Civil War battle in Brush Country recognized

 

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Homero Vera, who coordinated the event in Premont, welcomes Cecelio Valerio's "proud
descendant," Elodia Valerio Saenz, to an event recognizing the Civil War battle at
Los Patricios west of Premont. Los Patricios are within the San Francisco land grant
located primarily in Duval County but protrudes into Jim Wells County. Vera 
believes that the skirmish occurred on Jim Wells's side of San Francisco.

(Photos by Gary Welch)

by Alfredo E. Cardenas

Few people are aware that the Civil War actually had a presence in South Texas, including Duval and Jim Wells County. On Saturday, March 16, the Premont Chamber of Commerce hosted a program to commemorate the only Civil War battle that took place in this area. 

Historian Jerry Thompson
spoke about the events
at Los Patricios.

Noted historian Dr. Jerry Thompson was the keynote speaker and presented an informative talk about the battle and those involved, including father and son Cecilio and Juan Valerio, who went to La Rosita after the war. Dr. Thompson is the premiere historian of the Civil War in South Texas, having authored several books on the topic, including Vaqueros in Blue and Gray, A Wild and Vivid Land: An Illustrated History of the South Texas Border, Tejanos in Gray: Civil War Letters of Captains Joseph Rafael de la Garza and Manuel Yturri, Tejano Tiger: Jose de los Santos Benavides and the Texas-Mexico Borderlands, 1823-1891, and Cortina: Defending the Mexican Name in Texas. 

Descendants of the Valerios came from all over the country to celebrate their ancestors' place in history.

In 1862, seventy Tejanos from Duval and Nueces County enlisted in the Confederate ranks at San Diego. At least a quarter of the company was from San Diego, with the remaining from Nueces County communities, including Banquete, Brasanious, Casa Blanca, Palo Blanco, Santa Gertrudes, and Corpus Christi. How long these men served in the Confederate Army is unknown; the desertion rate was very high.

In 1863, Cecilio Valerio was among thirty-five Mexicanos and Tejanos fighting with the Union Army. In December, Valerio and his men raided the King Ranch, killing  Francisco Alvarado and scattering all the horses at the ranch. Valerio's company mainly targeted the Confederate cotton trade along the border but occasionally waged guerrilla warfare against the Nueces Strip’s Rebels. Valerio, as a Union officer, coordinated with the Union Army on the Río Grande border and the Union Navy.

The Rebels established several installations in Duval and Nueces Counties. Camp Patterson served as a headquarters for Rebel operations on the San Fernando Creek west of present-day Driscoll in Nueces County. They also planned to “establish a depot and shops at San Diego,” where the Confederates would store twenty days of rations for 2,000 men. The rebels also maintained a camp at Barroneño in western Duval County under Lt. Col. Daniel Showalter.

Early in 1864, a Rebel unit consisting of sixty-two soldiers engaged the enemy at Los Patricios within the San Francisco land grant. The battlefield straddled the boundary line between Duval and Nueces County (now Jim Wells County), with the fighting most likely taking place on the Nueces side of the grant. The Rebels claimed to have “routed” a Union force of 125 men under Cecilio Valerio’s command in a “fierce” battle that lasted fifteen minutes. Valerio’s men, Nolan said, were armed with Burnsides, revolvers, and sabers. Juan Valerio, Cecilio’s son, commanded part of the Union troops, consisting of eighty men. While Nolan claimed to have done short shrift of the enemy, he conceded that the Union band had fought “gallantly.”

The battle had proved indecisive, so Valerio and his men moved on to Laredo. On their way, they raided a ranch ten miles south of San Diego and drove off sixty heads of cattle belonging to the King Ranch. In addition, they hung one of the ranch’s vaqueros, a Tejano named Lucas; perhaps 1st Cpl. Lucas García, a fifty-eight-year-old Banquete man, serving with the Texas State Troopers in San Diego. Within two weeks, Cecilio Valerio’s men were attacking Laredo.

After the war, Cecilio Valerio and his son Juan received land grants in La Rosita area of Duval County, where they lived and raised horses for some years. Cecilio Valerio returned to Camargo, where he passed away. Valerio’s thirty-six-year-old son Juan remained in La Rosita, supporting a family by hauling wool from San Diego to Corpus Christi.

*****

(This and more is included in my upcoming book, Duval County Tejanos, which is scheduled for release in September. Stay tuned for updates on this release.)