Battle of Gonzales
The Battle of Gonzales was the first military engagement of the Texas Revolution. It was fought near Gonzales, Texas, on October 2, 1835, between rebellious Texian settlers and a detachment of Mexican army soldiers. In 1831, Mexican authorities lent the settlers of Gonzales a small cannon to help protect them from frequent Comanche raids. Over the next four years, the political situation in Mexico deteriorated, in 1835 several states revolted; as the unrest spread, Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, the commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, felt it unwise to leave the residents of Gonzales with a weapon and requested the return of the cannon. When the initial request was refused, Ugartechea sent 100 dragoons to retrieve the cannon; the soldiers neared Gonzales on September 29, but the colonists used a variety of excuses to keep them from the town, while secretly sending messengers to request assistance from nearby communities. Within two days, up to 140 Texians gathered in Gonzales, all determined not to give up the cannon.
On October 1, settlers voted to initiate a fight. Mexican soldiers opened fire as Texians approached their camp in the early hours of October 2. After several hours of desultory firing, the Mexican soldiers withdrew. Although the skirmish had little military significance, it marked a clear break between the colonists and the Mexican government and is considered to have been the start of the Texas Revolution. News of the skirmish spread throughout the United States, where it was referred to as the "Lexington of Texas"; the cannon's fate is disputed. It may have been buried and rediscovered in 1936, or it may have been seized by Mexican troops after the Battle of the Alamo; the Mexican Constitution of 1824 liberalized the country's immigration policies, allowing foreigners to settle in border regions such as Mexican Texas. In 1825, American Green DeWitt received permission to settle 400 families in Texas near the confluence of the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers; the DeWitt Colony became a favorite raiding target of local Karankawa and Comanche tribes, in July 1826 they destroyed the capital city, Gonzales.
The town was rebuilt the following year, after DeWitt negotiated peace treaties with the Karankawa and Tonkawa. The Comanche continued to stage periodic raids of the settlement over the next few years. Unable to spare military troops to protect the town, in 1831 the region's political chief instead sent the settlers of Gonzales a six-pounder cannon, described by historian Timothy Todish as "a small bored gun, good for little more than starting horse races". During the 1830s, the Mexican government wavered between centralist policies; as the pendulum swung towards centralism in 1835, several Mexican states revolted. In June, a small group of settlers in Texas used the political unrest as an excuse to rebel against customs duties, in an incident known as the Anahuac Disturbances; the federal government responded by sending more troops to Texas. Public opinion was divided; some communities supported the rebellion for a variety of reasons. Others, including Gonzales, declared their loyalty to Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna's centralist government.
Local leaders began calling for a Consultation to determine whether a majority of settlers favored independence, a return to federalism, or the status quo. Although some leaders worried that Mexican officials would see this type of gathering as a step toward revolution, by the end of August most communities had agreed to send delegates to the Consultation, scheduled for October 15. In the interim, many communities formed militias to protect themselves from a potential attack by military forces. On September 10, a Mexican soldier bludgeoned a Gonzales resident, which led to widespread outrage and public protests. Mexican authorities felt it unwise to leave the settlers with a weapon. Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, sent a corporal and five enlisted men to retrieve the cannon, given to the colonists. Many of the settlers believed Mexican authorities were manufacturing an excuse to attack the town and eliminate the militia. In a town meeting, three citizens voted to hand over the gun to forestall an attack.
According to historian Stephen Hardin, "the cannon became a point of honor and an unlikely rallying symbol. Gonzales citizens had no intention of handing over the weapon at a time of growing tension." The soldiers were escorted from town without the cannon. Ponton anticipated; as soon as the first group of soldiers left Gonzales, Ponton sent a messenger to the closest town, Mina, to request help. Word spread that up to 300 soldiers were expected to march on Gonzales. Stephen F. Austin, one of the most respected men in Texas and the de facto leader of the settlers, sent messengers to inform surrounding communities of the situation. Austin cautioned Texians to remain on the defensive, as any unprovoked attacks against Mexican forces could limit the support Texians might receive from the United States if war began. On September 27, 1835, a detachment of 100 dragoons, led by Francisco de Castañeda, left San Antonio de Béxar, carrying an official order for Ponton to surrender the cannon. Castañeda had been instructed to avoid using force if possible.
