Mary Maverick - Runaway of '42

Runaway of '42

The citizens of San Antonio received word in February 1842 that Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was again sending troops into Texas, which Mexico still did not recognize as a separate country. The Mavericks left some of their possessions with Mexican neighbors and joined their other Anglo neighbors in the Runaway of '42. With her brothers William and Andrew, Maverick and her immediate family travelled east, the first time Maverick had left San Antonio since her arrival. For several days, she and the children boarded with a rancher outside of Seguin while her husband and brothers returned to San Antonio to fight. On March 6, the sixth anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, Maverick received word that San Antonio had fallen to Santa Anna. She worried about her men for several days until they appeared, having turned back before reaching San Antonio. The Mavericks moved on to Gonzales, where they squatted in a house left empty when its residents had fled in the Runaway.

The men accompanied Texas army troops to retake San Antonio, and the Mexican army retreated without a fight, although they caused a great deal of damage to the homes of American citizens. Samuel Maverick returned to his wife and moved her to LaGrange so that she would be further from the threat of Indian attacks. On April 30 he left Maverick alone there while he returned to Alabama to get her younger sister, Elizabeth, who had been living as a boarder since her mother died the previous year.

Samuel Maverick returned to San Antonio without his family in late August 1842 to argue a case before the district court. The Mexican army, under General Adrian Woll, surrounded San Antonio and captured the small number of Anglo-American men in the city. On September 15, Samuel Maverick and his countrymen were forced to march toward Mexico. Mary Maverick's brothers participated in the Battle of the Salado on September 18, where their company ambushed some of the Mexican soldiers, killing 60 of them. Her uncle John Bradley joined another company, and Maverick sent her slave Griffin to go with him. She instructed Griffin to pose as a runaway slave bound for Mexico in the hope that he would be able to help free Samuel Maverick. As an extra assurance, she gave Griffin funds that could be used to ransom back her husband. This band of Texans was surprised by a Mexican cavalry detachment. Griffin was killed in the battle, and Bradley was taken captive and marched to join Samuel Maverick and the other prisoners. Maverick continued to receive letters from her husband during his captivity, so that she could be comforted that he was still alive.