As they did more and more often, the Texians decided not to listen to Austin. The unrest erupted at the settlement at Anahuac on Galveston Bay, frequently a trouble spot because of the customs house there, and the small garrison. In May the Mexican commander arrested Travis when he tried to follow the pattern of what Bowie had done that winter and raise a civilian militia a defend Anahuac from hostile Indians—who were, of course, well more than one hundred miles away. In the resulting uproar, Texians around Anahuac advanced against the garrison in June, laid bloodless siege to it, and finally forced its surrender. In the process they declared themselves in favor of Santa Anna, and soon other communities did the same. Yet Austin was opposed to this, and in San Felipe the ayuntamiento over the issue. Sam Williams urged peace and passivity, while Bowie's new friend Wharton denounced the pacifists and called for resistance. The Texians themselves were being split by events in poor troubled Mexico.
Bowie left no record of his reaction to this growing turmoil, but his position is not hard to judge. His political interests in the past had always been closely allied with his personal fortunes. At the moment his ambitions were tied to his land speculation and possibly the cotton mill, and his most important personal alliance was with the Vermendis. All those interests argued in favor of maintaining the status quo. Governor Letona thought the April 6, 1830, prohibition on colonization was unconstitutional, and Vice Governor Veramendi would have been in accord thanks to his own interests in land speculation. This at least gave some hope of an eventual relaxation or abrogation of the policy. No one knew what Santa Anna would do if he came to power, and Austin actually feared that the republicans might make colonization even more difficult. As for his personal friendships, those bonds always so important and influential to James Bowie, he maintained close ties to men in both camps—Williams and Navarro on one side, and Wharton and Frank Johnson on the other. For the moment that was the best place for a man of business to be. As for the active participants in the gathering troubles, neither side seemed to regard Bowie as one of its own, suggesting that he kept completely out of the political discussion. But with his rising reputation as a man of action in the field, both may have viewed him as someone they might one day need, and soon.
Bowie himself had family matters to attend to just then. The depth and nature of the relations between him and Ursula is a secret that each kept to the grave. Ham found her “a most esteemed lady” who obviously adored her husband. As for Bowie, Ham saw that he was “kind and gently—anticipating wants and wishes with great foresight and judgment.”13 Occasionally the Bowies stopped at Gelhorne's tavern in Gonzales, and there the keeper's daughter thought Ursula “a woman beautiful in person and character.”14 Capt. William G. Hunt, who sometimes accompanied Bowie on his wilderness rambles, recalled that “Mrs. Bowie was a beautiful Castilian lady, and won all hearts by her sweet manners. Bowie seemed supremely happy with and devoted to her, more like a kind and tender lover than the rough backwoodsman.”15 In his only known surviving reference to her, Bowie himself spoke of Ursula as “my dearly beloved wife.”16
Certainly Bowie was a man with a sense of the romantic, and of romantic justice. The regulars at Jonathan Peyton's San Felipe tavern, where Bowie boarded when in town, told the story of a young couple who wanted to wed when the Catholic priest was not present to perform the service. In such circumstances settlers customarily held a “constitutional marriage,” a nonbinding ceremony after which they would live as man and wife until the priest could arrive to make their would live as man and wife until priest could arrive to make their union formal—and legal, since no Protestant marriage was allowed or considered legal under current restrictions. But Bowie recognized the would-be groom as a horse thief who already had an abandoned wife and children. He got a friend to pose as a Mexican priest whose unexpected arrival would allow a legal ceremony to take place. The ersatz priest supposedly spoke no English, however, so Bowie offered to act as interpreter, and while the priest gave the groom his catechism and took his confession, Bowie repeated every sentence in a voice so loud that others in the house, including the prospective bride, could hear. At Bowie's prompting the priest asked the charlatan during confession about his horse stealing and his abandoned family, and both questions and answers were heard by the Peytons and the bride. When the priest left to take her confession, she called off the wedding, and Mrs. Peyton ordered the scoundrel out of the house.17
