Texas Independence Won in Bellaire

On the once open prairies of what is now Bellaire, Texas, a hamlet surrounded by the Houston Metropolis, was a seemingly small event. It resulted, however, in a titanic reversal of fortune that may indeed be as responsible for the independence of Texas as the Battle at San Jacinto itself.

All Texans are born with that epic tale burned into their DNA. On the afternoon of April 21st, 1836, Sam Houston led his out numbered army in a surprise attack against Emperor Santa Anna and his imperial troops. But why did General Houston choose the time and place he did to turn and fight?

Following the Alamo massacre, Houston employed the less than revered tactic of advancing to the rear—meaning he continually retreated eastward. Houston’s reason was due to the fact that his mostly volunteer army wasn’t ready to fight. They were not regular soldiers and discipline was in short supply—as was information. Houston believed the Mexicans followed with multiple cannon and an army rumored to exceed 5,000 men, nearly the same force unleashed on the Alamo. Even a strength half as much was more than a match for Houston’s 800 or 900 men, an ill-supplied band, many of whom were malnourished and suffering from other ailments.

Thus it was around April 16th, as Houston led his fugitive army into the swampy bayou country, that the shroud of darkness and defeat hung low over Texas. Not knowing the location of the Mexican army, Houston dispatched his finest scout, Erastus Smith, better known as “Deaf” Smith because he was hearing impaired. His scouting party rode southwest from the Buffalo Bayou toward an uninhabited prairie in search of the enemy.

On a northwestern intercept course was Captain Miguel Bachillar with two escorts. They rode hard from Mexico City with letters of praise for the Emperor’s victories at the Alamo and Goliad. Along the way, Bachillar rendezvoused with General Filisola, who added communiqués he had earlier received from Santa Anna, as well as new ones in response.

While detailed accounts of the actual Smith-Bachillar encounter are non-existent, one can extrapolate events. In mid-afternoon on the 18th, Smith’s party reached the prairie. On seeing a dust trail in the distance, they lit out for a closer look; and as soon as they were in range to see the imperial uniforms of Bachillar and his men, a skirmish surely ensued. Imagine a galloping chase as riders exchange pistol fire from their single-shot flintlocks. Perhaps Smith simply ran them down, and they fell into hand-to-hand combat with Bachillar surrendering at the tip of Smith’s cutlass. How ever it happened, it happened right about the intersection of Bellaire Boulevard and Second Street.

Here is where the tide of independence turned. Bachillar’s dispatches revealed to Sam Houston that Santa Anna’s forces numbered only about1,500 men with a single cannon; that Santa Anna himself was in command, his location where Buffalo Bayou met the San Jacinto River; the location and progress of reinforcements (most a day or so away); and Santa Anna’s intent to corner Houston at the Trinity River.

This intelligence was a godsend to Houston. But it was the reading of those letters of praise for Santa Anna’s slaughter of Texians at the Alamo and Goliad, compounded by the fact that Bachillar carried the letters in a saddlebag bearing the name William Barret Travis, that so inflamed the freedom fighters as to whip them into a frenzy.

Indeed, Santa Anna’s own account underscored the event. “From the dispatches, [the enemy] learned everything it desired; and, coming out from uncertainty that was making it retreat to the Trinity, it gained new courage.”

Historians agree: had Deaf Smith not intercepted Bachillar, Houston would have delayed his action, allowing Santa Anna to reinforce and to set his trap. Houston would have met defeat and all of his men butchered, leaving a remote and bloody field of unknown graves remembered only as a small reference to a put-down insurrection.

Even though history gives little notice to this significant courier capture, it is proudly remembered in Bellaire, where it occurred, and noted with an historical marker at the esplanade crossing for Second Street at Bellaire Boulevard.


Note: The original article was run in a 2008 edition of The Bellaire Examiner.