Ken Lizzio - Rogue Soldiers: The Disaster of the Texas Mier Expedition

Ken Lizzio is an anthropology professor and author of Embattled Saints: My Year with the Sufis of Afghanistan (Quest Books, 2014), an ethnography of an Islamic mystical brotherhood that won the IBPAs 2015 Ben Franklin Silver Award. He has also penned several other books, including Forty-Niner: The Extraordinary Gold Rush Odyssey of Joseph Goldsborough Bruff (Countryman Press, 2017); Pirates of the Prairie: Outlaws and Vigilantes in Americas Heartland (Lyons Press, 2018); and The Abolitionist and the Spy: A Father, a Son, and Their Battle for the Union (Countryman Press, 2020). He currently lives in Virginias Blue Ridge Mountains.

Texas Congress. Journals of the House of Representatives of the Seventh Congress of the Republic of Texas. Washington, TX: Thomas Johnson, 1843.

Bell, Thomas W. A Narrative of Capture and Subsequent Suffering of the Mier Prisoners in Mexico, Captured in the Cause of Texas, December 26th, 1842 and Liberated Sept. 16th 1844. Edited by James A. Day. Waco: Texian Press, 1964.

Gilliam, Albert. Travels over the Tablelands and Cordilleras of Mexico during the Years 1843 and 44. Philadelphia: J. W. Moore, 1846.

Green, Thomas Jefferson. Journal of the Texian Expedition Against Mier. New York: Harper and Row, 1845.

Houston, Sam. The Writings of Sam Houston. Edited by Amelia Williams and Eugene C. Barker. 8 vols. Austin: Jenkins Publishing Co., 1970.

Jackson, Andrew. The Correspondence of Andrew Jackson. 8 vols. Edited by John Spencer Bassett. Carnegie Institution, 1926.

McCutcheon, Joseph D. Mier Expedition Diary: A Texas Prisoners Account. Edited by Joseph Milton Nance. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978.

Stapp, William Preston. The Prisoners of Perote. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977.

Thompson, Waddy. Recollections of Mexico. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.

Truehart, James. The Perote Prisoners: Being the Diary of James L. Truehart. Edited by Frederick C. Chabot. San Antonio: Naylor Co., 1932.

Walker, Samuel H. Samuel H. Walkers Account of the Mier Expedition. Edited by Marilyn M. Sibley. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1978.

Adams, H. A. Diary of Somervells Expedition against the Southwest. Focus on Texas History. University of Texas. https://www.cah.utexas.edu/texashistory/annex. Accessed January 5, 2019.

Bell. Thomas. Letter from Perote, March 3, 1844. Southwestern Historical Quarterly 63 (April 1960): 589599.

Canfield, Israel. Israel Canfield on the Mier Expedition. Edited by James M. Day. Texas Military History 3 (Fall 1963): 165199.

Copeland, Willis. Interesting Incidents in the Life of Brother Willis Copeland while a Prisoner During the Texas and Mexican War, Given in His Own Words, Taken from Memory. Austin: Texas State Archives.

Erath, George B. Memoirs of George B. Erath. Edited by Lucy Erath. Southwestern Historical Quarterly 27 (July 1923): 44.

Glasscock, James A. Diary of James A. Glasscock, Mier Man. Edited by James Day. Texana 1 (Spring 1963): 85119.

Harris, Lewis Birdsall. The Journal of Lewis Birdsall Harris, 18361842. Edited by Adele B. Looscan. Southwestern Historical Quarterly 25 (January 1922): 185197.

Hendricks, Sterling Brown. The Somervell Expedition to the Rio Grande. Southwestern Historical Quarterly 23 (October 1919): 112140.

Hunter, John Warren. Adventures of a Mier Prisoner: Being the Thrilling Experiences of John Rufus Alexander. Frontier Times 2 (April 1925): 1731.

Lord, George. George Lord: A Mier Prisoner. Edited by C. T. Traylor, Frontier Times 15 (September 1938): 533552.