When the troops neared Gonzales on September 29, they found that the settlers had removed the ferry and all other boats from the Guadalupe River. On the other side of the swiftly moving river waited eighteen Texians. Albert Martin, captain of the Gonzales militia, informed the soldiers that Ponton was out of town, until his return the army must remain on the west side of the river. With no
Mexico
Mexico the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States. Covering 2,000,000 square kilometres, the nation is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent state in the world. With an estimated population of over 120 million people, the country is the eleventh most populous state and the most populous Spanish-speaking state in the world, while being the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil. Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and Mexico City, a special federal entity, the capital city and its most populous city. Other metropolises in the state include Guadalajara, Puebla, Tijuana and León. Pre-Columbian Mexico dates to about 8000 BC and is identified as one of five cradles of civilization and was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its politically powerful base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain.
Three centuries the territory became a nation state following its recognition in 1821 after the Mexican War of Independence. The post-independence period was tumultuous, characterized by economic inequality and many contrasting political changes; the Mexican–American War led to a territorial cession of the extant northern territories to the United States. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, two empires, the Porfiriato occurred in the 19th century; the Porfiriato was ended by the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system as a federal, democratic republic. Mexico has the 11th largest by purchasing power parity; the Mexican economy is linked to those of its 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement partners the United States. In 1994, Mexico became the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts.
The country is considered both a regional power and a middle power, is identified as an emerging global power. Due to its rich culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas and seventh in the world for number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Mexico is an ecologically megadiverse country, ranking fourth in the world for its biodiversity. Mexico receives a huge number of tourists every year: in 2018, it was the sixth most-visited country in the world, with 39 million international arrivals. Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus group of the UN, the Pacific Alliance trade bloc. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely the Valley of Mexico and surrounding territories, with its people being known as the Mexica, it is believed to be a toponym for the valley which became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result, although it could have been the other way around.
In the colonial era, back when Mexico was called New Spain this territory became the Intendency of Mexico and after New Spain achieved independence from the Spanish Empire it came to be known as the State of Mexico with the new country being named after its capital: the City of Mexico, which itself was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Traditionally, the name Tenochtitlan was thought to come from Nahuatl tetl and nōchtli and is thought to mean "Among the prickly pears rocks". However, one attestation in the late 16th-century manuscript known as "the Bancroft dialogues" suggests the second vowel was short, so that the true etymology remains uncertain; the suffix -co is the Nahuatl locative, making the word a place name. Beyond that, the etymology is uncertain, it has been suggested that it is derived from Mextli or Mēxihtli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Mexica, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mēxihco means "place where Huitzilopochtli lives".
Another hypothesis suggests that Mēxihco derives from a portmanteau of the Nahuatl words for "moon" and navel. This meaning might refer to Tenochtitlan's position in the middle of Lake Texcoco; the system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco formed the center, had the form of a rabbit, which the Mesoamericans pareidolically associated with the moon rabbit. Still another hypothesis suggests that the word is derived from Mēctli, the name of the goddess of maguey; the name of the city-state was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the letter x in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative. This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative, represented by a j, evolved into a voiceless velar fricative during the 16th century; this led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and most other Spanish–speaking countries, México was the preferred spelling. In recent years, the Real Academia Española, which regulates the Spanish l
Battle of Medina
For the decisive tank battle fought on February 27, 1991 during the Persian Gulf War see the Battle of Medina Ridge. The Battle of Medina was fought 20 miles south of San Antonio de Bexar on August 18, 1813, as part of the Mexican War of Independence against Spanish authority in Mexico. Spanish troops led by General José Joaquín de Arredondo defeated republican forces, consisting of Tejano-Mexican and Tejano-American revolutionaries participating in the Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition, under General José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois, it was the deadliest battle in Texas History. Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara took up the effort to free Texas from Spain. Colonel Gutiérrez visited Washington, D. C. gaining some support for his plans. In 1812, Colonel Augustus Magee, who as a lieutenant had commanded U. S. Army troops guarding the border of the Neutral Ground and Spanish Texas, resigned his commission and formed the Republican Army of the North to aid the Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition; the army flew a solid emerald green flag, thought to have been introduced by Colonel Magee, of Scots-Irish descent.
