The Battle of Velasco (CEC)

The Battle of Velasco:  The Wrong Battle at the Wrong Place

When Texians led by Henry Smith and John Austin went to Brazoria to fetch a cannon there, they had intended to use it at Anahuac against the obnoxious garrison there and its irritating commander, Juan Davis Bradburn.  Instead, as William Russell’s schooner Brazoria slid down the Brazos River, a Mexican force under Domingo de Ugartechea, commander of the Mexican fort at Velasco, tried to block the passage of the vessel.  On June 26, 1832, the 150 Texians responded by landing and surrounding the circular Mexican outpost and shelling it from the schooner.  The Mexicans responded by returning fire with their 8-pounder mounted in the center of their fort, and a 4-pounder on its palisade walls.

Eventually, Ugartechea’s 200 men fired away all of their ammunition and surrendered.  About seven Texians lay dead, and twice that number suffered wounds.  Three would not survive.  The insurgents killed five soldados inside the fort, and injured another sixteen.  Three days later the Mexican officers signed a formal capitulation of the post upon being promised transportation back to a Mexican port.