Battle of Carrizo
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| Battle of Carrizo | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Cortina War | |||||||
 Captain Santos Benavides | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Cortinista militia |
 Confederate States of America | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Juan Cortina |
Captain Santos Benavides | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 30 Cortinistas | |||||||
The Battle of Carrizo was an 1861 battle, the only engagement of the Second Cortina War, and the final engagement of the wider Cortina Troubles. Juan Cortina, a Mexican rancher who had previously attacked American settlements in Texas' Rio Grande valley, sacked Carrizo, a settlement that was then the seat of Zapata County on May 22 with about thirty Cortinistas. In a forty-minute battle, Confederate Captain Santos Benavides decisively defeated Cortina, killing or capturing many of his soldiers and driving him back into Mexico.
The first Cortina War began in 1859 when Mexican rancher Juan Cortina and about 75 men raided Brownsville, Texas in response to the beating of a local Tejano named Thomas Cabrera. A series of battles followed, in which Cortina was eventually driven back to Mexico by John Rip Ford after his defeat at La Bolsa.[1][2]
By 1861, Texas had seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America. Although Zapata County officials reported a unanimous vote for secession, several prominent citizens remained Unionists at the time of the battle. A follower of Cortina, Antonio Ochoa, confronted county judge Isidro Vela in April with a group of armed men, intending to prevent the county officials from taking oaths to the Confederate States. After a confrontation, the insurgents were defeated.[3][4]