Yet, strangely, for all his concern for that young bride, and his supposed devotion to Ursula, Bowie repeatedly left his own new wife for long periods, an abandonment that must have been very hard on a young woman just turned twenty, especially the daughter of an aristocrat. Bowie barely got back from the second San Saba expedition in time for their first anniversary, and during that first year was away from her for almost five months in all. Such long absences were not all that unusual among the wandering breed of frontier entrepreneurs and adventurers like Bowie. Crockett often left his second wife for extended periods as he scouted new lands and went on long hunts. A wife could be more a luxury than a necessity to their kind, and the routine of home and hearth hardly competed with the excitement of exploration, treasure hunting, and the wilderness. Certainly Bowie never found a spouse to be a necessity until he was thirty-five, in his day rather old for a man to be marrying for the first time. And it could not be denied that she was beyond question the very best match a man of his inclinations could have made in Texas. Being Veramendi's son-in-law would open to him every door in all of Mexico. This does not mean that he did not love her when they were wed, or that he did not come to love her in his way while they were married. Many who knew James Bowie testified to his attentiveness and respect toward women, a requirement of the time in any man essaying to be called a gentleman, but his repeated absences for such long periods make it evident that lovely young Ursula was always secondary to him. To men of action like himself, male loyalties were always the strongest, as were his bonds to his brothers.
And so Ursula continued to wait for him. After a year of marriage she might have hoped to be expecting their first child, but his absences severely reduced the chances for that, and then sometime in June, after barely two months at home, he left her again, off once more to chase the silver rainbow on the San Saba. But this time he scarcely got into the interior as far as the Colorado before an urgent message from Austin caught up with him.18 Political events were racing. Dissidents had captured a Mexican vessel at the mouth off the Brazos, declaring themselves for Santa Anna. In San Felipe Samuel Williams, in charge in Austin's absence, invoked the empresario's name in declaring that “this once happy and prosperous country is now a perfect charnal house of anarchy and confusion.”19 Then Austin himself arrived in San Felipe in mid-July to find his own community in turmoil, with men like Wharton and Johnson pushing for a declaration of unity with Santa Anna.
Austin needed someone he could count on, as his associate Williams had disappointed him by letting things get out of hand. The there were rumblings of discord at Nacogdoches, and with a new community in Texas confronting Mexican garrisons and going over to the republicans almost weekly now, he was torn in too many directions. He had to remain in San Felipe to contain events there. What he needed was someone to send to Nacogdoches, the kind of man who could control events. He needed James Bowie. Whatever else he thought of Bowie, Austin knew by now that he was a leader born for such moments. Moreover, as a land speculator Bowie would have shared his view at this time that an uproar of any kind could damage hopes of a repeal of the April 6, 1830, decree. Austin sent a messenger to the colorado with an urgent request that Bowie come immediately to San Felipe, where “his services were greatly needed.”
