DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. December 27, 1859. Daybreak.
Cold, quiet, the kind of morning that doesn't give you any warning. Now, by that point, Juan Cortina had already made himself a name, and not a small one. In late 1859, his band had laid waste to the lower Rio Grande Valley.
Four hundred and fifty men riding with him. That is not a raiding party. That is an army.
And for a stretch, it seemed like nobody was going to slow him down. But somebody had other plans. Major S.
B. Heintzelman brought U.S. Army troops to bear, and alongside them rode Texas Rangers recruited by John S.
Ford. You may know that name better with the handle that came with it: Rip Ford. On the morning of December 27th, they surprised Cortina's band right here.
Surprised them at daybreak, which is about as cold a move as the Texas brush country allows. What happened next went fast. Cortina's four hundred and fifty men, that force that had terrorized the valley, scattered.
Some of his men jumped straight into the Rio Grande. Cortina himself fled to Mexico on horseback. The marker calls it a crushing defeat, and it earns that word.
The regarrisoning of Ringgold Barracks put an end to the partisan raids; for a time. And that little phrase, for a time, is doing a lot of work right there. Because then came the Civil War, running 1861 to 1865, and while that war had everybody's attention pointed elsewhere, Cortina was rising to power in Tamaulipas.
The raids came back. It wasn't until 1875 that Cortina was finally removed, and with that, the long, violent arc of his raids on the Rio Grande came to its close. One morning at daybreak, a surprise, a flight to Mexico, and still, it took sixteen more years to write the last line of that story.
What the marker says
Dec. 27, 1859 Crushing defeat for partisan leader Juan Cortina who in late 1859 laid waste the lower Rio Grande Valley. Cortina's band of 450 were surprised here at daybreak by Maj. S. B. Heintzelman with U.S. Army troops, joined by Texas Rangers recruited by John S. ("Rip") Ford. Cortina fled to Mexico by horseback. Many of his men jumped into the Rio Grande. Regarrisoning of Ringgold barracks put end to partisan raids for a time. But with the American Civil War (1861-1865) and Cortina's rise to power in Tamaulipas, raids were renewed — until Cortina was removed, 1875. (1970)