Nacogdoches was taken on August 12, 1812, with little opposition, on November 7, 1812, the Republican Army of the North marched into what is present-day Goliad, where they took the Presidio La Bahía. The Spanish Army soon confronted them. While at La Bahia, Colonel Magee died. After numerous battles and heavy losses, the Spanish lifted the siege and returned to San Antonio de Bexar. On March 25, 1813, the Republican Army of the North left La Bahia for Bexar after receiving reinforcements. Colonel Samuel Kemper (brother of Reuben Kemper replaced Magee, Lt. Col. Reuben Ross was elected to second in command. There were 1,400 Texians in Lara's Republican Army at the time, composed of Tejanos, Euro-Mexicans, former Spanish Royalist soldiers aided by an auxiliary force of Indians, at least one black slave; the army, being led by General Toledo, had camped on the north bank of the Medina River, about six miles north of Arredondo's 1,800 Royalist troops which were encamped near present-day Leming, Texas.
The battle lasted for four hours. Toledo's plan called for an ambush on the Royalist troops as they marched through a defile on the Bexar–Laredo road. Arredondo had sent out a scouting party with some cavalry in the morning to try to determine the location of Toledo's troops. Quite accidentally, they happened upon the Republican ambush and retreated after a brief exchange of fire; the Republican soldiers gave chase mistaking the cavalry which kicked up large clouds of dust for the main army. In their pursuit, they were slowed down by the sandy terrain. By the time they reached the Spanish lines, they were thirsty. However, they did manage to rout some Spanish artillery units and were attempting a flanking maneuver when they were repulsed by Spanish cavalry units; the situation had been less than clear for Arredondo, he was prepared to order his troops to fall back, when he seems to have been informed by a defector that the Republican troops were attempting to disengage due to exhaustion. He ordered an advance instead.
The Republicans fled in disorder. Toledo and a few of his associates headed straight for Louisiana; some of the combatants stopped in San Antonio just long enough to gather their families. The Spanish army continued killing many of the fleeing soldiers. Most of the remainder were captured and – in a portent of the future Texas War of Independence – were summarily executed. Fewer than 100 out of 1,400 soldiers on the Republican side survived, while the Royalists lost only 55 men; the remains of the Republican troops were left to rot and were not buried until 1822 when José Félix Trespalacios, the first governor of Coahuila y Tejas under the newly established United Mexican States, ordered a detachment of soldiers to gather their bones and bury them honorably under an oak tree that grew on the battlefield. Some of Guttierrez-Magee participants were sons of American revolutionaries or had fought with Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, of the few who survived, some fought again during the second Texas Revolution in 1835–36.
José Antonio Navarro, a founding father of Texas and José Francisco Ruiz, both future signers of the 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence, took part in the 1812-13, Gutiérrez, Toledo resistance movements and served as leaders in the Texas Revolution. One of the dead, Peter Sides, was an actual veteran of the American Revolution. Sides was about 62 when he marched off from his home in Baton Rouge, with Magee and the other revolutionaries. A native of North Carolina of German ancestry, Seitz was a career soldier who fought in the first militia at Nashborough and in Logan County, before he and his family relocated to Baton Rouge in 1799. Markers from the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas have been placed on the battle site in Sides’ honor. Nearly all the names of the other 1,300 or so dead from the Republic Army of the North have been lost to history. Of a interesting note is a young lieutenant by the name of Antonio López de Santa Anna fought in this bloody battle and followed his superiors' orders of taking no prisoners influencing how he would fight wars for the rest of his life, most infamously during the Texas Revolution at the Alamo and Goliad.
The location of the Battle of Medina ha
Velasco, Texas
Velasco was a town in Texas, United States, annexed by the city of Freeport. Founded in 1831, Velasco is situated on the east side of the Brazos River in southeast Texas, it is sixteen miles south of Angleton and four miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The town's early history is tied with the Battle of Velasco and the Texas Revolution. Velasco was an important entry point for American settlers in Texas. In 1836 following the decisive Battle of San Jacinto, Velasco was named a temporary capital of the Republic of Texas by the interim President David G. Burnet. In 1837, the final actions of the Battle of Brazos River occurred there. Velasco was located on the Gulf Coast on the east side of the mouth of the Brazos River where present-day Surfside is located. In 1821, the schooner Lively landed at the site with thirty-eight men, the first of Stephen F. Austin's colonists. At the time, Texas was part of Mexico, but Austin had obtained permission to bring American settlers into the area, with the first colonists settling in what is now southern Brazoria County.
