(Ed.'s Note: After troops were sent to South Texas following the takeover of Brownsville by Juan N. Cortina and his followers in September 1859 and before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, violence on the border continued sporadically even after U.S. Army Major Heintzelman and his troops aided by two companies of Texas Rangers chased "Cheno" and his followers into Mexico.
Throughout this time, Gov. Sam Houston - beseeched by Brownsville citizens - clamored for the troops that were stationed at Ft. Brown and other forts along the border to be restationed there. Their pleas were met with deep skepticism by members of the U.S. Senate who argued that the reason the residents wanted the troops were more economic that military. Sen. William Fessenden, a Maine Republican, who chaired the Senate Finance Committee, argued against enlarging the military and served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.
His views were opposed by Texas Senator Louis Trezevant Wigfall who later served as a Confederate State Senator after secession.)
The Congressional Globe
1860
FESSENDEN: Who is the man that is making this difficulty on the border? A Mexican-Texan, it seems. How did the difficulty arise? The papers say from a private quarrel. And a private quarrel growing out of the difficulties among the Mexicans and Americans on our side of the border.
![Image result for Senator fessenden]()
They state, moreover, (and it is stated in an affidavit from the clerk in the court from the region) that this Cortinas is a man who stood under indictment for murder; and although under indictment for murder, he was suffered to go at large, going into that town and going out as he pleased, under the eyes of the sheriff, and not arrested , the clerk says, and another witness says, because he was a man of political influence and carried votes, and the officers wanted his influence and did not interfere with him.
Subsequently, he got into a quarrel and committed outrages in Brownsville. He collected a body of men, Mexicans and Americans, such as he could pick out about him, went over to the other side and came back again.
What has been the result of this? It went on increasing until finally his forces were so large that it brought a collision between him and certain troops of ours. He was beaten by Major Heintzelman with two companies of Rangers; he fled across the border, and established himself some miles distant, in a position from which, in parties of twos or threes, his band makes incursions.
Major Heintzelman was applied to by others, to know what troops he wanted in order to protect that frontier, and he said that all he wanted after he had whipped this fellow with 500 men under him was two companies of Texas Rangers. Those two companies were furnished to him and he has them there. Nobody pretended there was any necessity for more troops, until the letter came from Gen. Houston, now Governor.
![Image result for Louis Trezevant Wigfall]()
WIGFALL: The senator from Maine will excuse me for interrupting him. I do not want to take up time, for I do not want to speak, but I made a motion here to call on the President before Governor Houston sent his message, and I introduced it two or three days before he got his official information.
FESSENDEN: That is not official information for us....Then sir, we have a curious piece of intelligence in reference to this matter which makes me somewhat suspicious, I must confess. A year ago Gen. (David E.) Twiggs withdrew the troops from two or three places in that neighborhood; and he gave as reason for it that it was not necessary thy should be continued; and there was a great outcry there at his withdrawing them, but the truth is, he said, that the people want them there for the mere purpose of the money that is spent.
They like to have the troops there for that purpose; and they make a greeat outcry when they are removed, because they get the benefit as long as they get the benefit of it so long as they remain: but it is not necessary...
Then it went on, as I have stated, from a beginning from a private quarrel among men, and getting on to a particular point, where those men are beaten and driven over the border by a small company of number of United States troops, aided by a couple of companies of Rangers, which are there now, and since then, on the call of governor Houston, all the disposable force that was necessary has been sent on its way there to meet these difficulties
In the face of that, we are called upon - not by the President, not by the Secretary of War, not by those to whom we have a right to look for advice in this matter, and who have a right to make the call - to make an appropriation to organize this regiment of volunteers, and to put it into the field in addition to what has been done.
(As the debate raged in the U.S. Senate on whether to send more soldiers to Brownsville to address border violence, the role of the Texas Rangers was glossed over and the assumption that they were an effective, well-regulated militia was swallowed without question. But were they? Read what professional military men though of these heroes.)
By Juan Montoya
“The Texas Rangers have historically been the bravest and most courageous fighters in Texas.”
![]()
Brownsville – Everyone is familiar with the braggadocio associated with the Texas Rangers. They like to repeat the “One Riot, One Ranger” myth to show their toughness.
