At the Battle of Resaca de la Palma, one of the early engagements of the Mexican–American War, United States General Zachary Taylor engaged the retreating forces of the Mexican Ejército del Norte under General Mariano Arista on May 9, 1846. United States troops forced the Mexicans out of Texas. Following his disappointments at the Battle of Palo Alto, Arista on the morning of 9 May moved to a more defensible position along a resaca, an old meandering river bed, known as Resaca de la Guerrero but as Resaca de la Palma by the Americans. Recalling his forces besieging Fort Texas, he was established along the twelve foot deep and 200 foot wide resaca, three miles from the Rio Grande, by 10 AM. Arista placed most of his infantry in the ravine, thickly forested on either side, to negate the effectiveness of Taylor's artillery, with the 6th and 10th Infantry, Sappers, 2nd Light Infantry and 1st Infantry east of the road, the 2nd Infantry, Tampico Battalion and 4th Infantry west of the road. Covering the flanks in the rear were the Presidiales, the light cavalry, the 7th and 8th Regiments, two batteries on the south bank.
Taylor reached the area about 3 PM and ordered Capt. William W. Mackall's skirmishers and Capt. Randolph Ridgely's battery along the road, with the 4th and 5th Infantry to the left and the remaining 4th and 3d Infantry on the right. Fighting was disorganized and uncoordinated due to the dense chaparral and the intense Mexican artillery fire, although Ridgely did repulse a lancer charge. Taylor ordered a charge by Capt. Charles A. May's dragoon squadron with the objective of clearing the Mexican battery. May's exchange with Ridgeley included, "Hello Ridgely, where is that Battery? I am ordered to charge it." "Hold on Charley,'till I draw their fire and you will see where they are." May's charge however carried them well past the guns and although he captured General Romulo Diaz de la Vega, he could not hold the guns. Taylor ordered William G. Belknap's 5th and 8th Infantry to secure the guns, which they did. One of the battery commanders Capitan Dolores Ramires died defending the guns; the Mexicans east of the road retreated.
West of the road, Capt. Robert C. Buchanan and members of the 4th Infantry, found a trail which turned the Mexican left flank, enabling them to take and hold the battery located there, they were able to defend the position from General Pedro de Ampudia's counterattacks, the entire Mexican force panicked and fled across the Rio Grande, many drowning. The Mexican Army left behind a number of artillery pieces, Arista's writing desk and silver service, the colors of Mexico's lauded Tampico Battalion, other baggage. Among the several captured Mexican artillery pieces were two 8-pounder bronze guns, two 6-pounder bronze guns, four 4-pounder bronze guns. Taylor's army settled into their Fort Texas campsite as Taylor considered his next move, although he did exchange prisoners with Arista. Taylor crossed the Rio Grande on 18 May, Arista's army having abandoned their artillery and wounded at Linares, Nuevo Leon during their retreat to Monterrey. Before accepting a prisoner exchange with General Arista, Taylor was noted for his humane treatment of the abandoned wounded Mexican soldiers, giving them the same care as was given to the American wounded.
After tending to the wounded he performed the last rites for the dead of both the American and Mexican soldiers killed during the battle. The Resaca De La Palma Battlefield is in the city limits of present-day Brownsville, but is part of the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park; the Battle of Resaca de la Palma inspired the name of Resaca, Georgia, a community that became the site of a Civil War battle. Grant, U. S. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Vol. I, pp 65–69, ISBN 0-940450-58-5 Appendix To The Congressional Globe, 29th Cong...1st Session Battles of the Mexican–American War 1848 in Mexico List of conflicts in the United States Saint Patrick's Battalion Resaca de la Palma Overview @ Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site NPS website Guns Along the Rio Grande: Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, CMH Pub 73-2, Center of Military History A Continent Divided: The U. S. - Mexico War, Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, the University of Texas at Arlington
The Manso Indians are an indigenous people who lived along the Rio Grande, from the 16th to the 17th century. Present-day Las Cruces, New Mexico developed in this area; the Manso were one of the indigenous groups to be resettled at the Guadalupe Mission in what is now Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Some of their descendants remain in the area to this day; the Mansos were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers. Farming Indians lived both downstream from them, they had a life style similar to the Concho, who lived nearby. Only a few words of their language were recorded. Linguists have theorized about their language: alternatives have been Uto-Aztecan, Tanoan, or Athabaskan language. What is known is that they spoke the same language as the Jano and Jocome peoples who lived to their west; the first written account of the Manso is from the expedition of Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo in January 1583. Traveling up the Rio Grande in search of the Pueblo Indians, Espejo encountered a people he called Tampachoas below El Paso.