Velasco consisted of a single house until 1831, when Mexico set up a customs port there and dispatched troops to help the customs collector. More than 25,000 settlers entered through the port; the town was named for a Mexican general. Velasco was the site of the Battle of Velasco in 1832; the battle was fought on June 26, 1832 between Texas colonists and Mexico four years before the Texas Revolution. The Mexican commander during the conflict, Domingo de Ugartechea, tried to stop the Texans from transporting a cannon up the Brazos River to attack the city of Anahuac; the Texans were led by Brazoria Alcade, John Austin, the schoolteacher and farmer Henry Smith. The Texan militia prevailed over the outnumbered Mexicans. Ugartechea surrendered after a three-day battle, once he realized he would not be receiving reinforcements, his soldiers had run out of ammunition. In 1834, a cholera epidemic reduced the population to 100. After the Battle of San Jacinto, President David G. Burnet made the town the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas.
Government records were housed at Fort Velasco until the first capital of Texas was established at Columbia. General Antonio López de Santa Anna signed the Treaties of Velasco on May 14, 1836 acknowledging Texas independence. Between the Texas Revolution and the American Civil War and Quintana served as summer resorts for wealthy plantation families of the region; the Galveston businessmen Samuel May Williams and Thomas F. McKinney established warehouses and organized shipping at the port. By 1838, a seminary for young ladies, Velasco Female Academy, a school for young men, taught by Oxford graduates, were established. Comfortable hotels were built to accommodate visitors and patrons of the racetrack, located a short distance upriver. A local post office operated from 1846 until 1891. Antebellum Velasco had business houses, homes, a hotel, wharves, a customhouse. Steamboats embarked from the wharves for New Orleans. With completion in 1856 of the first intracoastal canal to Galveston Bay, the town began to decline, as much of its shipping was diverted to Galveston.
During the U. S. Civil War, the port of Velasco was fortified by Confederate troops and eight gun batteries, Union ships were forced to go to New Orleans for drinking water and fuel; the port played an active role in the exchange of cotton for European guns, milled goods, medicines for army and home use. Federal vessels attempted to stop vital trade and fired upon shore defenses and small craft seeking to outrun them. With the ruin of the plantation system after the war and Quintana declined as resorts. In 1875 a hurricane destroyed the old town records. By 1884, Old Velasco's residents numbered only fifty; the new town of Velasco was surveyed and laid out four miles upriver in 1891, when a new Velasco post office was established. The port was opened by the United States Secretary of the Treasury William Windom on July 7, 1891. Over $1,000,000 worth of lots were sold to Midwesterners looking for greener pastures and a seaside environment. By 1892, New Velasco had 136 business establishments and 167 residences, an electric light plant, a planing mill.
Jetties were built by the Brazos River Channel and Dock Company by 1897, the newly dug deepwater port ran to a depth of 17½ feet. Much of Velasco, first owned by John A. and William H. Wharton, was sold to an agent of the English Rothschild family, they planned to establish a great seaport at the site. By 1896 the community had a new lighthouse, several churches, hotels, a national bank, a cottonseed oil mill, cotton gins and general stores, two weekly newspapers. Old Velasco and Crescent Beach could be reached by electric railroad; the population had reached 3,000. Velasco rebuilt enduring fluctuations of poverty and prosperity. By 1914, with a population of 1,000 and only one newspaper remaining, the community had a fish and oyster plant and shipped cattle, cane sugar, syrup; the population dropped to a low of 400 in the mid-1930s during the Great Depression, when the town supported only 12 businesses. The port of Freeport had been built on the Brazos River four miles upstream; the river below the port required frequent dredging.