But not everyone is familiar with their real performance under fire.
Without resorting to pedantic academic book reviews, let’s just take a local example of their daring-do to illustrate the lies behind the myth.
Everyone knows that among their legendary feats was their running battle with local bad boy Juan Nepomuceno (Señor to you, Mister) Cortina. Cheno, a much-maligned historical character by Texas historians. He has been called everything from a border bandit, a horse thief, and even the “Red Rogue of the Rio Grande.” Those guys can turn a phrase, can’t they?
Cortina confronted crooked businessmen and land thieves under the protection of recently-arrived government officials and the U.S. military. He rallied the local populace to battle those he saw as “vampires under the guise of men” who were quickly dispossessing the Mexican-(Americans) of their land.
Inevitably, these individuals appealed to state authorities and the governor sent the Rangers to quell the disturbances. Along the way they perpetrated outrages against local Mexicans and outright murdered innocent people to protect these crooked individuals.
But let’s not take these Mexicans’ word for it. Why not take the impartial account of a West Point graduate sent here by the U.S. Government at the request of the state to end to the Cortina Wars.![]()
Major Samuel Peter Heintzelman was sent to the border by the U.S. Army after
Cortina took over Brownsville on September 1859 and later laid siege to the town to settle scores with certain leading men he saw as enemies of his people.
Heintzelman kept a diary of his tour here and provides us with enlightening observations of the performance of the Texas Rangers under fire after they were attached to his unit to help him with Cortina. The excerpts below come directly from his book “Fifty Miles and a Fight.”
“Some 100 Rangers started out for Cortina’s camp,” he wrote Dec. 11, 1859. “They went out until they met the pickets and then after being fired upon, turned and came home. It is reported that one man had his gun shot out of his hand and then with a bullet through his hat.”
“I cannot get the Rangers to do anything effective in the way of scouting,” Heintzelman wrote Dec. 13, 1859, in page 138 of the book.
Then, several days later, while in hot pursuit of Cortina on Dec. 16, he wrote: “I halted and went near as proper with a small party and then tried to have the ground reconnoitered. With much delay I got a small party of Rangers, but they did not wish to move until daylight. The Rangers were not quite confident and held back, until I rode ahead and being joined by several officers we rode into the works and found them to be abandoned.”
That same day, Heintzelman wrote: “We passed on two miles or more. I all the time tried to keep the Rangers in advance and on the flanking, but with poor success.”
On page 139, the Major again comments on the brave Texans: “We entered a dense chaparral of ebony in what is called ‘El Ebonal.’ Here I dismounted most of the Rangers with orders to flank through the bushes. With the guns and wagons we passed slowly up the road. We soon left the Rangers behind.”
“A few of the enemy fled to the Rio Grande and crossed. The balance with their gun went up the road. Here the Rangers had an admirable opportunity for capturing the gun, but within 40 yards stopped and dismounted. The guns with the two horses and mules soon ran off.”
On page 141, Heintzelman again reported: “I am mystified at the little we have done with the near 300 men. It’s very mystifying to us, but no doubt it has had a depressing effect on the enemy. We would undoubtedly have done better without the Rangers.”
![]()
Again and again the professional soldier complains about the undisciplined, cruel and cowardly Rangers.
On page 143, he writes: “On Cortina’s rancho there was a heavy fence that made an excellent cover for the enemy. I had that burned but strictly forbade burning anything without my express order. This is setting a very bad example to Cortina and the Rangers were burning all friends and foes.”
Heintzelman pointedly signals out Ranger William Tobin as one of the least effective and most brutal members of the Ranger commanders.
He said: “Captain Tobin got in from Point Isabel this afternoon. Some of his men or stragglers hung a poor Mexican man. Tobin says he knew nothing about it and that it was done without his orders or knowledge. It will have a very bad effect.”
Tobin was in direct competition with John “Rip” Ford for command of the divided Ranger force.
Heintzelman refers to this by saying: “The Rangers are holding an election today for Major. William Tobin says if he is not elected, he will resign. If he doesn’t keep better order or do something I will write to the Governor and have the Rangers recalled. They are doing no service and bring only disservice to the country.”
