The Battle of Velasco, fought June 25-26, 1832, was the first true military conflict between Mexico and Texians in the Texas Revolution, colloquially referred to as the "Boston Harbor of Texas" It began when Texian Militia attacked Fort Velasco, located in what was then Velasco and what is now the city of Surfside Beach. The Mexican commander during the conflict, Domingo de Ugartechea, tried to stop the Texians, under John Austin, from transporting a cannon down the Brazos River to attack the city of Anahuac. The Texian Militia eventually prevailed over the Mexicans. Ugartechea surrendered after a two-day battle, once he realized he would not be receiving reinforcements, and his soldiers had almost run out of ammunition..
Background
After Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, it legalized immigration from the United States. It granted contracts to empresarios to settle immigrants from the United States and Europe in Mexican Texas. There were few Mexicans living at the time in the eastern section of this territory but, as the number of Anglo speakers living in Texas increased, Mexican authorities began to fear the United States would want to annex Texas. On April 6, 1830 the Mexican government passed a series of laws restricting immigration from the United States into Texas. The laws also canceled all unfilled empresario contracts and established customs houses in Texas to enforce the collection of customs duties. Mexican military officer Juan Davis Bradburn, formerly a United States citizen, was appointed commander of a new customs and garrison post on Galveston Bay. In October 1830, Bradburn established a post atop a bluff at the entrance to the Trinity River. The post became known as Anahuac.
In 1832, Mexican authorities established a small garrison at Velasco, a small community on the eastern bank of the Brazos River. The new post would have jurisdiction over all commerce entering the river from the Gulf of Mexico. A log stockade was built on flat ground approximately from the Brazos River, and an equal distance from the Gulf of Mexico. The stockade had an inner and an outer wall, with the between them filled with sand, earth, and shells. An embankment along the inner wall allowed musketeers to shoot without exposing more than their heads. In the center of the stockade, another embankment provided a mounting place for a nine-pound cannon. The cannon was on a swivel and could guard the entire mouth of the river, but was unable to point downwards to aim into the immediate vicinity. Approximately 100 troops were garrisoned at the fort, under the command of Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea.
Prelude
Bradburn was deeply unpopular with the Texian settlers. Tensions escalated in May 1832, when Bradburn arrested a local man, William Barret Travis, on charges of attempted insurrection to separate the territory from Mexico. Conviction on this charge would lead to Travis's execution. When Travis's business partner, Patrick Jack, made threats against Bradburn, he was also arrested. Jack's brother organized a contingent of men to march from Brazoria to Anahuac. As the march began, John Austin, a member of the Brazoria Ayuntamiento, stopped to consult with Ugartechea, who recommended that Austin request that the men be remanded into civilian custody while they awaited a ruling from Bradburn's superior. When presented with this request, several Mexican officers explained to Austin that the laws prevented them from turning the men over to civilian authorities. Placated, Austin returned home; on his arrival he learned that Bradburn's men had arrested several Texians on suspicion of stealing horses. Austin was outraged and returned to Anahuac to join other Texian volunteers.
By early June, over 150 Texian Militia had gathered under the command of Frank W. Johnson. On June 10, the insurgents occupied Anahuac and after a brief engagement with Mexican troops, the Texians withdrew to Turtle Bayou. Taking advantage of the civil war engulfing the Mexican interior, the Texians drafted the Turtle Bayou Resolutions. In this document, they declared themselves federalists who supported rebellious Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna and decried "the present dynasty" that gave them military order instead of civil authority. The resolutions encouraged other colonists to join them in laying siege to Anahuac.
After the resolutions were adopted on June 13, the group determined that Austin, Henry S. Brown, and William J. Russell would go to Brazoria to recruit reinforcements and retrieve several cannon that belonged to private citizens. No further attacks would take place in Anahuac until the cannon and reinforcements arrived.