[Illustration: Adolphus Sterne Home Where Sam Houston was baptized. Standing at corner Lanana and Pilar street. See page 22.]
For the real cause of the Battle of Nacogdoches, we must go back to Bustamente’s Law of April 6, 1830, forbidding further immigration from the United States, while permitting Europeans to come in unimpeded. Juan Antonio Padilla had been appointed as commissioner general for granting land titles in East Texas, assuming his duties on January 1, 1830. Upon the passage of the law of April 6th, Padilla was unwilling to enforce its provisions, and in the latter part of April he was ordered by Don Ramon Musquiz, political chief in Bexar, to be imprisoned and suspended on a trumped-up-charge of murder.
An outbreak was prevented in Nacogdoches only by prompt action on the part of Col. Piedras, while the people of Ayish Bayou and the Palo Gacho met and passed resolutions of an inflammatory nature. Stephen F. Austin refused to cooperate in this opposition and thus for a time the trouble was delayed.
The military force in Nacogdoches was doubled during 1830, and passports of all immigrants going through Nacogdoches for Austin’s colony, which was exempted by Bustamente’s Decree, were required to be signed by Austin in person.
Under the dictatorship of Bustamente the military comandantes continually encroached upon the power of the civil authorities, and finally, in June, 1832, the settlers at Anahuac rebelled and ousted Bradburn, Piedras arriving too late with troops from Nacogdoches and Fort Teran. Becoming alarmed at the rising tide of opposition, Col. Piedras, upon his return, ordered the people of Nacogdoches to surrender all their arms. This order was followed immediately by an appeal from the ayuntamiento in Nacogdoches, issued July 28, 1832, to the neighboring communities to present an united front against this action; copies of this resolution were sent to Ayish Bayou, the Palo Gacho, Tenaha and San Felipe de Austin and met immediate response from all except San Felipe. Two companies came from the Ayish Bayou settlement, commanded by Capts. Samuel Davis and Bailey Anderson, one from Sabine and one from Shelby and Capt. James Bradshaw’s company from the Neches settlement; while the people of Nacogdoches were led by Alcalde Encarnacion Chirino. On the morning of August 2, 1832, these forces met in the eastern outskirts of Nacogdoches and elected Colonel James W. Bullock as commander-in-chief of approximately 500 men.