Post by Stan Bacon on May 24, 2018 20:13:35 GMT -5
For those who may not have read Bill and Marjorie Walraven’s The Magnificent Barbarians, they describe a fascinating but largely undocumented and totally unpublicized scheme involving President Andrew Jackson, Maj. Gen. Edmund Gaines and Texian Army Commander Sam Houston for the U.S. to start a war with Mexico in order to take over Texas and Northern California to include the port of San Francisco.
While Jackson had endorsed the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty at the time making the Sabine River the boundary between Spanish Texas and the U.S., after Mexico’s independence, he changed his tune saying the boundary was further west along the Neches River. And while Jackson publicly stated that the U.S. would remain neutral in the conflict in Texas, he and Gaines had a history going back to their time in Florida together, and Gaines may have been “reading between the lines” on the orders he received.
So the plan was for Gaines to deploy troops along the Sabine, Houston to withdraw across the Neches and when the Mexican Army crossed the Neches in pursuit, tantamount to Mexico invading the U.S., Gaines would engage and defeat the Mexican Army. Of course, the Battle of San Jacinto scuttled that plan.
When Gaines relocated to Fort Jesup from New Orleans in early April, Lieutenant Joseph Bonnell began working directly for him as liaison officer and advisor on Indian affairs, but there is no evidence he played a role in the scheme.
While Jackson had endorsed the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty at the time making the Sabine River the boundary between Spanish Texas and the U.S., after Mexico’s independence, he changed his tune saying the boundary was further west along the Neches River. And while Jackson publicly stated that the U.S. would remain neutral in the conflict in Texas, he and Gaines had a history going back to their time in Florida together, and Gaines may have been “reading between the lines” on the orders he received.
So the plan was for Gaines to deploy troops along the Sabine, Houston to withdraw across the Neches and when the Mexican Army crossed the Neches in pursuit, tantamount to Mexico invading the U.S., Gaines would engage and defeat the Mexican Army. Of course, the Battle of San Jacinto scuttled that plan.
When Gaines relocated to Fort Jesup from New Orleans in early April, Lieutenant Joseph Bonnell began working directly for him as liaison officer and advisor on Indian affairs, but there is no evidence he played a role in the scheme.