Battle of Medina


 * For the decisive tank battle fought on 27 February 1991 during the Persian Gulf War see the Battle of Medina Ridge

The Battle of Medina was fought approximately 20 miles south of San Antonio de Bexar (modern-day Downtown San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas) on August 18, 1813 as part of the Mexican War of Independence against Spanish authority in Mexico. Spanish Royalist troops led by General José Joaquín de Arredondo defeated Republican forces (calling themselves the Republican Army of the North), consisting of Tejano-Mexican and Tejano-American revolutionaries participating in the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition, under General José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois.

Background
Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara took up the effort to free Texas from Spain. Colonel Gutiérrez visited Washington, DC, and gained support for his efforts. In 1812, Colonel Augustus William Magee, who had commanded United States Army troops guarding the border of the “Neutral Ground” between Louisiana and Texas, resigned his commission and formed the Republican Army of the North to aid the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition. The army flew a solid emerald green flag, thought to have been introduced by Colonel Magee, who was of Protestant Irish descent.

Nacogdoches was taken on August 12, 1812, with little opposition, and on November 7, 1812 the Republican Army of the North marched into what is present day Goliad, where they took the Presidio La Bahia. Spanish royalists soon confronted them, beginning a four-month siege. While at La Bahia, Colonel Magee died on February 6, 1813. After numerous battles and heavy losses, the Spanish lifted the siege and returned to San Antonio de Bexar.

On March 25, 1813 the Republican Army of the North left La Bahia for Bexar after receiving reinforcements. Colonel Samuel Kemper replaced Magee, and Lieutenant Colonel Reuben Ross was elected second in command.

Battle
There were approximately 1,400 Texians in Lara's Republican Army at the time, composed of Tejanos, Americans, Euro-Mexicans (Criollos), former Spanish Royalist soldiers aided by an auxiliary force of Indians and at least one black slave. This army being led by General Toledo, had camped on the north bank of the Medina River, about six miles north of Arredondo's 1,800 Royalist troops which were encamped near present-day Leming, Texas.

The battle lasted for four hours. Toledo's plan called for an ambush on the Royalist troops as they would march through a defile on the Bexar–Laredo road. Similarly, Arredondo had sent out a scouting party with some cavalry in the morning to try to determine the location of Toledo's troops. Quite accidentally, they happened upon the Republican ambush and retreated after a brief exchange of fire.

The Republican soldiers gave chase, apparently mistaking the cavalry which kicked up large clouds of dust for the main army; it is believed that Toledo tried in vain to stop his troops from advancing. In their pursuit, they were slowed down by the sandy terrain; the guns they were dragging with them became deeply mired. By the time they reached the Spanish lines, they were tired and thirsty. However, they did manage to rout some Spanish artillery units and were trying a flanking maneuver when they were repulsed by Spanish cavalry units. The situation had been less than clear for Arredondo, and he was prepared to order his troops to fall back, when he seems to have been informed by a defector that the Republican troops were also attempting to disengage due to exhaustion. He then ordered an advance instead.

The Republicans fled in disorder. Toledo and a few of their associates headed straight for Louisiana. Bexarenos stopped in San Antonio just long enough to gather their families. The Spanish army continued to press, killing many of the fleeing soldiers. Most of the remainder were captured and then in a portent of the future Texas War of Independence were summarily executed. Fewer than 100 out of 1,400 soldiers on the Republican side survived, while the Royalists lost only 55 men. The remains of the Republican troops were left to rot and not buried until 1822 when José Félix Trespalacios, the first governor of Coahuila y Tejas under the newly established United Mexican States, ordered a detachment of soldiers to gather their bones and bury them honorably under an oak tree that grew on the battlefield.

The subsequent punitive measures against the supporters of the revolt had a negative effect upon the province. It is believed that the counter-insurgency policies of the Spaniards led to a substantial decline of the Tejano population.

Some of Guttierrez-Magee participants were sons of American revolutionaries or fought with Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, and of the few who survived, some fought again during the second Texas Revolution in 1835–36. José Antonio Navarro, a founding father of Texas and José Francisco Ruiz, both future signers of the 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence, took part in the 1812-1813, Magee, Gutiérrez and Toledo resistance movements and later served as leaders in the Texas Revolution.

One of the dead, Peter Sides, was not a son of, but an actual veteran of the American Revolution. Sides (originally Seitz) was about 62 when he marched off from his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with Magee and the other revolutionaries. A native of North Carolina of German ancestry, Seitz was a career soldier who fought in the first militia at Nashborough (later Nashville) and in Logan County, Kentucky before he and his family relocated to Baton Rouge in 1799. Markers from the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas have been placed on the battle site in Sides’ honor.

Nearly all the names of the other 1,300 or so dead from the Republic Army of the North have been lost to history.

Battlefield markers
The location of the Battle of Medina has not been archaeologically determined. There are three historical markers for the battle. The first marker was placed by the State of Texas for the 1936 Texas Centennial at the southeast corner of U.S. Route 281 and Farm to Market Road 2537 in Bexar County. The second marker was placed by the State of Texas in 2005 at the corner of Old Applewhite Road and Bruce Road in Atascosa County. The third marker was placed by Robert P. Marshall in 2013 on Old Pleasanton Road south of the intersection with Bruce Road. This marker is based on his own research and not recognized by the state.