"Horse Marines"

The following is an excerpt from Texas Irish Empresarios and Their Colonies written by William H. Oberste.  Published in 1953 and reprinted in 1973, the book is currently out-of-print.

Page 223

  "On the day of his departure from Goliad Filisola sent an order to Juan Davis Bradburn, Mexico's commandant at Copano, to vacate the port and return to Matamoras.  The two ships had already set sail when he received the orders on May 27, and taking a sailboat, he set out for Padre Island.  While opposite the bar at Corpus Christi he saw the Watchman sail by on its way to Copano with supplies which had long been awaited by the Mexican forces.  When the ship arrived at Copano it became grounded on the sand, and much to the chagrin of the crew, there were no troops on hand to unload the cargo.

"While laboring to extricate the vessel, they caught sight of a man signalling [sic] from the shore.  They were confident now that the troops had come from Goliad to take the provisions ashore, and promptly sent a boat with five sailors to arrange the unloading of the supplies.  The sailors were conducted to a place screened from view by a thicket, and much to their astonishment they found themselves surrounded by twenty Texans, and taken prisoners.

"For the past month Captain Burton and his twenty horsemen of the Texas Cavalry, guided by Walter Lambert and John Keating of Refugio, were scouting the coast near Refugio at the direction of Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War, with the purpose to see that no Mexican forces or supplies would land there.  The men under Captain Burton who had been watching the arrival of the ship were those who now took the sailors captive.  At a loss to decide what cavalrymen could do with a ship at sea, it was agreed to load sixteen daredevils into a small boat, and with the ruse of five men dressed in the uniform of the captives to appear as shipwrecked castaways to the enemy now busy in attempting to move the ship off the sand bar.  The men in the boat were able in this manner to climb aboard the Watchman without interference.  Once on deck the Texans drew their pistols and forced the captain to surrender the ship.  They forced the captain to get the boat under way and to sail to Velasco.

"While setting sail, two other boats flying the Mexican flag, the Comanche and the Fanny Butler, entered Copano Bay.  Captain Burton ordered the captain to signal the officers of the arriving boat to come aboard the Watchman.  As soon as these came aboard they were likewise placed under guard.

"With Mexicans at the helm all three captured vessels were taken to the port of Velasco and surrendered to the Texas Navy.  On account of this unusual feat, the cavalrymen of Burton's Company are known in Texas history as the 'Horse Marines'."

[Footnote: "See Wade, Houston, David G. Burnet Letters, p. 43, for the interesting account of the 'Horse Marines,' episode."]

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