"We found a great number of people living near some lagoons through the midst of which the Rio del Norte flows. These people, who must have numbered more than a thousand men and women, who were settled in their rancherias and grass hunts, came out to receive us… Each one brought us his present of mesquite bean…fish of many kinds, which are plentiful in these lagoons, other kinds of food…During the three days and nights we were there they continually performed …dances in their fashion, as well as after the manner of the Mexicans." But when the Chamuscado and Rodriguez Expedition had passed by the same lagoons in July 1581, they had found them uninhabited. Historians believe that the Manso were nomadic, living only part of the year along the Rio Grande and passing the remainder of the year hunting and gathering food in the surrounding deserts and mountains, they seemed to have lived along the Rio Grande from present-day El Paso northward to Las Cruces, New Mexico and in the nearby mountains.
They may have shared their range with the Suma. The people whom Espejo called the Tampachoa were the same people encountered by Juan de Oñate in the same area in May 1598. Onate and his large expedition forded the Rio Grande near Socorro, Texas assisted by 40 "manxo" Indians. Manso meant “gentle" or "docile" in Spanish, their name for themselves is unknown. In 1630, a Spanish priest described the Manso as people "who do not have houses, but rather pole structures. Nor do they sow. In 1663, a Spaniard wrote of them, "The nation of Manso Indians is so barbarous and uncultivated that all its members go naked and, although the country is cold, they have no houses in which to dwell, but live under the trees, not knowing how to till the land for their food."The Manso were said to eat fish and meat raw. But they were described somewhat favorably as "a robust people and with good features, although they take pride in bedaubing themselves with powder of different colors which makes them look ferocious."
During the 1660s, hundreds of Manso converted to Christianity. The Spanish established a mission among the Manso; the people were of minor concern until the 1680s, when the survivors of the Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico took refuge in the new settlement of El Paso. There the Manso established close relations with Tiwa, it is that trying to support the 2,000 Spanish and Indian refugees in this area was difficult. The colonists noted that the Manso living at the Mission were "trouble-makers," along with the Apache and Suma still living in the mountains and the deserts. In 1682, the Governor in El Paso reported that the Manso and the Suma had revolted and attacked the Jano. On March 14, 1684, friendly Tiwa and Piro told the Governor Domingo Jironza Petriz de Cruzate of a Manso plot to kill all the Spaniards in El Paso; the Manso were said to be “tired of everything having to do with God and with the church, why they wanted to do what the Indians of New Mexico had done.” The Spanish took the ringleaders of the plot as prisoners.
They included a Quivira. Ten of these Natives were executed. In November, the Spanish garrison of 60 men, plus friendly warriors, attacked a gathering of hostile Indians whom they suspected of planning their own revolt. Following the revolt, the Manso assimilated into the de-tribalized atmosphere of El Paso. Disease and Apache raids decimated their numbers. By 1765, El Paso had 2,469 Spanish inhabitants and only tribes unspecified. In 1883, Adolph Bandelier found a dozen families of Manso living across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Descendants of the Manso have survived as members of the combined Piro-Manso-Tiwa tribe and as members of Tortugas Pueblo, an unincorporated village in Las cruces, New Mexico. Tortugas Pueblo is the informal name of Los Indigenes de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, a tribal entity that the Piro-Manso-Tiwa tribe was once a part of before a faction occurred. In the 19th century members of the group migrated to New Mexico. Two groups claiming descent and historical continuity from the Mission Indians of Paso del Norte have applied for federal recognition as an Indian Tribe: the Piro/Manso/Tiwa Tribe of San Juan de Guadalupe and the Piro/Manso/Tiwa Tribe of Guadalupe.
In 2000, there were 206 members of t
Timothy D. Rose is an American actor and puppeteer. Rose is best known for playing the role of Admiral Ackbar in the third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi, a role which he played again in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In addition, Rose puppeteered the characters of Sy Snootles and Salacious Crumb in Return of the Jedi, has been involved with other Lucasfilm and The Jim Henson Company projects, including The Dark Crystal and Howard the Duck, he helped in puppeteering the character of Tik-Tok in Walt Disney Pictures' Return to Oz. Rose made the puppets Cosmo and Dibs for the BBC children's series You and Me, they debuted on that show in 1983. He went to do Assistant Puppeteer on Barnaby Bear. Timothy D. Rose on IMDb