Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire After the Fall of the Alamo

In search of Agua Dulce Creek and a settlement or rancho called Casa Blanca ("white house") at the ford where Urrea ambushed Grant.

Four miles south of San Patricio, a historical marker in front of an old 1930's schoolhouse lends some light as to the kin of Vaquero leader Carlos de la Guerra, said kin persisting in the face of "continual attack by Indians", it mentions a Casa Blanca land grant and ranch.



Ten mile south, on Hwy 44, a road sign for Agua Dulce, note the topography and imagine it mostly treeless in 1836, the way it was back then. It ain't called the "Coastal Plain" fer nuthin.



I crossed Agua Dulce Creek coming in to the town....



..and the historical marker, the Agua Dulce battle site laying "3.25 miles Northwest" of that point...



Durned if I could find anything tho. Near as I can tell the actual site probably lies on private land and I doubt it looked like much even back then. Here's in the ballpark, what it looks like today....



This is not far north of the creek, a reasonable guess that James Grant, Reuben Brown and Placido Benavides passed through within sight of this place, hotly pursued by Mexican Lancers. Certainly one could have heard the gunfire from there.

Of that eight mile chase Benavides later said that Grant could probably have escaped, but that Grant persisted in ignoring his advice and spurred his horse too much, confusing the animal. Which I guess was the difference between a guy who had grown up on horseback and one who hadn't.

Birdwatcher