The message reached Bowie sometime in mid-July, and he dropped his prospecting at once. By late in the month he was in San Felipe, where Austin asked him to go to Nacogdoches. Austin had no authority to give Bowie any sort of formal commission, but certainly he sent with him his endorsement and a request that the colonists l
isten to Bowie and follow his leadership in forestalling a confrontation.20 By the time of Bowie's arrival there was no time to lose, for now San Felipe itself, led by Johnson, had declared for Santa Anna, and by late Felipe itself, led by Johnson, had declared for Santa Anna, and by late in July Nacogdoches was ready to erupt. Its Texian community knew that Colonel Piedras, commanding the Twelfth Permanent Battalion posted there, opposed Santa Anna and the republic and rigidly enforced the law against immigrants coming from the United States, almost all of whom would pass through Nacogdoches. Worse, it was rumored that he was inciting local Indians to massacre Texians if they declared for Santa Anna.21 Inspired by the successful expulsion of the Mexicans from Anahuac, men from nearby settlements were known to be mustering to march to Piedras. Bowie left immediately, pausing only to send Ursula a letter that she would have to wait longer to see him again, for he could not predict how long this commission might last or where it would lead him.22 No later than Just 31 he rode out of San Felipe, pushing hard to reach Nacogdoches before an explosion.23
He was just a day too late. By July 31 some three hundred men had left their farms. They converged on Nacogdoches the next day, giving Piedras an ultimatum to surrender. He chose rather to resist, whereupon the unorganized Texians elected James Bullock their commander and the next day at noon marched into the town. When they reached the central square, Piedras attacked. It was not much of a battle, and after nightfall of August 2 Piedras decided to evacuate. Bowie arrived that same evening to find Bullock already in command.24 During the night they heard sounds from the Mexican position as Piedras had his men throw all the arms and ammunition they could not take with them into wells. They interpreted the noise as preparations for a dawn attack, but the coming of light revealed instead that the Mexicans had gone.25
In the face of this revelation, Bullock either lost his control over the attackers or else he simply did not know what to do, for his men seemed leaderless.26 Bowie stepped into the vacuum and apparently on his own authority took twenty men and mounted to pursue Piedras.27 It was like Bowie to take twenty to attack two hundred. They raced toward the Angelina River, some ten miles south, on the road they believed the Mexicans had taken. Though Piedras enjoyed a several-hour head start, still he moved slowly, and Bowie easily rode around his line of advance to put himself in position south of the Angelina when the Mexicans approached the crossing. With his men in ambush, Bowie calmly watched as Piedras sent a mounted advance party down to the river to reconnoiter. While their horses drank, a shot rang out, and a Mexican sergeant fell from his saddle into the stream. Immediately the rest of the party galloped back to Piedras, while Bowie mounted his men and pulled them back prudently.
Having put fear into the Mexicans without revealing how small was his command. Bowie simply kept Piedras in sight for the rest of the day. The Mexicans crossed the Angelina but then, confused and apprehensive, moved no farther, making camp there that night. Bowie camped his own men not far away, and the next morning he sent a man named Bolina to Piedras with a bold demand for his surrender, threatening that they would all be killed otherwise. Bowie's bluff did not ruffle Piedras, but it convinced some of his officers that they were in mortal peril. Capt. Francisco Medina was sufficiently persuaded that he drew his pistol, put it to Piedras's head and insisted that Bowie's demand be met. Piedras simply handed Medina his sword, and with it the command, telling him to do as he pleased.
When Medina sent word accepting the Texians' terms, Bowie himself rode up at the head of the rest of his men and immediately disarmed the soldados. That done, he put them all on the march back to Nacogdoches, and no doubt a thundering welcome as his band of twenty came in with more than ten times their numbers as prisoners. It was even better than the San Saba fight. Once again Bowie had conquered overwhelming odds. With twenty men he had achieved completely what 300 disorganized Texians had failed to do a few days before. There was no Texas army or even militia in the summer of 1832, no commanders or officers or enlisted men. Yet no one could question that from this moment onward, James Bowie's was the first name to come to mind when any crisis arose that required a leader of men.28
Once the congratulations faded, the civil leaders in Nacogdoches sent Piedras to San Felipe under parole, and asked Bowie to take command of an escort to conduct the soldados to San Felipe, where they would be discharged.29 The column left on August 7 or 8, but by the time they crossed the Angelina, Bowie was already concerned for the soldiers. “They are very destitute of necessaries,” he reported. Even many of the officers were on foot without horses. He sent ahead to Austin asking for horses, and for the men some beefs and provisions. At the same time he announced, with wry humor, that the regiment “has been induced by certain American arguments to declare in favor of the Constitution of Sa[nta] Anna,”, and that it had, in fact, “put itself under my command.”30 Bowie also gave his personal receipt for seventy-four dollars' worth of supplies and a wagon for the sick and wounded.31
In the end Bowie took the soldiers all the way to San Antonio, where they would remain for months. He arrived sometime around September 17, and the next day received from Captain Medina himself a not of thanks for his kindness and consideration on their march. At the same time, perhaps as a reward, Alcalde Seguín gave Bowie a rifle.32 Just how Bowie dealt with his celebrity to user to it his benefit. Regardless of where he had stood on political matters prior to the Nacogdoches episode, his capture of Piedras identified him with the santanistas at the very least, while men of even more ambitious views, those who dreamed of making Texas a province independent of Coahuila, saw in him a potential ally. And there were even those who wanted an early and complete separation from Mexico, an independent Texas. “Col Bowie was reputed to have entertained similar views,” Caiaphas Ham said years later.33 Bowie may not have crossed that particular line as yet, however. Indeed, as subsequent events revealed, he still saw the best interests of his own future lying in a Mexican Texas. Nevertheless, in those huddled tavern conversations and in meetings in the back rooms of San Felipe and elsewhere, when independence was the subject, men naturally assumed that Bowie would be in the vanguard when the time for action arrived.
