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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
On June 26, 1861, Juan A. Quintero, special agent for the Confederate States of America, sat in the palace in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, listening to Governor Santiago Vidaurri relate a familiar but nevertheless surprising story. He had long been searching for some method whereby he could effectively resist the federal government, Vidaurri began, and now he hoped that he had found it. Initially he had thought that a Republic of Sierra Madre might be the solution, and many observers on both sides of the Rio Grande felt that this was the course he would pursue. But, for various reasons, that had been discarded. The new Confederacy presented a different alternative—one that he believed might be feasible. Would Southern President Jefferson Davis agree to annex the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León and Coahuila? Thus began a relationship that endured for over three years and did not end until the powerful caudillo fell from power.
1 Quintero to Confederate Secretary of State R. M.T. Hunter, Richmond, August 17, 19, 1861, in the John T. Pickett Papers [JTPP] (Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.). For a good discussion from the Confederate viewpoint, see also Owsley, Frank Lawrence, King Cotton Diplomacy: Foreign Relations of the Confederate States of America (2nd ed. rev.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959), pp. 113–133.Google Scholar
2 Quintero to Hunter, August 19, 1861, in JTPP.
3 Quintero to Vidaurri, Monterrey, June 19, 1861, in JTPP. Vidaurri also published this and related documents in the Boletín Oficial (Monterrey), July 3, 1861, insuring that Quintero was well-known as a Confederate agent.
4 Regarding states' rights, see Moseley, Edward H., “Santiago Vidaurri, Champion of States’ Rights: 1855–1857,” West Georgia College Studies in the Social Sciences, 6 (June, 1967), 69–80.Google Scholar
5 See Vidaurri’s baptismal record in Volume III, citation 282, of Lampazos, N.L., Archivo Parroquial, Bautismos, Vols, 1–3: 1700–1829. Rollo 696, in the Biblioteca Cervantina, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Monterrey, N. L., Mexico. Apparently this is the same document cited in Roel, Santiago (ed.), Correspondencia particular de D. Santiago Vidaurri, Gobernador de Nuevo León (1855–1864) (Monterrey: Universidad de Nuevo León, 1946), p. vii,Google Scholar note 1. Roel lists 1808 as the year of Vidaurri's birth, but the document clearly shows 1809. Also see Tapia, Oscar Flores, Coahuila: la reforma, la intervención y el imperio (Saltillo: Talleres Gráficos del Gobierno del Estado, 1966), pp. 25–26.Google Scholar
6 Roel, , Correspondencia, pp. vii–viii Google Scholar; Roel, Santiago, Nuevo León: apuntes históricos (11th ed., Monterrey: Talleres Linotipográficos del Estado, 1963), pp. 133–134, 137–138, 157.Google Scholar
7 For excellent descriptions of Vidaurri’s coup, see Roel, , Nuevo León, pp. 157–158;Google Scholar Moseley, Edward H., “The Public Career of Santiago Vidaurri, 1855–1858” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Alabama, 1963), pp. 62–88.Google Scholar
8 Ramón, Federico Berrueto, “Santiago Vidaurri y el Estado de Nuevo León y Coahuila,” Humanitas, 6 (1965), 407–420 Google Scholar; Moseley, “Vidaurri, Champion of States’ Rights.” See also Tapia, Flores, Coahuila, pp. 27–40,Google Scholar which is of questionable historical accuracy because of lack of documentation. For the battle of Ahualulco, see Velázquez, Primo Feliciano, Historia de San Luis potosí (México: Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadistica, 1947), 3, 297–317 Google Scholar; Moseley, , “Public Career of Vidaurri,” p. 360.Google Scholar
9 Roel, , Nuevo León, p. 162;Google Scholar Palacio, Vicente Riva, México a través de los siglos (Barcelona: Editorial de España y Comp., 1889), 5, 386 Google Scholar; Boletín Oficial, September 26, 1859, See also Winkler, Ernest W. (ed.), Check List of Texas Imprints, 1846–1860 (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1949), p. 250,Google Scholar for information from a broadside in which Vidaurri thanked the “ people of San Antonio for their hospitality during his brief stay as an exile from his own country.” The document cannot now be located in the Texas State Library, Austin.
