{"product_id":"la-comision-mista-de-la-republica-mejicana-y-rxpnthgx","title":"A la Comision Mista de la Republica Mejicana y de los Estados Unidos de America, en la ciudad de Washington, Distrito de Columbia \/ To the Honorable American and Mexican Joint Commission, in the City of Washington, District of Columbia.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eApparently unrecorded, this dual-language memorial by Severo de Luna seeks compensation for a controversial incident along the Texas-Mexico border during the 1855 Callahan Expedition.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The Callahan Expedition occurred in October 1855, when James Hughes Callahan led a force of 111 men into Mexico near Piedras Negras, Coahuila. The announced purpose of the unauthorized invasion was to punish Lipan Apache Indians who reportedly had raided along the Texas frontier during the summer and fall of 1855, then returned to Mexico, where they were protected by the authorities. In fact, the expedition likely was an attempt by Texas slaveholders to regain fugitive slaves who had fled to northern Mexico and to prevent Mexican authorities from permitting runaway slaves to settle in their midst” (\u003cem\u003eHandbook of Texas\u003c\/em\u003e online).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis short-lived expedition saw Callahan and his men cross the Rio Grande on 1 October. Two days later, they skirmished with a Mexican detachment at the Río Escondido and, retreated to Piedras Negras, twenty-two miles away, where they took over the town. “As the Mexican force approached … on October 5, Callahan ordered his men to set fire to houses to cover their retreat, and on the evening of October 6 Maj. Sidney Burbank, commander of the American forces across the river at Fort Duncan, turned four cannons to cover the Texans as they recrossed the river … \u003cstrong\u003eThe claims originating with this invasion of Mexico were not officially settled until 1876, when the Claims Commission of 1868 finished its work. The commission awarded approximately 150 Mexican citizens a total of $50,000 in damages\u003c\/strong\u003e” (\u003cem\u003eibid\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSevero de Luna’s petition is an excellent example of a Mexican claim, clarifying the circumstances of the raid and his personal loss\u003c\/strong\u003e: “That in the month of October, A.D. 1855, an armed force of more than two hundred Americans, under the command of Captains Callahan and Henry, having crossed the Rio Grancer from Texas in the United States, entered and took possession of the town of Piedras in the State of Coahuila, Mexico, and by force took of arms disarmed all the inhabitants of the town, and with many insults threats and cruelties, drove them from their houses and caused them to flee from the twon to the woods. After having pillaged them of all their most valuable and easily transported contents, the said forces set all the houses on fire, reducing the town to ruins and ashes, and then returned with the booty to the opposite side of the river, by the public ferry.” Severo de Luna lived in Piedras Negras at the time of the 1855 raid, “with his family, three in number, and had there of his own sole and exclusive property, one house constructed of lumber” which was “pillaged and burned” by the american forces. In addition to property damage, de Luna reports that his family “wandered for three days, exposed to death under the tomahawk of the barbarous Indians, who frequented the said woods at that time, suffering from hunger and thirst in a degree almost insupportable, whereby they caused him great injury in his poerson and that of his family, damaging him to the full sum of thirty thousand dollars, gold.” Indeed, de Luna filed for compensation of $33,445 via his attorney, Bethel Coopwood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTexas Governor Elisha M. Pease “reproved Callahan for taking possession of Piedras Negras since he had not been given authority to occupy any village or sieze any property of Mexican citizens. The governor said that Callahan should have immediately returned to Texas after the engagement with the Indians …” (Shearer, 444). He soon changed his tone and defended the incursion on the basis that Mexico had collaborated with Native Americans against the American troops. The controversty continued with threats from both sides, involving James Gadsden, US Minister to Mexico, as well as members of the new Alvarez adminstration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s possible that Severo de Luna received some money, but likely a mere fraction of what he claimed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVery rare: not on OCLC.\u003c\/strong\u003e There are two similar claims for compensation by Julian Rodriguez and Octavio Cervero held at Texas Tech and SMU respectively, but this one is unrecorded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShearer, E.C., “The Callahan Expedition, 1855” in \u003cem\u003eThe Southwestern Historical Quarterly\u003c\/em\u003e, Vol. 54, No. 4 (April, 1951), pp.430-451.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Maggs Bros.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48698470203549,"sku":"263522","price":2000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0669\/0045\/9677\/files\/263522_1.jpg?v=1784807519","url":"https:\/\/store.maggs.com\/products\/la-comision-mista-de-la-republica-mejicana-y-rxpnthgx","provider":"Maggs Bros.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}