Mythbuster:
The few times Texas Rangers have shown any of that legendary courage has been when their enemy was helpless and preferably unarmed. Professional soldiers like Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott looked down upon them as undisciplined, cowardly criminals who murdered unarmed civilians for no apparent reason other than for the fact that they were Mexicans.
Throughout this time, Gov. Sam Houston - beseeched by Brownsville citizens - clamored for the troops that were stationed at Ft. Brown and other forts along the border to be restationed there. Their pleas were met with deep skepticism by members of the U.S. Senate who argued that the reason the residents wanted the troops were more economic that military. Sen. William Fessenden, a Maine Republican, who chaired the Senate Finance Committee, argued against enlarging the military and served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.
His views were opposed by Texas Senator Louis Trezevant Wigfall who later served as a Confederate State Senator after secession.)
The Congressional Globe
1860
FESSENDEN: Who is the man that is making this difficulty on the border? A Mexican-Texan, it seems. How did the difficulty arise? The papers say from a private quarrel. And a private quarrel growing out of the difficulties among the Mexicans and Americans on our side of the border.
They state, moreover, (and it is stated in an affidavit from the clerk in the court from the region) that this Cortinas is a man who stood under indictment for murder; and although under indictment for murder, he was suffered to go at large, going into that town and going out as he pleased, under the eyes of the sheriff, and not arrested , the clerk says, and another witness says, because he was a man of political influence and carried votes, and the officers wanted his influence and did not interfere with him.Subsequently, he got into a quarrel and committed outrages in Brownsville. He collected a body of men, Mexicans and Americans, such as he could pick out about him, went over to the other side and came back again.
What has been the result of this? It went on increasing until finally his forces were so large that it brought a collision between him and certain troops of ours. He was beaten by Major Heintzelman with two companies of Rangers; he fled across the border, and established himself some miles distant, in a position from which, in parties of twos or threes, his band makes incursions.
Major Heintzelman was applied to by others, to know what troops he wanted in order to protect that frontier, and he said that all he wanted after he had whipped this fellow with 500 men under him was two companies of Texas Rangers. Those two companies were furnished to him and he has them there. Nobody pretended there was any necessity for more troops, until the letter came from Gen. Houston, now Governor.
WIGFALL: The senator from Maine will excuse me for interrupting him. I do not want to take up time, for I do not want to speak, but I made a motion here to call on the President before Governor Houston sent his message, and I introduced it two or three days before he got his official information.
FESSENDEN: That is not official information for us....Then sir, we have a curious piece of intelligence in reference to this matter which makes me somewhat suspicious, I must confess. A year ago Gen. (David E.) Twiggs withdrew the troops from two or three places in that neighborhood; and he gave as reason for it that it was not necessary thy should be continued; and there was a great outcry there at his withdrawing them, but the truth is, he said, that the people want them there for the mere purpose of the money that is spent.
They like to have the troops there for that purpose; and they make a greeat outcry when they are removed, because they get the benefit as long as they get the benefit of it so long as they remain: but it is not necessary...
Then it went on, as I have stated, from a beginning from a private quarrel among men, and getting on to a particular point, where those men are beaten and driven over the border by a small company of number of United States troops, aided by a couple of companies of Rangers, which are there now, and since then, on the call of governor Houston, all the disposable force that was necessary has been sent on its way there to meet these difficulties
In the face of that, we are called upon - not by the President, not by the Secretary of War, not by those to whom we have a right to look for advice in this matter, and who have a right to make the call - to make an appropriation to organize this regiment of volunteers, and to put it into the field in addition to what has been done.
(As the debate raged in the U.S. Senate on whether to send more soldiers to Brownsville to address border violence, the role of the Texas Rangers was glossed over and the assumption that they were an effective, well-regulated militia was swallowed without question. But were they? Read what professional military men though of these heroes.)
By Juan Montoya
“The Texas Rangers have historically been the bravest and most courageous fighters in Texas.”
Brownsville – Everyone is familiar with the braggadocio associated with the Texas Rangers. They like to repeat the “One Riot, One Ranger” myth to show their toughness.
But not everyone is familiar with their real performance under fire.
Without resorting to pedantic academic book reviews, let’s just take a local example of their daring-do to illustrate the lies behind the myth.