10 Ramón, Federico Berrueto, Ignacio Zaragoza (México: Secretaría de Gobernación, 1962), pp. 131–138 Google Scholar; Roel, , Nuevo León, pp. 59–60.Google Scholar
11 El Restaurador de la Libertad (Monterrey), June 4, 11, 30, 1855; Boletín Oficial, October 26, 1855.
12 Moseley, , “Public Career of Vidaurri,” pp. 364–365.Google Scholar
13 Boletín Oficial, September 7, 1859; Juan N. Seguín to Texas Governor Hardin R. Runnells, San Antonio, January 9, 1859, in Governors' Letters [GL] (Archives, Texas State Library). See Title I, Section I, Article 2, Constitución Federal de los Estados-Unidos Mexicanos (México: Imprenta de Ignacio Cumplido, 1857; 1957 reprint), p. 25.
14 Vidaurri to Juárez, Monterrey, July 4, 1861, in Roel, Santiago (ed.), Correspondencia Particular de D. Santiago Vidaurri, Gobernador de Nuevo León (1855–1864) (Monterrey: Universidad de Nuevo León, 1946), pp. 73–74.Google Scholar
15 Vidaurri to the Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Monterrey, July 3, 1861, in Tamayo, Jorge L. (ed.), Benito Juárez: documentos, discursos y correspondencia (México: Secretaría del Patrimonio Nacional, 1965), 4, 621–622.Google Scholar
16 Quintero to Confederate Assistant Secretary of State William M. Browne, New Orleans, September 9, 1861, in JTPP.
17 See, for example, the rumors that swept Texas in 1861 in Boletín Oficial, May 9, 1861.
18 Browne to Quintero, Richmond, September 3, 1861, in Richardson, James D. (ed.), A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence, 1861–1865 (Nashville: United States Publishing Company, 1906), 2, 77–80.Google Scholar
19 Quintero to Browne, Matamoros, April 17, 1862, Quintero to Vidaurri, April 4, 1862, in JTPP.
20 Quintero to Hunter, Monterrey, February 1, Quintero to Browne, Brownsville, March 4, 1862, in JTPP; Lobbock, Francis Richard, Six Decades in Texas, or Memoirs of Francis Richard Lubbock, Governor of Texas in War-Time, 1861–63, ed. by Raines, C.W. (Austin: Ben C. Jones & Co., 1900), pp. 360–369 Google Scholar; Graf, LeRoy P., “The Economic History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1820–1875” (Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1942), 2, 492.Google Scholar
21 Milmo to [Quintero], Monterrey, [December?, 1863], in JTPP; Owsley, , King Cotton Diplomacy, p. 118.Google Scholar
22 Quintero to Hunter, Monterrey, November 4, 1861, February 11, 1862, in JTPP.
23 Brown, S.S. to Major General Lew Wallace, Baltimore, January 13, 1865, in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies [O.R.] (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), series I, Vol. 48, Pt. 1, 512–513.Google Scholar
24 Lyon Fremantle, James Arthur, The Fremantle Diary; Being the Journal of Lieutenant Colonel James Arthur Lyon Fremantle, Coldstream Guards, on his Three Months in the Southern States, ed. by Lord, Walter (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1954), p. 6.Google Scholar
25 Bailey, to Welles, , Key West, April 2, 1863, in Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894–1927), Series I, Vol. 17, 403.Google Scholar
26 Franklin Chase to United States Secretary of State William Seward, Tampico, August 6, 1861, in Despatches from United States Consuls in Tampico, 1824–1906: January 10, 1860-January 26, 1863 (General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59, National Archives, Washington, D. C).
27 Quintero to Brown, Monterrey, February 9, 1862, Quintero to Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, Monterrey, October 19, 1862, in JTPP.
28 Quintero to Hunter, Monterrey, November 4, 11, 1861, Quintero to Benjamin, Monterrey, August 14, 1862, Quintero to Browne, Monterrey, November 6, 1861, in JTPP; Quintero to Lubbock, Monterrey, November 9, December 2, 1861, in GL.
29 Quintero to Benjamin, Monterrey, January 25, 1864, in JTPP; M. M. Kimmey to Seward, Monterrey, November 21, 1862, in Despatches from United States Consuls in Monterrey, Mexico, 1849–1906: Register, 1849–1906 and Volume 2, November 14, 1849-December 9, 1869 (General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59, National Archives).
30 For a description of the drought, see Ruben W. Creel to Brigadier General James H. Carleton, Chihuahua, November 9, 1863, in Despatches from United States Consuls in Chihuahua, Mexico, 1826–1906: August 18, 1826-December 31, 1869 (General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59, National Archives). See also Quintero to Benjamin, Monterrey, November 20, 1862, in JTPP.