In 1929, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers diverted the course of Brazos River three miles west, leaving the four-mile segment of the Old Brazos as a stand-alone ship channel. Diversion of the Brazos River and the formation of a tidal estuary de
Mexican Armed Forces
The Mexican Armed Forces are composed of two independent entities: the Mexican Army and the Mexican Navy. The Mexican Army includes the Mexican Air Force; the Presidential Guard, Military Police, Special Forces are part of the Army, but have their own chain of command. The Mexican Navy includes the Naval Aviation; the Army and Navy are controlled by two separate government departments, the National Defense Secretariat and the Naval Secretariat, maintain two independent chains of command, with no joint command except the President of Mexico. There are three main components of the Army: a national headquarters, territorial commands, independent units; the Secretary of National Defense commands the Army by means of a centralized system and a large number of general officers. The Army uses a modified continental staff system in its headquarters; the Army is the largest branch of Mexico's armed services. Presently, there are 12 "Military Regions", which are further broken down into 44 subordinate "Military Zones."
In both cases, a numbering system is used for designation. There is no set number of zones within a region, these can therefore be tailored to meet operational needs, with a corresponding increase or decrease in troop strength; the Air Force national headquarters is embedded in the Army headquarters in Mexico City. It follows the continental staff system, with the usual A1, A2, A3, A4 sections; the tactical forces form what is loosely called an Air Division, but it is dispersed in four regions: Northeast Mexico, Northwest Mexico, Central Mexico, Southern Mexico. The Air Force maintains a total of 18 air bases, has the additional capability of opening temporary forward operating bases in austere conditions for some helicopters and light aircraft; the Secretariat of the Navy, the Navy's national headquarters, is located in Mexico City, is smaller than the Army's headquarters. The "Junta of Admirals" plays a unique consultative and advisory role within the headquarters, an indication of the institutional importance placed on seniority and "year groups" that go back to the admirals’ days as cadets in the naval college.
They are a tightly knit group, great importance is placed on consultation among the factions within these year groups. The Navy's operational forces are organized as two independent groups: the Gulf Force and the Pacific Force; each group has its own headquarters, a destroyer group, an auxiliary vessel group, a Marine Infantry Group, a Special Forces group. The Gulf and Pacific Forces are not mirror images of each other, as independence of organization is permitted. Both are subdivided into regions, with Regions 1, 3, 5 on the Gulf, 2, 4, 6 on the Pacific; each region is further divided into sectors and zones, so a proliferation of headquarters and senior officers exists. The Navy has an air arm with troop transport and surveillance aircraft; the Navy maintains significant infrastructure, including naval dockyards that have the capability of building ships, such as the Holzinger class offshore patrol vessel. These dockyards have a significant employment and economic impact in the country; the Naval Infantry are the marine corps and amphibious infantry force of the Mexican Navy.
The main task of the Infantería de Marina is to guarantee the maritime security of the country's ports and external and internal defense of the country, to accomplish these responsibilities the corps is trained and equipped to take on any type of operations from Sea and Land. The Naval Infantry Corps was reorganized in 2007–09 into 30 Naval Infantry Battalions, a paratroop battalion, a battalion attached to the Presidential Guard Brigade, two Fast Reaction Forces with six battalions each, three Special Forces groups; the Naval Infantry are responsible for port security, protection of the ten-kilometer coastal fringe, patrolling major waterways. The Mexican Maritime Search and Rescue is the Mexican Navy's SAR Unit, responsible for improving the quality and effectiveness of the Navy's response to Mexico's maritime emergencies; the Mexican Navy has been responsible for the search and rescue operations using its available resources. However, aware of the importance of safeguarding human life at sea and the growing demand of sea rescue, the High Command of the Navy established one of its most challenging priorities, the establishment of Maritime Search and Rescue Operations.
