Thanks you for all your work writing this up. It's been an interesting read and am looking forward to future contributions.
You Sir too are welcome, truth is I'm learning as I go along.
Anyways....
One class of Texians I find especially interesting are those who came early (relatively speaking), ahead of the main swell of settlement, and made their living among the Tejanos, becoming fluent in Spanish and often taking Tejano wives.
These guys either arrived with or soon accumulated property and often married into (or attempted to marry into in the case of William Kerr) prominent Tejano families rather than marrying more ordinary anonymous Tejano women.
Phillip Dimmitt, Joseph Linn and William Kerr, all merchants/entepreneurs in the Victoria/Refugio/Goliad area, fall into this category. So too one could place James Bowie, although Bowie's aspirations never seem to have fallen into the merely mercantile. Deaf Smith was in a category all by himself; he married the widowed daughter of his vaquero business partner, raised her two daughters and she bore him four more children of his own. And as for marrying more ordinary Tejanos, we know that at least two defenders of the Alamo had married local girls, their father getting them out on the eve of the final assault.
But... here of Phillip Dimmitt.....
Dimmitt arrived in San Antonio de Bexar in 1823, twelve years ahead of the war. We do not know where he had learned Spanish, or from whence his capital to set up shop came, but shortly thereafter, still in his early twenties, he contracted to supply the needs of those soldiers stationed at the Alamo, said supplies presumably contracted from the United States (which flood of goods into Bexar oughtta interest somebody academic). He married a well-bred local Tejana and commenced to start a family.
As far as we know it was a case of hard work and honest dealings coming out ahead; the industrious Dimmitt rapidly expanded his business, by the outbreak of war he operated stores at Guadalupe Victoria (AKA Victoria), Goliad and also what was then an important point of entry; Dimmitt's Landing on the shore of Lavaca Bay (twenty miles due south of Victoria). Dimmitt was well thought of by those recently arrived colonists whom he served as well as with the original Tejano community. His prestige among and ability to work with the Tejanos served him well when it came to staying informed of developments on the Mexican side of the upcoming war.
Like most of the established Texians, Dimmitt started out a Federalist. He first appears in the war advocating the interception of arriving Centralist General Martin Perfecto de Cos and an anticipated $50,000 in Mexican funds either upon arrival at Copano Bay or during his passage inland to take command in San Antonio. That opportunity was missed but Dimmitt, taking up arms, joined an October expedition of 125 men that overwhelmed the Mexican garrison at La Bahia Mission in Goliad, thereby cutting Cos's lines of communication with the coast. Dimmitt assumed command of the fortification, $10,000 worth of captured supplies and a number of cannon were sent north to support the Texian siege of Cos at San Antonio.
At this point, the internal divisions among the Texians become apparent.
Against Austin's order, Dimmitt took the common-sense step of sending a small force to take Fort Lipantitlan at San Patricio on the Nueces River, essentially the entry point to what was then Texas and the closest fortification to Mexico proper. This was done, but then the commander of that small force dispatched by Dimmitt, one Ira Westover, communicated directly with Austin, going over Dimmitt's head.
By December, Dimmitt had become committed to Texas independence and was officially removed from command by the still-Federalist Austin for his trouble, his force at Goliad protested this order and remained loyal to Dimmitt. Dimmitt and a band of companions fought in in the Battle of Bexar at San Antonio that same month and then returned to Goliad where the pro-independence Dimmitt resumed de-facto command.
In January of '36 the pro-Federalist Matamoras Expedition under Grant and Johnson arrived at Goliad, along with the still-Federalist Sam Houston. It is most likely at this point that Dimmitt dispatched those twenty New Orleans Greys to recover the cannon left on the coast at Velasco.
Under pressure from Grant and Johnson and the then pro-Federalist-interim government, Dimmitt relinquished command, whereupon James Fannin took charge at Goliad. Dimmitt and thirty companions then returned to San Antonio to join the Alamo garrison.
By chance, Dimmit had been dispatched by Travis on a scouting mission towards the south when Santa Anna arrived from the west. After several days waiting from outside the town, when it became obvious the occupation was long-term and that a major invasion was underway, Dimmitt returned to Victoria with his family both to settle his affairs and to recruit more volunteers.
At that point the war moved so quickly Dimmitt was a step behind.
He narrowly missed joining Houston at Gonzales with a force of twenty volunteers, Houston having evacuated ahead of the advancing Mexican army. Then Dimmitt returned to Victoria and used his available resources to evacuate his neighbors just ahead of Urrea's advance. Again using his considerable resources and talents, Dimmitt arrived at San Jacinto with reinforcements and critical supplies just one day after that battle.
Dimmitt's eventual demise was unfortunate. By 1840 he was engaged in operating a trading post on the Nueces. A rival, one Henry Kinney, operated a competing post fifteen miles downriver at what is now Corpus Christi. At that time the Nueces was the de-facto Border adjacent to the notorious Nueces Strip, and the usual smuggling with the collusion of both sides prevailed. Dimmitt was captured in a punitive raid by Mexican forces that left Kinney's post suspiciously intact.
In Mexico, Dimmitt was a wanted man on account of his prior activities in the war and was removed to the interior. Expecting execution and otherwise despairing of ever gaining his freedom, he is said to have purposely taken an overdose of opium.
He was survived by his wife and two sons, Antonio Alamo Dimmitt and Texas Philip Dimmitt.
Birdwatcher
