Although the Battle of Gonzales (2 October 1835) is recognized as the first of the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836, hostilities actually began in 1832 with the Anahuac Disturbances and the Battle of Velasco (25-26 June 1832). The Anahuac Disturbances began with an altercation between the Mexican military commander of the post at Anahuac, Juan Davis Bradburn, and the Anglo-American who would later become famous as the commander of the garrison at the Alamo, William Barret Travis.
Anahuac Disturbances of 1832
Juan Davis Bradburn (1787-1842) was born John Davis Bradburn in Virginia. He was initially a slave trader before entering military service and fought at the Battle of New Orleans (8 January 1815), the last engagement of the War of 1812. He then enlisted in the Mexican army fighting for independence from Spain and, after that was won in 1821, he received an officer's commission. In 1830, he was sent to Anahuac in the region of modern-day Texas to command a customs post and military garrison.
The Anglo-Americans (Texians) in Anahuac received him warmly, believing a fellow American would be lenient in enforcing laws they had grown used to ignoring. Bradburn, however, was a 'strictly by the book' official who quickly became unpopular with the Texians by insisting they abide by the laws of Mexico and local ordinances, while, prior to his arrival, they had more or less done as they pleased. Mexico had outlawed slavery in 1829, but many, if not most, of the Anglo-Americans had arrived in Mexico with their slaves and refused to free them. Bradburn did not have the authority to force them to emancipate their slaves (owing to concessions made to Anglo-Americans by the Mexican government) but did what he could when the opportunity arose.
In August 1831, Bradburn took in two (sometimes given as three) slaves who had escaped their master, William M. Logan of Louisiana, and refused to return them, employing them instead on his estate. In May 1832, Logan hired William Barret Travis (1809-1836), a lawyer practicing in Anahuac, to get them back. Bradburn again refused and soon after received a letter warning him that 100 armed men, led by Logan, would soon arrive to take the slaves unless they were turned over. Bradburn suspected this was just a ploy by Travis to scare him into returning the slaves and had him arrested. Patrick C. Jack, Travis' law partner, arrived at Bradburn's office to demand his release and was then also arrested.
Tensions mounted when the Texians learned that Bradburn was gathering evidence against the two men without allowing them legal representation, planning on sending them to Matamoros for trial on charges of treason – as Bradburn believed that both Jack and Travis were also behind an earlier letter he had received demanding Texan independence. If that could be proven, the men would be convicted of treason, a capital offense. The Texians felt Jack and Travis were being illegally detained and feared they would be executed without a fair trial.
On 10 June, the Texian militia of 150 men, under Frank W. Johnson, took over buildings near Bradburn's post. Bradburn responded by having Jack and Travis taken from their cells and bound and staked to the ground, surrounded by soldiers aiming their weapons at the two men, promising they would be shot unless the rebels dispersed. The militia had captured 19 Mexican cavalry officers and said they would exchange them for Jack, Travis, and some other prisoners Bradburn had arrested on charges of theft.
Bradburn agreed to these terms, and the prisoners were exchanged, but afterwards, some rebels refused to leave and were engaged by Mexican troops in a skirmish referred to as the Battle of Anahuac. The militia then withdrew to Turtle Bayou, where they drafted the Turtle Bayou Resolutions, stating their demands for changes in the present government and a return to the model of the Mexican Constitution of 1824, which they felt offered them greater freedoms.
Battle of Fort Velasco
Although the immediate crisis had passed, the Texians wanted Bradburn out of Anahuac, and if Mexican authorities would not act on this, they would deal with it themselves. On 13 June, the militia sent several men, led by John Austin (no relation to Stephen F. Austin), to Brazoria to bring back reinforcements and cannon. Austin proposed that his party of around 150 men attack Fort Velasco on the Brazos River, which they could raid for more weapons and artillery, on their way back with the cannon and recruits. The militia leaders approved this plan.
The party traveled to Brazoria, and new recruits and cannon were loaded on board a schooner, the Brazoria, for the return trip. Austin sent word to Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, commander of Mexican forces in the region, stationed at Fort Velasco, that they would be sailing by the fort with men and cannon but posed no threat to him. Ugartechea, of course, understood the cannon would be used to cause further troubles in Anahuac and replied that he would not let the ship pass the fort.