News of interest awaited Bowie when he returned to San Antonio in September after an absence of at least three months. The disturbances at Anahuac and Matamoros and Nacogdoches were in no way coordinated with Santa Anna's uprising in Mexico, but coincidentally each worked to the benefit of the other, and the Texians were quick to imply for his benefit that their acts were done in the interest of his movement. The more they saw of the general's progress, the more they saw Santa Anna as a liberal whose rise to rule would benefit them. This alone troubled Austin. Back in March 1832 when he left for Saltillo, he extracted from his supporters the promise that they would not allow matters in San Felipe to get out of hand. But then, apparently immediately after his Nacogdoches triumph, Bowie joined with Wharton and others and used his newfound prominence to excite the citizens into calling for a convention to meet in October.34 When the delegates from all the leading communities—with the notable exception of San Antonio—met, they drafted resolutions to Santa Anna asking for the repeal of the April 6, 1830, decree; a reduction of the tariff and some means of controlling their often corrupt customs officers; a reorganization of local government to speed the issuing of land titles; and permission to raise their own militia for protection against hostile Indians. Most dramatic of all, however, they asked for the separation of Texas from Coahuila and its admission as an equal state in the Mexican republic. It was everything that Austin had hoped to avoid. Shortly afterward he would lament that he had always wanted to keep Texas out of the revolutionary fervor then seizing Mexico, but that “the flame broke out in my absence from Texas.”35 This precipitous action could send a signal to Santa Anna that the Texians were too ambitious, and certainly Austin blamed Bowie in party. Only the strenuous efforts of his supporters in the convention kept the body from sending the resolutions on to Mexico City immediately. Instead
the convention finally agreed to hold them for reconsideration and affirmation by another meeting set for April 1833.36
Bowie could play no active role in the convention itself, since his residence was San Antonio, and that municipality had chosen not to send representatives. But merely by speaking out in favor of the meeting, he showed that he was feeling his sudden influence in public affairs. It was the kind of role he had wanted to play in Louisiana before the perfidy of Brent and others ruined his chances for a seat in Congress. Just as Texas brought back to life his old dreams of wealth from land, so it also offered resurrection for his hopes of position and influence. Besides, the ideas reflected in the convention's resolutions allsuited his business purposes, while its action suited his temperament. Patience, calculation, and biding time were for men like Austin. When Bowie had an idea or espoused a goal, he wanted it realized immediately, usually without thought of the consequences. He may not have felt great opposition to Austin's long-held policy of saying and doing nothing to challenge or upset the Mexicans, because that, too, had served Bowie's ends. But now, seeing the ease with which Mexican garrisons were being driven from Texas, Bowie was emboldened to take a more aggressive stance. If he was disappointed that the sending of the resolutions was postponed, he could still take heart from the fact that Austin himself had been forced to adopt the convention's views in order not to bring down on himself accusations of being a traitor to Texians' interests.
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