Several other military organizations exist that are independent of the Army and Navy command structures. Chief among the independent troops is an Army Corps consisting of two mechanized infantry brigades located in Mexico City plus a motorized brigade, with a full complement of combat and support troops. In addition, there are three brigades of the Corps of Military Police, Special Forces units, Presidential Guards, a parachute brigade. All these independent troops are located in Mexico City where they act as a ready reserve and as centers of excellence. In times of need, a special "Rural Defense Corps" plays a role similar to a traditional volunteer militia. Today, Rural Defense teams work with local law enforcement and the Federal Police, towards the goal of hindering organized crime and the threat of the drug cartels. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in his inaugural message to the Armed Forces on 1 December 2018 asked the Congress of the Union to consider reactivating the National Guard of Mexico, this time, as a separate service of the armed forces under the direct control and responsibility of
Gonzales, Texas
Gonzales is a city in Gonzales County, United States. The population was 7,237 at the 2010 census, it is the county seat. Gonzales is one of the earliest Anglo-American settlements in Texas, the first west of the Colorado River, it was established by Empresario Green DeWitt as the capital of his colony in August 1825. DeWitt named the community for Rafael Gonzáles, governor of Coahuila y Tejas. Informally, the community was known as the DeWitt Colony; the original settlement was abandoned in 1826 after two Indian attacks. It was rebuilt nearby in 1827; the town remains today as it was surveyed. Gonzales is referred to as the "Lexington of Texas" because it was the site of the first skirmish of the Texas Revolution. In 1831, the Mexican government had granted Green DeWitt's request for a small cannon for protection against Indian attacks. At the outbreak of disputes between the Anglo settlers and the Mexican authorities in 1835, a contingent of more than 100 Mexican soldiers was sent from San Antonio to retrieve the cannon.
When the soldiers arrived, there were only 18 men in Gonzales, but they refused to return the cannon, soon men from the surrounding area joined them. Texians under the command of John Henry Moore confronted them. Sarah DeWitt and her daughter sewed a flag bearing the likeness of the cannon and the words "Come and Take It", flown when the first shots of Texan independence were fired on October 2, 1835; the Texians resisted the Mexican troops in what became known as the Battle of Gonzales. Gonzales contributed 32 men from the Gonzales Ranging Company to the defense of the Alamo, it was the only city to send aid to the Alamo, all 32 men lost their lives defending the site. It was to Gonzales that Susanna Dickinson, widow of one of the Alamo defenders, Joe, the slave of William B. Travis, fled with news of the Alamo massacre. General Sam Houston was there organizing the Texas forces, he anticipated the town would be the next target of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican army. Gathering the Texians at Peach Creek east of town, under the Sam Houston Oak, Houston ordered Gonzales burned, to deny it to the enemy.
He began a retreat toward the U. S. border. The widows and orphans of Gonzales and their neighbors were forced to flee, thus precipitating the Runaway Scrape; the town was derelict after the Texas Revolution, but was rebuilt on the original site in the early 1840s. By 1850, the town had a population of 300; the population rose to 1,703 by time of the 1860 census, 2,900 by the mid-1880s, 4,297 in 1900. Part of the growth of the late 19th century can be attributed to the arrival of various immigrants, among them Jews, many of whom became peddlers and merchants. Gonzales is located in central Gonzales County at 29°30′32″N 97°26′52″W, on the northeast side of the Guadalupe River, just east of the mouth of the San Marcos River. U. S. Route 183 passes through the west side of the city, leading south 32 miles to Cuero and northwest 18 miles to Luling. U. S. Route 90 Alternate passes through the northern side of the city, leading east 18 miles to Shiner and west 33 miles to Seguin. San Antonio is 69 miles to the west, Houston is 136 miles to the east.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Gonzales has a total area of 6.1 square miles, all of it land. As of the census of 2010, there were 2,243 households in the city; the population density was 1,412.8 people per square mile. There were 2,869 housing units at an average density of 562.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 71.5% White, 7.40% African American, 1.00% Native American, 0.40% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 21.15% from other races, 2.20% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 47.2% of the population. There were 2,571 households out of which 36.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.0% were married couples living together, 15.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.4% were non-families. 28.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.35. In the city, the population was spread out with 29.7% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 18.7% from 45 to 64, 17.0% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $27,226, the median income for a family was $34,663. Males had a median income of $22,804 versus $18,217 for females; the per capita income for the city was $12,866. About 14.8% of families and 20.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.5% of those under age 18 and 23.0% of those age 65 or over. During the 19th century, the town was a center for higher education in Texas. Construction began in 1851 and the college opened in 1853, with 50 students. An 1855 addition for the men's program was torn down during the Civil War. By 1857, the school granted bachelor of arts degrees to females, making it one of the earliest colleges in Texas to do so; the college was purchased in 1891, its building converted into a private residence by W. M. Atkinson; the city of Gonzales is served by the Gonzales Independent School District and is home to the Gonzales High School Apaches.