Austin sailed up anyway, anchored off Fort Velasco on 25 June, and attacked around midnight. The conflict went on through the next morning when heavy rain and the resultant mud forced the Texians to retreat. The attack had been completely unexpected, and so there were few reserves of ammunition in the fort. On the morning of 26 June, Ugartechea was informed by his men that they were almost out of powder and shot for their weapons, and so they surrendered.
The Texians lost seven men in the battle (14 wounded), and the Mexicans lost five (16 wounded), a higher casualty count than the Battle of Gonzales (two Mexicans killed, one Texian injured). Ugartechea accepted the terms presented that the garrison would leave Fort Velasco and go to Matamoros. Austin and his men then prepared to march on Anahuac and force Bradburn's resignation when word arrived that he had already been removed from his post and had left Anahuac. The Texians now held Fort Velasco and its artillery but had no use for it with Bradburn gone and so returned to their homes. Bradburn was so unpopular that every ship's captain refused him passage out of Anahuac, and he wound up walking to Louisiana.
General Cos Calls for Travis' Arrest
The Anahuac Disturbances are not cited as the start of the Texas Revolution because, unlike the Battle of Gonzales, the events in Anahuac did not immediately lead to further engagements. The Battle of Gonzales took place on 2 October 1835, the Battle of Goliad on 10 October, and the Battle of Concepción on 28 October. After the Anahuac Disturbances, however, there were no further engagements until 1835.
Another reason why the Anahuac Disturbances are not regarded as the start of the Texas Revolution is that the Mexican authorities did not consider these events an uprising but simply an altercation between Bradburn and Travis that had gotten out of hand. Bradburn was chastised for his handling of the situation and replaced, temporarily, by Colonel José de las Piedras, but no charges were brought against Travis.
In July 1835, most likely assuming that since he had gotten away with resistance before, he could do so again, Travis challenged authorities when, with a force of 25 men, he captured 40 Mexican troops who had arrested two Texians for protesting higher taxes. The troops were disarmed, sent on their way out of Anahuac, and the prisoners released.
This act so incensed General Martín Perfecto de Cos (1800-1854), stationed at Matamoros, that he called for Travis' arrest in a letter of 1 August 1835 to the Ayuntamiento (municipal council) of Brazos. In the letter, he makes it clear that the Anahuac Disturbances of 1832 and 1835 were not a general uprising but the work of Travis. The letter reads, in part:
The scandalous attack upon Anahuac, criminal in every point of view, did indeed create for a moment a doubt of the loyalty of the inhabitants of Texas to the Mexican Government because it was made to appear as the act of all…but I have had the greatest satisfaction today in reading the exposition which various citizens of your town directed to Col. Domingo de Ugartechea…in which they manifest explicitly their regret and disapprobation of that circumstance and renew their assurances of obedience to the Laws of the Republic.
As it is impossible that the attack made upon the garrison of Anahuac should pass with impunity, I require and stimulate the patriotism of your honor to proceed immediately and without excuse to the apprehension of the ungrateful and bad citizen W. B. Travis who headed the revolutionary party; and to cause him to be conducted to Bexar in the safest manner, and placed at the disposal of the principal commandant of the state in order that he may be tried and punished according to Law.
I am informed the above-named Travis is an injury to these inhabitants of Texas and it is a shame that the public authorities should, in cold blood, be tolerating his excesses when he ought to have been punished long since.
(Cos' Letter, Portal to Texas History)
Travis was never arrested. Acting on Cos' letter, the Mexican authorities demanded that the Texians surrender him, but they refused, and, instead, he was rewarded with a commission as lieutenant colonel of the cavalry. After the Anahuac Disturbances, he moved to San Felipe, where, because everyone now knew his name, his law practice boomed.
Conclusion
Travis was not present at the Battle of Gonzales because he was at home, suffering from a bad cold and a sore throat, but rode with a cavalry unit as a scout during the Siege of Béxar in December 1835 when the forces under Stephen F. Austin forced General Cos, who had taken refuge in the old mission complex known as the Alamo, to surrender and leave Texas. Travis would return to the Alamo in February 1836 and become immortalized as a hero of Texas when he was killed there with the other defenders at the Battle of the Alamo on 6 March 1836.