31 Quintero to Hunter, Brownsville, October 18, 1861, in JTPP; González, Arturo, Historia de Tamaulipas (Ciudad Victoria: Bib. “El Lápiz Rojo,” 1931), pp. 81–82.Google Scholar
32 Vidaurri to President Jefferson Davis, Monterrey, January 25, Vidaurri to Quintero, Monterrey, March 10, 1862, in Correspondencia Particular de Santiago Vidaurri [CPSV] (Archivo General del Estado de Nuevo León, Monterrey) ; Vidaurri to Lubbock, Monterrey, March 10, 1862, in GL; Quintero to Browne, Brownsville, March 8, Monterrey, March 22, 1862, in JTPP.
33 Boletín Oficial, January 14, 1862; Vidaurri to Juárez, Monterrey, January 14, 1862, in Roel, , Correspondencia, p. 107.Google Scholar
34 Quintero to Browne, March 28, 1862, in JTPP.
35 Quintero to Hunter, Monterrey, February 1, 1862, in JTPP.
36 Quintero to Browne, Monterrey, March 24, 1862, in JTPP.
37 Ibid.; The Fort Brown Flag (Brownsville), April 17, 1862; Quintero to Lubbock, Monterrey, March 28, 1862, Vidaurri to Quintero, Monterrey, April 5, 1862, Quintero to Browne, Matamoros, April 17, 28, 1862, Quintero to Benjamin, Matamoros, July 5, 1862, in JTPP; Ben McCulloch to Lubbock, San Antonio, April 16, 1862, in GL.
38 Ford, John S., Rip Ford’s Texas, ed. by Oates, Stephen B. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1963), p. 351.Google Scholar
39 McIntyre, Benjamin F., Federals on the Frontier; the Diary of Benjamin F. McIntyre, 1862–1864, ed. by Tilley, Nannie M. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1963), pp. 245–260.Google Scholar
40 Graf, , “Economic History of the Lower Rio Grande,” 2, 528–529.Google Scholar
41 Milmo to Major Simeon Hart, Monterrey, December 11, 1863, in CPSV; Parles, Joseph Howard, General Edmund Kirby Smith, C.S.A. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1954), pp. 302–305.Google Scholar
42 Owsley, , King Cotton Diplomacy, pp. 125–126.Google Scholar
43 Clarence C. Thayer to General Kirby Smith, Monterrey. December 20, 1863, in O.R., Series I, Vol. LIII, 931–932.
44 Milmo to Hart, December 11, 1863, in CPSV.
45 Claims of Patrick Milmo, XXIX, Nos, 280–281,” in Foreign Office Papers, F. O. 97/516 (Public Fecords Office, London); Quintero to Vidaurri, Monterrey, December 17, 1863, in CPSV; Quintero to Benjamin, Monterrey, December 23, 1863, January 25, 1864, in JTPP.
46 Roeder, Ralph, Juárez and His Mexico (New York: The Viking Press, 1947), 2, 548 Google Scholar; Tapia, Flores, Coahuila, pp. 129–130 Google Scholar; Quintero to Benjamin, Monterrey, January 25, February 1, 1864, in JTPP.
47 Quintero to Benjamin, February 1, 1864, in JTPP, contains part of Special Order Number 8, Shreveport, La., January 12, 1864, by which General Kirby Smith ordered the trade stopped. See also Kirby Smith to [the members of the commission], January [12], 1864, in O.R., Series I, Vol. LIII, 949–950.
48 Quintero to Benjamin, Monterrey, February 28, 1864, in JTPP.
49 Juárez to Vidaurri, Saltillo, February 9, 1864, in Roel, Correspondencia, p. 257.
50 Quintero to Benjamin, Monterrey, November 9, 1863, in JTPP.
51 Quintero to Benjamin, Monterrey, March 8, 1864, in JTPP.
52 Smart, Charles Allen, Viva Juárez! A Biography (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1963), p. 304 Google Scholar; Roel, , Nuevo León, pp. 176–177.Google Scholar
53 Benavides to Brigadier General James E. Slaughter, Laredo, April 10, 1864, in O.R., Series I, Vol. LIII, 980–981.
54 The Houston Daily Telegraph, May 23, 1864.
55 Quintero to Benjamin, Monterrey, September 5, 1864, in JTPP.
56 Roel, , Nuevo León, pp. 188–189 Google Scholar; Smart, , Viva Juárez! p. 375 Google Scholar; Martin, Percy F., Maximilian in Mexico: the Story of the French Intervention (1861–1867) (London: Constable & Co., Ltd., 1914), pp. 312–313.Google Scholar
57 Quintero to Kirby Smith, Monterrey. October 21, 1864, in JTPP.