Mier Expedition 

 

In giving this account of the Mier expedition, I do so on account of the Fort Bend County men that participated in it. My readers will also bear in mind that in pronouncing Spanish names and words that  has the sound of  and a has the sound of a, etc. Mier pronounced Meer, Seca pronounced Saco, and soon.

The cause of the famous Mier expedition, as it was called, on account of the Texans being captured at that town in Slexico, was in retaliation for the invasion of Texas by General Wall or Noll in 1842, when he captured San Antonio and carried quite a number of the citizens of that place prisoners to Mexico; and, although a force of Texans had hastily collected under General Caldwell and defeated the Mexicans at Salado Creek and drove them back to Mexico, still they were not satisfied and were anxious to invade the Mexican country and fight them there also.

An expedition was gotten up, sanctioned by President Houston, who ordered out two regiments of militia or volunteers, as we might say, for the invasion of Mexico. One of these regiments was to be raised in Montgomery County, which then embraced what now constitutes Grimes and Walker Counties, and the other was, to come from Washington County. The first regiment was commanded by Colonel Joseph L. Bennett, who distinguished himself as a soldier at San Jacinto. The second regiment was commanded by Colonel Jesse B. McCrocklin, and the whole under General Alexander Somerville, also a veteran of San Jacinto. The raising of the different companies was not confined to the counties named; but were enlisted in various places, and among these volunteers were many who participated at San Jacinto, and others were noted Indian fighters from the west, and, take it all together, no better set of fighting men could have been enrolled in any country than those who marched with Somerville for the invasion of Mexico in the winter of 1842.
The starting point was from San Antonio, where a camp was located until all arrived and the captains reported for duty.

Of these were Captain William Ryon, of Fort Bend County
Captain John Smith, of Houston (he was left sick at, Gonzales, and the command desolved on Lieutenant Thomas S. Lubbock)
Captain Bartlett Simms, of Bastrop
Captain William M. Eastland, of Fayette
Captain, Ewing Cameron, of the "Cow Boys" from down on the San Antonio River Captain Jahn G. Pierson, of Robertson County
Captain Clark L. Owen, of Jackson County
Captain Isaac N. Mitchell, of Lavaca County
Captain Shelby McNeil, of Brazoria County

Captains from other places
Jerome B. Robertson
E. S. C. Robertson
Phillip Coe
Wm. S. Fisher
Samuel Bogart
Jack Hays (spy company)
James R. Cook
Geo. T. Howard
David Murfree
P. H. Bell, afterwards Governor of Texas, and Houghton.

Additional Mier  Records

Prisoners, Escaped at the time of Surrender
Mier Prisoners, Fate Unknown
List of Guards who Escaped from the River from Buster Company
Biographies of some Prisoners
William Kinchen Davis
Judge John H. Pickens Davis
Colonel W. M. Ryon
J. E. Dyer

Fort Bend County

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