Spellman, L. U., ed. Letters of the Dawson Men from Perote Prison. Southwestern Historical Quarterly 38 (April 1935): 246269, 252254.

Trahern, George Washington. George Washington Trahern: Texas Cowboy from Mier to Buena Vista. Edited by A. Russell Buchanan. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 58 (July 1954): 6090.

Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston), 18421844.

New Orleans Picayune, 1847.

Niles National Register (Washington, D.C.), 1843.

Amberson, Mary Margaret McAllen. A Brave Boy and a Good Soldier. Austin: Texas Historical Association, 2006.

Bancroft, Henry Howe. History of the North Mexican States and Texas. 2 vols. San Francisco: The History Company, 1889.

Brown, John Henry. History of Texas from 1685 to 1892. 2 vols. St. Louis: L. E. Daniell, 1892. Reprint: Austin: Jenkins Publishing Co., 1970.

Day, James M. Black Beans and Goose Quills: Literature of the Mier Expedition. Waco: Texian Press, 1970.

Duval, John C. The Adventures of Big-Foot Wallace. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen and Haffelfinger, 1871.

Fowler, Will. Santa Anna of Mexico. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.

Gooch-Inglehart, Fanny. The Boy Captive of the Texas Mier Expedition. San Antonio: J. R. Wood, 1909.

Green, Rena Maverick, ed. Samuel Maverick: Texan: 18031870. San Antonio: privately published, 1952.

Haynes, Sam W. Soldiers of Misfortune: The Somervell and Mier Expeditions. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.

Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

Henderson, Yoakum. History of Texas from Its Forts Settlement in 1685 to Its Annexation to the United States in 1846. 2 vols. New York: J. S. Redfield, 1855.

Jenkins, John H. Recollections of Early Texas: The Memoirs of John Holland Jenkins. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.

Nance, Joseph Milton. Attack and Counterattack: The Texas-Mexican Frontier, 1842. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964.

. Dare-Devils All: The Texan Mier Expedition, 18421844. 2 vols. Austin: Eakin Press, 1999.

Oswandel, Jacob J. Notes of the Mexican War, 18461848. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2010.

Smith, Justin H. The Annexation of Texas. New York: Macmillan, 1919.

Smithwick, Noah. The Evolution of a State or Recollections of Old Texas Days. Austin: Steck-Vaughn, 1968.

Sowell, A. J. Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas. Austin: Ben C. Jones and Co., 1900.

. History of Fort Bend County: Containing Biographical Sketches of Many Noted Characters. Houston: W. H. Coyle and Co., 1964.

. The Life of Bigfoot Wallace. Bandera, TX: Frontier Times, 1927.

Wade, Houston. Notes and Fragments of the Mier Expedition. Houston: La Grange Journal, 1936.

Young, Phillip. The History of Mexico. Cincinnati: J. A. & U. P. James, 1847.

Friend, Llerena B. Sidelines and Supplements on the Mier Prisoners. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 68 (January 1965): 366374.

De Iturbede, A. Mexican Haciendas: The Peon System. The North American Review 168, no. 509 (April 1899): 424432.

McGrath, J. J., and Wallace Hawkins. Perote Prison: Where Texans Were Imprisoned. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 48 (January 1945): 340345.

A S HE SAT AT HIS DESK IN THE MAKESHIFT CAPITAL OF WASHINGTON-on-the-Brazos in the fall of 1842, Sam Houston was overcome with foreboding. Since taking office the previous year, the president of the upstart Republic of Texas had been under intense pressure from citizens and even his own administration to wage war on Mexico. It had been six years since Texas gained independence from Mexico by capturing General Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. In return for his freedom Santa Anna had agreed to recognize Texas independence. But as soon as he returned to power the wily general set about to regain his former province, as much to recoup a vast and rich territory as to redeem his ignominious defeat. Only financial and political problems at home kept him from launching an all-out invasion to reclaim it. Until his hand was stronger, the Mexican president kept Texans in a perpetual state of terror and uncertainty by harassing settlements along the disputed frontier between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers.