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Battle of La Ebonal
The Battle of La Ebonal was fought in December 1859 near Brownsville, Texas during the First Cortina War. Following the Brownsville Raid, on September 28, and a few skirmishes with the Texas Rangers, rebel leader Juan Cortina led his small army into the hills outside of town and dug in near a series of cattle ranches. The United States Army responded by sending an expedition into the area, under the command of Major Samuel P. Heintzelman, with orders to pacify all resistance. A minor battle began on December 13, at a ranch called La Ebonal, and continued for a few hours as the Americans routed and then pursued the retreating Cortinistas.〔Pierce, pg. 36〕〔Thompson, pg. 86-92〕
==Background==
The First Cortina War began on September 28, 1859 when Juan Cortina led about seventy-five men into Brownsville to punish the town marshal for past grievances. After killing between four to six people, releasing the prisoners from the town jail, and taking whatever arms and ammunition, the Cortinistas fled northwest to Rancho del Carmen, which was owned by Cortina's mother and used as his base for operations north of the river border. On October 12, the sheriff of Cameron County, James Browne, led a posse to the ranch and succeeded in arresting the sixty-year-old Tomas Cabrera, who was not only a close friend of Cortina but one of his chief lieutenants that had participated in the Brownsville raid. When Cortina found out what had happened to his friend, he issued an ultimatum to the people of Brownsville, threatening that he would "''lay the town in ashes''" if Cabrera was not released and if his enemies did not surrender to him. The situation quickly escalated from there. The citizens of Brownsville began constructing defenses, including a barricade to block the main road through town. They also formed a twenty man militia, called the "Brownsville Tigers," which was sent to Rancho del Carmen and hastily defeated by 300 rebels, who captured both of the Tigers' small artillery pieces. Cortina had his men build a forward base for his artillery outside of town and he formed a frontline close enough to Brownsville so that it could be seen by the Americans at the barricade. However, other than a shot from the cannon every morning at 6:00 am, there was no battle at the town itself. Over the next weeks, volunteers flocked to Cortina's camps from both sides of the border. Among his new recruits were some sixty Mexican criminals, who had broken out of the prison at Ciudad Victoria, and a band of Tampacaus native Americans from near Reynosa.〔United States Congress, pg. 63〕〔Pierce, pg. 36〕〔Baum, pg. 88-89〕〔Ivey, pg. 83〕
With Cortina's army growing stronger every day, the Americans sent for help and a force of Texas Rangers, under Captain William G. Tobin, was soon ordered to begin assembling in Brownsville. Cortina was well informed by his network of spies and sympathizers who lived in South Texas so he planned to ambush the rangers as they arrived in the area. On November 11, the morning after the arrival of the first rangers, Cortina was spotted coming down the road towards Brownsville, leading a body of an estimated 200 men. The American defenders quickly manned the barricades but Cortina decided not to attack and quietly withdrew back to base. The people of Brownsville panicked and, with the help of the rangers, an angry mob removed Cabrera from his cell and lynched him in Market Square. Cortina then hung three of his American prisoners before ambushing a small troop of rangers in the Palo Alto chaparral, near the Palo Alto Battlefield. In a fight that lasted less than one hour, three Americans were killed and four others were wounded. Their bodies were later found to have been "''stripped and mutilated.''" In retaliation, Captain Tobin rode to the village of Santa Rita and burned it to the ground without any resistance. Later he moved up the river to attack Rancho del Carmen but again Cortina was victorious and the rangers were driven back to Brownsville by a "''galling fire of round shot, grape and canister.''" Outgunned, about 100 Texas Rangers deserted and headed back north for home while those that remained waited for reinforcements.〔United States Congress, pg. 63〕〔Baum, pg. 89-91〕〔Thompson, pg. 88〕
At this point the United States Army became involved. On November 13, General David E. Twiggs ordered Major Samuel P. Heintzelman to lead an expedition of several hundred men to Brownsville. Though the major would be starting out from Old Camp Verde, in central Texas, many of the units placed under his command would be coming from distant states or territories, such as Kansas and Virginia. Because of this, Heinztelman issued orders for the majority of his men to rendezvous with him at Fort Merrill, on the Nueces River, and the remainder to assemble at Fort McIntosh, in Laredo, before beginning the final march to Brownsville. The major left Camp Verde on November 14 and arrived in Brownsville just before midnight on December 6, a journey of 332 miles. At that time, Heintzelman had with him two batteries from the 1st Artillery, under Lieutenants Douglas Ramsay and William Montrose Graham, Jr., a company from the 2nd Cavalry, under Captain George Stoneman, and two companies from the 8th Infantry, under Captains Arthur Tracy Lee and Charles Downer Jordan. Another battery of artillery, one company of cavalry, and a few more companies of infantry was still at Laredo. During all this time, Cortina's army grew to at least 400 men and a few artillery pieces but they were not well armed individually and had little or no military training. With information collected by Mayor Stephen Powers, District Judge Edmund J. Davis, and the filibuster José María Jesús Carbajal in Matamoros, Heintzelman concluded that Cortina probably had no more than 300 to 350 men, only 100 of whom were mounted. The Texas Rangers insisted that the number was at least 600.〔Baum, pg. 89-91〕〔Thompson, pg. 86-90〕〔Ivey, pg. 83〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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