Brownsville Raid (1859)
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| Brownsville Raid | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Cortina Troubles | |||||||
 Brownsville in 1857 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Cortinistas |
 USA | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Juan Cortina |
Robert Shears (WIA) Adolphus Glavecke (WIA) Robert Johnson  George Morris † William Peter Neale † Viviano Garcia † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 75 men on horseback | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 5 killed | ||||||
The Brownsville Raid was the opening act of the Cortina Troubles, a series of raids by Mexican rancher Juan Cortina into Texas. The raid was precipitated by Brownsville sheriff Robert Shears attacking a Mexican man named Thomas Cabrera and in turn being shot by Cortina. The incident was a culmination of growing discontent between Mexicans and Texan settlers.
On September 28, Cortina and a band of men attacked Brownsville with the intention of killing Shears and his associate Adolphus Glavecke.
Brownsville was first established on the banks of the Rio Grande in 1848, during the Mexican–American War.[1] After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Tejano, or Hispanic Texan, ranchers in southern Texas came into conflict with Anglo-American settlers, who filed specious claims on property, forcing the landowners into the newly introduced American courts to assert their property rights. Mexican families would often have to hire an American lawyer, who would be paid with a chunk of land if he was successful.
On July 13, 1859, Mexican rancher Juan Cortina saw Brownsville sheriff Robert Shears pistol-whipping 59-year-old Tomas Cabrera, a former employee of Cortina's family, in the street. Cortina told the sheriff that he knew Cabrera and implored him to stop the beating, to which Shears responded by shouting "What is it to you, you damned Mexican?" In response, Cortina fired a warning shot, but when Shears continued whipping Cabrera, shot the sheriff in the shoulder. Cortina and Cabrera then fled Brownsville across the border to Matamoros, where he was hailed as a hero.[2] To avoid an indictment, Cortina offered Shears cash for injuring him.
Cortina relocated permanently to Mexico and was commissioned as an officer in the Federal Army. In the months afterwards, Cortina raised a militia of around 100 Mexican men, popularly called the Cortinistas,.[3]