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In case folks ain't caught on yet, a simply phenomenal website on all things Texian is Wallace L. McKeehan's Texas A&M website Sons of Dewitt's Colony....

http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/dewitt.htm

San Patricio down there on the Nueces is of particular interest to me, a few hundred Irish settling in the midst of practically nowhere. Being generally familiar with the locale and the climate, it ain't a place I'd want to live in a mud and pole hut with an adobe fireplace and thatched roof, especially if'n I was native to cool, wet and rainy Ireland.

Some quotes via McKeehan...

In Almonte's "Statistical Report of 1834" be gave the population of San Patricio as 600...

..there was bad feeling in some quarters toward the Anglo-Americans. The only bond that the Irish had with them was that of language. Some of the San Patricians considered people from the United States as foreign as the Mexicans, if not more so. In fact, they had a better opportunity to know the Mexicans than they did Austin's colonists. The reason? Their proximity. Mexican rancheros were living among them.....

There was no religious barrier; both were Catholic. The soldiers of the garrison of Lipantitlan could be seen on the streets of San Patricio without causing alarm. Lt. Marcelino Garcia, second in command, was a friend of Empresario James McGloin, and William O'Docharty was on friendly terms with the commandant, Captain Nicolas Rodriguez. The year 1834 was a year of peace and conviviality for San Patricio. John J. Linn has said that Texas was a territorial paradise. He went on to say,

"A tax collector would have been a curiosity. There were no courts in the land, for there was no litigation; sufficient money was in circulation; theft of cattle was unknown; corn cribs knew no locks; and smoke houses stood open. There was Acadian simplicity of manners and purity of morals.".....

San Patricio had no militia, or rather, no evidence can be found of its having had one...

Some colonists felt that they, as Mexican citizens, and as Catholics should stand by Mexico and the faith regardless of its form of government. Then there were those who resented a centralist government and deplored Santa Anna's disregard of the national constitution. Some were frightened at the prospect of an invading army led by Santa Anna himself, and would of necessity take up the cause of independence if it should be the only way to rid themselves of his dictatorial program. As had been seen, these San Patricians had just received their grants of land which had been long in coming, but they would fight to save them even though they preferred the plow to the sword....

...if the climate weren't all that, at least their diet had to be a step up from Ireland...

They tended their gardens where they raised corn, melons, yams, and beans. Honey could be had for the finding, and milk was always available from their cows. When it clabbered, the thick, yellow cream was skimmed off and churned into butter and buttermilk. On trips the pioneer's fare was coffee, bacon, and some form of cornbread. Wild game was there for the shooting, and it was plentiful. The colonists were almost self-sufficient except for the drink they most relished-coffee. They had to wait for boats to come from Vera Cruz, a Mexican port at the foot of lofty mountains whose sides were covered with coffee trees, to bring once again the green coffee beans to be roasted and ground which would make the aromatic and stimulating drink they needed in this low coastal region....


We learn that Grant and Johnson had three field pieces...

In January 1836 after the surrender of Bejar by General Cos, an expedition was got up to go to Matamoros, which marched from above place (Bejar) by way of Gollad . . . On their coming there Captain P. Dimitt, then commanding, had the flag of Independence hoisted on the walls of Goliad which was ordered to be taken down by Cols. Johnson and Grant stating that they were Federalists and would stand on the Constitution of 1824; they then marched to the Mission (Refugio) where they expected to meet with Fannin who had started from Valesco with 160 volunteers and provisions, and was to land at Copano to join Cols. Johnson and Grant. There was at this time say, 500 men at the Mission, all willing to go to Matamoros and only awaiting the arrival of Col. Fannin whose forces had not come......

Johnson and Grant with a company of sixty men with three pieces of brass cannon marched to San Patricio with a view, as they then stated, to stop until Col. Fanning could arrive and then proceed to Matamoros.

Urrea's view of the Americans/Texians....

On the first of March I had word from one of my spies that one of the leaders of the rebellious colonies, Don Diego Grant, was on his way to the Nueces River with a very select company of crack riflemen, well-armed and confident.

..and of his campaign at that time...

The excessive cold has affected my infantry and has delayed the ammunition and hardtack that are to come to me from Matamoros. For these reasons I may stay in San Patricio 4 or 5 days more, then march to Refugio and Goliad even though my hardtack has not arrived.

The reason for his surprise strike at San Patricio, 150 miles from his base, and further evidence of his abilities. Obviously, he had good intelligence...

Knowing about the Texian plan to take Matamoros, he had left in haste for San Patricio.

...moving this thread along, and evidence of Urrea's character....

Finally, on the 12th of March General Urrea and his troops marched and rode out of San Patricio much to the relief of the colonists. Santa Anna had ordered Urrea to "take cattle, supplies and the colonist's belongings. " Cattle Urrea took for food (his army was on meager rations), and he came upon quite a lot of arms and ammunition in the defeat of Johnson's men at San Patriclo. But Urrea states in his Diary that "the town and the rest of the inhabitants did not suffer the least damage."

...and another Mexican besides the Angel who would save lives at Goliad.....

Mary O'Boyle had a lingering, but secret, hope that Col. Francisco Garay, to whom she had dispensed hospitality, would somehow save her brother. He had asked her how he could repay her for her kindness. She had asked him that if or when he had the opportunity, would he be kind to her brother, Andrew Michael O'Boyle, who was with Fannin. He had said that he would; she could not help but believe him.

Birdwatcher