans were taken prisoner and marched toward Mexico City via Matamoros for punishment.

On February 11, 1843, 181 Texans escaped, but the lack of food and water in the mountainous Mexican desert forced 176 to surrender or be recaptured by the end of the month. When the prisoners arrived in Saltillo, Coahuila, they learned an outraged Santa Anna ordered the execution of all the escapees but the commander, General Francisco Mejia, refused to follow the order and was replaced. The new commander, Colonel Domingo Huerta, moved the prisoners to El Rancho Salado. By this time, diplomatic efforts on behalf of Texas by the foreign ministers of the United States and Great Britain led Santa Anna to compromise that only one in ten would die.

The Black Bean Episode

To help determine who would die Huerta had 159 white beans and 17 black beans placed in a pot. In what came to be known as the Black Bean Episode (or Black Bean Lottery), the Texans were blindfolded and ordered to draw beans. Officers and then enlisted men, in alphabetical order, were ordered to draw. The 17 men who drew a black bean were allowed to write letters home and then were executed by firing squad. On the evening of March 25, 1843, the Texans were shot in two groups, one of nine men and one of eight. According to legend, Huerta placed the black beans in last and had the officers pick first, so that they would make up the majority of those killed.

The white bean survivors, including Bigfoot Wallace, finished the march to Mexico City and were imprisoned at Perote prison along with the 15 survivors from the Dawson Massacre. Some of the Texans escaped from Perote or died there, but most remained captive until they were released, by order of Santa Anna, on September 16, 1844.

Legacy

In 1847, during the Mexican-American War, the United States Army occupied northeastern Mexico. Captain John E. Dusenbury, a white bean survivor, returned to Rancho Salado and exhumed the remains of his comrades. He traveled with the remains on a ship to Galveston, Texas and by wagon to La Grange in Fayette County, Texas. La Grange citizens then retrieved the remains of the men killed in the Dawson Massacre, from their burial site near Salado Creek. The remains of all the men were reinterred in a common tomb in a cement vault on a bluff one mile south of La Grange. The grave site is now part of the Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites.

References

• Abolafia-Rosenzweig, Mark. The Dawson and Mier Expeditions and Their Place in Texas History. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. 2nd printing April 1991.
• Interpretive Guide to: Monument Hill/Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
• "Mier Expedition". The Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved Sep. 24, 2006.