Cortina Troubles - Chronology

Chronology

• The First Cortina War begins on July 13, 1859 when Brownsville town marshal Robert Shears was shot in the arm by Juan Nepomuceno Cortina for brutalizing his former Ranch Hand, Tomás Cabrera (who was said to be drunk and causing a scene in Gabriel Catchell's coffee shop), and after ignoring Cortina's request to let him handle the situation. Cortina would become one of the most important historical figures of the area, and continued to exert a decisive influence in the local events until his arrest in 1875.

• On September 28, 1859, Juan Cortina raided and seized control of Brownsville with a forty to eighty man posse with the intent of killing his enemies in Brownsville. His enemies went into hiding and Cortina and his men shot five of the town's people presumably involved in the legal abuses against Texans of Mexican ethnicity. No indiscriminate attacks on the rest of the Brownsville population or on their properties took place under orders of Cortina. Cortina issues a famous proclamation, attempting to calm the American population of Brownsville, and asking for respect towards the Mexican inhabitants' persons and properties.

• On September 30, 1859, Cortina evacuates Brownsville at the urging of José María Jesús Carbajal, Colonel Miguel Tijerina, Colonel Macedonio Capistran, Don Agapito Longoria and Don Manuel Treviño, from Matamoros. The following days, Brownsville forms a twenty man group in order to fight Cortina, calling themselves the "Brownsville Tigers". The Mexican authorities, fearing reprisals from the United States Government, instruct the Matamoros militia to join them. The group, led by Adolphus Glaevecke, capture Tomás Cabrera.

• In November 1859, the Brownsville Tigers learn that Cortina is at his mother's ranch near Santa Rita, Texas, five miles west of Brownsville, the Tigers attack only to be sent into retreat in disarray by Cortina's forces.

• Later in the same month, the Brownsville Tigers were joined by a group of Texas Rangers. Cortina demanded the release of Cabrera by threatening to burn Brownsville. The Tigers hang Cabrera in the early part of that month and the very next day the Cortinistas launched an unsuccessful attack.

• On November 23, 1859, Cortina issued a second proclamation asking Texas Governor Sam Houston to defend the legal interests of Mexican residents in Texas.

• In December 1859, a second group of Texas Rangers led by Captain John "Rip" Ford and a regiment of the United States Army commanded by Major Samuel Heintzelman joined the Brownsville Tigers. Cortina retreats up the Rio Grande.

• On December 27, 1859, Heintzelman and Ford engaged Cortina in the Battle of Rio Grande City. Cortina was decisively defeated, losing sixty men and his equipment.

• On February 4, 1860, Captain John "Rip" Ford and a group of rangers successfully defended their riverboat against Cortina's men in the Battle of La Bolsa.

• On March 17, 1860, Captain John "Rip" Ford defeated the Cortinistas at La Mesa, Tamaulipas. The First Cortina War finishes.

• The Second Cortina War took place in May of 1861. Cortina invaded Zapata County and attacked the county seat, Zapata. He was defeated by Confederate Captain Santos Benavides in the Battle of Carrizo and retreated back into Mexico, after losing eighteen men. By the end of the wars, at least 245 men had been killed, most of whom were Cortinistas.

• In the 1870s, future Mexican President Porfirio Díaz received a large monetary contribution from the citizens of Brownsville in order to remove Juan Cortina, under the pretext that he was rustling cattle across the border. In July 1875, Cortina is arrested and taken to Mexico City, where he would remain until his death in 1894.