Samuel Maverick - Imprisonment

Imprisonment

In February 1842, word came that Santa Anna was again sending troops into Texas, which Mexico still regarded as a rebellious province. The Mavericks joined a group of Anglo Texans fleeing San Antonio, an event later known as the Runaway of '42. After a brief stop in Seguin, they moved on to Gonzales, and squatted in a house left empty when the owners had fled in the Runaway. Maverick and the other men in the party joined Texan army troops to retake San Antonio, but the Vásquez Expedition retreated without a fight, although they caused extensive damage to the homes of the Texas citizens.

Maverick moved his family to LaGrange after several Indian scares in Gonzales, and on April 30 he left for Alabama to retrieve his wife's younger sister, who had been living alone since her mother died the year before. Maverick returned to Texas in July, and the following month he again left his family, this time to go to San Antonio to argue a case before the district court. In early September, San Antonio was surrounded by Mexican troops led by General Adrian Woll. The approximately 60 Anglo-Texans in town gathered in Maverick's home, but were soon forced to surrender to the army.

On September 15, the Anglos were forced to march towards Mexico with a guard of 150 Mexican soldiers. Two bands of Texans tried to rescue them; neither succeeded, and the second, which included Mary's uncle John Bradley, was also captured and joined Maverick's group in their march. For three months the group marched, finally stopping at San Carlos Fortress in Perote, Veracruz. Although the journey was difficult and the men were often forced to sleep in manure-filled sheep pens, in his journal Maverick wrote that he "'saw and experienced a thousand new thrills.'" On the fifth day after their arrival at the fortress, the men were chained together in pairs. Several days later they were put to hard labor. On behalf of the men, Maverick complained about the almost non-existent food rations and was rewarded with solitary confinement on January 5, 1843.

Despite his imprisonment and the fact that his family now lived in Fayette County, Maverick was elected by the people of San Antonio to represent them in the Seventh Texas Congress. He was unable to attend the legislative session. Maverick was offered his freedom several times, on the condition that he publicly support Mexico's claim to Texas. Maverick responded, "'I cannot persuade myself that such an annexation, on any terms, would be advantageous to Texas, and I therefore cannot say so, for I regard a lie as a crime, and one which I cannot commit even to secure my release.'" The Mexican government finally released him on March 30, the same day his wife gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Augusta. On May 4 Maverick returned home, bringing with him the chain with which he had been bound.