DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Velasco, Brazoria County, has to say — and friend, it is quite a story. Now, most folks, when they think about the Texas War for Independence, they think of the Alamo, they think of San Jacinto. But right here, at the mouth of the Brazos River, something happened before all of that.
Something that, depending on how you look at it, maybe didn't even need to happen — and yet set the whole thing in motion anyway. June 26, 1832. Texans under John Austin and Henry Smith are coming down river with cannon.
Big, serious, iron-and-powder cannon. Their destination: Anahuac, where there was a dispute brewing with Mexican forces. To get there, they had to pass through the mouth of the Brazos.
And standing between them and that passage was Lt. Col. Domingo de Ugartechea, commander of Mexican forces at Velasco.
Ugartechea looked at that vessel bearing cannon and said — no. You are not passing through. Now here's where the story takes on a particular shade of irony, and you're going to want to hold onto it.
Some 112 Texans attacked the port at midnight. Midnight. They hit that garrison with rifles and cannon, and for nine hours — nine long, smoky, thundering hours — the fighting raged.
After nine hours under that fire, the Mexican garrison was forced to surrender. The Battle of Velasco, the very first armed collision between Texas colonists and the Mexican military, a conflict the marker calls preliminary to the Texas War for Independence — it was over. And then comes the part that'll sit with you a while.
That quarrel at Anahuac — the whole reason they were hauling those cannon down the river in the first place — it had already been peaceably settled. Before the first shot. The battle that opened the road to revolution was fought after the dispute that caused it had quietly closed.
Nobody at Velasco knew. The guns didn't know. History didn't stop to check.
Four years later, after the victory at San Jacinto, President David G. Burnet moved the capital of the Republic of Texas temporarily here — to Velasco. And on May 14, 1836, right here, the Treaty of Velasco was signed, ending hostilities between Texas and Mexico.
The place where the first shots were fired became the place where peace was written down. That's Velasco. The beginning and, for a moment, the end — all at the mouth of the same river.
What the marker says
Here was fought a battle-- the first collision in arms between Texas colonists and the Mexican military-- a conflict preliminary to the Texas War for Independence. On June 26, 1832, when Texans under John Austin and Henry Smith came down river with cannon for use against Mexican forces at Anahuac, they ran against the resistance of Lt. Col. Domingo de Ugartechea. As commander of Mexican forces at Velasco, Ugartechea refused passage through the mouth of the Brazos River to the vessel bearing the cannon to Anahuac. Some 112 Texans attacked the port at midnight, and after 9 hours under the fire of Texas rifles and cannon, the Mexican garrison was forced to surrender. The Battle of Velasco, brought on by a customs quarrel at Anahuac, was unknowingly fought after the dispute at Anahuac had been peaceably settled. After the victory at San Jacinto 4 years later, President David G. Burnet moved the capital of the Republic of Texas temporarily to Velasco. Here the Treaty of Velasco, ending hostilities between Texas and Mexico, was signed on May 14, 1836. (1965)