DUANE
Duane's take
The marker at this Cameron County site tells the story — and I'll tell it the way it deserves to be told. By December of 1845, the United States had annexed Texas, and that act alone was enough to light a fuse between two nations. Mexico had never let go of its claim to Texas, and when U.S.
Commander Zachary Taylor moved his Federal Army past the Nueces River in March of 1846 — setting up a supply base at Point Isabel and a garrison called Fort Brown right on the north bank of the Rio Grande — both sides knew something was coming. Taylor needed supplies, and to get them, he turned to a man named Roswell D. Denton.
Denton was appointed to transport supplies from New Orleans, and he in turn enlisted Patterson Rogers and Sons — Anderson W. Rogers and William L. Rogers — to haul goods overland from Corpus Christi to Point Isabel.
So on April 25th, 1846, the Rogers party set out. Patterson Rogers and his sons. Nine other men.
Three women. Four children. Supplies loaded and headed south.
They never made it. Near this very site, on May 1st, 1846, they were ambushed. The men who hit them were Mexican bandits, led by a man named Juan Balli.
Outnumbered, outgunned, with women and children in the party, Rogers made the only choice that seemed to offer any hope — he surrendered. Balli offered prisoner-of-war protections. Rogers took him at his word.
Balli broke that pledge. Two men were shot to death outright. The rest of the men were bound and marched to a bluff above the Arroyo Colorado.
There, their throats were slit, and their bodies were thrown into the Arroyo below. And when that was done, the women and children were murdered too. Every single one of them — except one.
William Long Rogers survived. Severely wounded, somehow still breathing, he pulled himself across more than forty miles of South Texas brush and heat and desperation until he reached a ranch near Fort Brown. He lived.
Not just that day, but for many years after. He became a prominent South Texas citizen — a man who walked out of something no one was supposed to walk out of. The Arroyo Colorado runs quiet now.
But this ground remembers what happened here on May 1st, 1846, and that marker makes sure the rest of us do too.
What the marker says
U.S. annexation of Texas in December 1845 intensified Mexico's asserted claim to Texas. In March 1846 U.S. Commander Zachary Taylor advanced his Federal Army beyond the Nueces River and established a supply base at Point Isabel and a garrison (Fort Brown) on the north bank of the Rio Grande. Roswell D. Denton, appointed by Taylor to transport supplies from New Orleans, enlisted Patterson Rogers and Sons, Anderson W. and William L. , to carry supplies from Corpus Christi to Point Isabel. The Rogerses, 9 other men, 3 women, and 4 children left Corpus Christi on April 25, 1846, with supplies bound for Point Isabel. Near this site on May 1, 1846, they were ambushed by Mexican bandits led by Juan Balli. Outnumbered and outgunned, Rogers surrendered when Balli offered prisoner-of-war protections. Balli broke his pledge and had two men shot to death. The rest of the men were bound and led to a bluff overlooking the Arroyo Colorado where their throats were slit and their bodies tossed into the Arroyo. The women and children were subsequently murdered. William Long Rogers miraculously survived and though severely wounded made his way over 40 miles to a ranch near Fort Brown. Rogers lived for many years and became a prominent South Texas citizen. (1994)