According to the University Interscholastic League of Texas, the Gonzales Apaches football team is in the 4A-1 Region IV District 15. The city of Gonzales a
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is one of the principal rivers in the southwest United States and northern Mexico. The Rio Grande begins in south-central Colorado in the United States and flows to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way, it forms part of the Mexico–United States border. According to the International Boundary and Water Commission, its total length was 1,896 miles in the late 1980s, though course shifts result in length changes. Depending on how it is measured, the Rio Grande is either the fourth- or fifth-longest river system in North America; the river serves as part of the natural border between the U. S. state of Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas. A short stretch of the river serves as part of the boundary between the U. S. states of New Mexico. Since the mid–20th century, heavy water consumption by farms and cities along with many large diversion dams on the river has left only 20% of its natural discharge to flow to the Gulf. Near the river's mouth, the irrigated lower Rio Grande Valley is an important agricultural region.
The Rio Grande's watershed covers 182,200 square miles. Many endorheic basins are situated within, or adjacent to, the Rio Grande's basin, these are sometimes included in the river basin's total area, increasing its size to about 336,000 square miles; the Rio Grande rises in the western part of the Rio Grande National Forest in the U. S. state of Colorado. The river is formed by the joining of several streams at the base of Canby Mountain in the San Juan Mountains, just east of the Continental Divide. From there, it flows through the San Luis Valley south into the Middle Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico, passing through the Rio Grande Gorge near Taos toward Española, picking up additional water from the San Juan-Chama Diversion Project from the Rio Chama, it continues on a southerly route through the desert cities of Albuquerque and Las Cruces to El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. In the Albuquerque area, the river flows past a number of historic Pueblo villages, including Sandia Pueblo and Isleta Pueblo.
Below El Paso, it serves as part of the border between the United States and Mexico. The official river border measurement ranges from 889 miles to 1,248 miles, depending on how the river is measured. A major tributary, the Rio Conchos, enters at Ojinaga, below El Paso, supplies most of the water in the border segment. Other tributaries include the Pecos and the smaller Devils, which join the Rio Grande on the site of Amistad Dam. Despite its name and length, the Rio Grande is not navigable by ocean-going ships, nor do smaller passenger boats or cargo barges use it as a route, it is navigable at all, except by small boats in a few places. The Rio Grande rises in high flows for much of its length at high elevation. In New Mexico, the river flows through the Rio Grande rift from one sediment-filled basin to another, cutting canyons between the basins and supporting a fragile bosque ecosystem on its flood plain. From El Paso eastward, the river flows through desert. Although irrigated agriculture exists throughout most of its stretch, it is extensive in the subtropical Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The river ends in a sandy delta at the Gulf of Mexico. During portions of 2001 and 2002, the mouth of the Rio Grande was blocked by a sandbar. In the fall of 2003, the sandbar was cleared by high river flows around 7,063 cubic feet per second. Navigation was active during much of the 19th century, with over 200 different steamboats operating between the river's mouth close to Brownsville and Rio Grande City, Texas. Many steamboats from the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were requisitioned by the U. S. government and moved to the Rio Grande during the Mexican–American War in 1846. They provided transport for the U. S. Army, under General Zachary Taylor, to invade Monterrey, Nuevo León, via Camargo Municipality, Tamaulipas. Army engineers recommended that with small improvements, the river could be made navigable as far north as El Paso; those recommendations were never acted upon. The Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge, a large swing bridge, dates back to 1910 and is still in use today by automobiles connecting Brownsville with Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
The swing mechanism has not been used since the early 1900s, when the last of the big steamboats disappeared. At one point, the bridge had rail traffic. Railroad trains no longer use this bridge. A new rail bridge connecting the U. S. and Mexico was built about 15 miles west of the Matamoros International Bridge. It was inaugurated in August 2015, it moved all rail operations out of downtown Matamoros. The West Rail International Crossing is the first new international rail crossing between the U. S. and Mexico in 105 years. The Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge is now operated by the Brownsville and Matamoros Bridge Company, a joint venture between the Mexican government and the Union Pacific Railroad. At the mouth of the Rio Grande, on the Mexican side, was the large commercial port of Bagdad, Tamaulipas. During the American Civil War, this was the only legitimate port of the Confederacy. European warships anchored offshore to maintain the port's neutrality, managed to do so throughout that conflict, despite occasional stare-downs with blockading ships from the US Navy.
It was a shal