Everyone knows that among their legendary feats was their running battle with local bad boy Juan Nepomuceno (Señor to you, Mister) Cortina. Cheno, a much-maligned historical character by Texas historians. He has been called everything from a border bandit, a horse thief, and even the “Red Rogue of the Rio Grande.” Those guys can turn a phrase, can’t they?
Cortina confronted crooked businessmen and land thieves under the protection of recently-arrived government officials and the U.S. military. He rallied the local populace to battle those he saw as “vampires under the guise of men” who were quickly dispossessing the Mexican-(Americans) of their land.
Inevitably, these individuals appealed to state authorities and the governor sent the Rangers to quell the disturbances. Along the way they perpetrated outrages against local Mexicans and outright murdered innocent people to protect these crooked individuals.
But let’s not take these Mexicans’ word for it. Why not take the impartial account of a West Point graduate sent here by the U.S. Government at the request of the state to end to the Cortina Wars.
Major Samuel Peter Heintzelman was sent to the border by the U.S. Army after
Cortina took over Brownsville on September 1859 and later laid siege to the town to settle scores with certain leading men he saw as enemies of his people.
Heintzelman kept a diary of his tour here and provides us with enlightening observations of the performance of the Texas Rangers under fire after they were attached to his unit to help him with Cortina. The excerpts below come directly from his book “Fifty Miles and a Fight.”
“Some 100 Rangers started out for Cortina’s camp,” he wrote Dec. 11, 1859. “They went out until they met the pickets and then after being fired upon, turned and came home. It is reported that one man had his gun shot out of his hand and then with a bullet through his hat.”
“I cannot get the Rangers to do anything effective in the way of scouting,” Heintzelman wrote Dec. 13, 1859, in page 138 of the book.
Then, several days later, while in hot pursuit of Cortina on Dec. 16, he wrote: “I halted and went near as proper with a small party and then tried to have the ground reconnoitered. With much delay I got a small party of Rangers, but they did not wish to move until daylight. The Rangers were not quite confident and held back, until I rode ahead and being joined by several officers we rode into the works and found them to be abandoned.”
That same day, Heintzelman wrote: “We passed on two miles or more. I all the time tried to keep the Rangers in advance and on the flanking, but with poor success.”
On page 139, the Major again comments on the brave Texans: “We entered a dense chaparral of ebony in what is called ‘El Ebonal.’ Here I dismounted most of the Rangers with orders to flank through the bushes. With the guns and wagons we passed slowly up the road. We soon left the Rangers behind.”
“A few of the enemy fled to the Rio Grande and crossed. The balance with their gun went up the road. Here the Rangers had an admirable opportunity for capturing the gun, but within 40 yards stopped and dismounted. The guns with the two horses and mules soon ran off.”
On page 141, Heintzelman again reported: “I am mystified at the little we have done with the near 300 men. It’s very mystifying to us, but no doubt it has had a depressing effect on the enemy. We would undoubtedly have done better without the Rangers.”
Again and again the professional soldier complains about the undisciplined, cruel and cowardly Rangers.
On page 143, he writes: “On Cortina’s rancho there was a heavy fence that made an excellent cover for the enemy. I had that burned but strictly forbade burning anything without my express order. This is setting a very bad example to Cortina and the Rangers were burning all friends and foes.”
Heintzelman pointedly signals out Ranger William Tobin as one of the least effective and most brutal members of the Ranger commanders.
He said: “Captain Tobin got in from Point Isabel this afternoon. Some of his men or stragglers hung a poor Mexican man. Tobin says he knew nothing about it and that it was done without his orders or knowledge. It will have a very bad effect.”
Tobin was in direct competition with John “Rip” Ford for command of the divided Ranger force.
Heintzelman refers to this by saying: “The Rangers are holding an election today for Major. William Tobin says if he is not elected, he will resign. If he doesn’t keep better order or do something I will write to the Governor and have the Rangers recalled. They are doing no service and bring only disservice to the country.”
Mythbuster:
The few times Texas Rangers have shown any of that legendary courage has been when their enemy was helpless and preferably unarmed. Professional soldiers like Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott looked down upon them as undisciplined, cowardly criminals who murdered unarmed civilians for no apparent reason other than for the fact that they were Mexicans.