Mutiny Aboard the San Antonio

On 14 February 1842, some time before midnight, Lt. Charles Fuller, officer on deck of the Texas Navy schooner San Antonio, met a mob of sailors with marines in the front, all wanting to go ashore. Fuller ordered the marines to arms to take control of the mob. Instead, Marine Sgt. Oswald Seymour attacked Dearborn with a tomahawk. Marine Pvt. Benjamin Pompilly shot Lt. Fuller. Rushing to their aid, Midshipman William Henry Allen was shot in the foot. Midshipman T. H. Odell was shot in the thigh. Marine Pvt. Antonio Landois bayoneted Fuller. At that point Boatswain Frederick Shepherd intervened, shoving Landois. The wounded officers were dragged below deck. As Lt. Fuller lay dying on deck, the passing mutineers clubbed and stabbed him. The mutineers then took two boats and made for shore. New Orleans city police and United States Marines quickly rounded up the runaways.

 

At 12:20 PM on 26 April 1843, aboard the Texian Navy flagship Austin, four men were hanged for their mutiny on the night of 14 February 1842, while their ship, the TN San Antonio was in port anchored off Slaughterhouse Point, New Orleans. Much about the events was then and remains now questionable. Commodore Edwin Moore published his own history of the Texian navy, in part to answer accusations that he acted without authority when he ordered the court martial and then the executions aboard his ship. Histories of the mutiny aboard the San Antonio written either then or now do not refer to a similar incident aboard the US Navy Brig-of-War Somers, when the captain of the ship, Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie ordered the execution by hanging of an officer and two sailors on the charge of mutiny on 1 December 1842.

 

Although four men—Antonio Landois, William Simpson, Isaac Allen, and James Hudgans*—were hanged aboard the TN Austin, they were not the only mutineers. Marine Sergeant Seymour Oswald had escaped from prison in New Orleans and was never recaptured. Marine Corporal Benjamin Pompilly died in prison, supposedly giving a death-bed confession and an account of the attack on the officers. Seaman Thomas Rowan, whom Lt. Seeger had delivered to Commodore Moore aboard the Austin on 10 March 1842, a month after the mutiny in what must have been a Captain’s Mast hearing and not a court-martial for mutiny, was given 100 lashes. Boatswain Frederick Shepherd was found not guilty. Seaman John Williams was given 50 lashes as was the cook Edward Keenan. Seaman William Barrington may have received 100 lashes or probably only 50 based other published recollections.

*Variously spelled Huggins and Hudgins. Many of them were illiterate and signed their names with a mark or X.

 

April 26th 1843

P.M.

Still Beating for Telchae. At 11.30 Laid the Fore Top Sail to the mast & Hoisted the Colours. At 11.45 Called all hands to execute sentence of Court Martial when they were addressed by Comdre Moore on the Subject of Mutiny. At 12 the prisoners were carried Forward & placed upon the Scaffold[.] After addressing the Crew the Ropes were placed around their necks. Until this time they appeared to believe they would be pardoned & did not evince much fear but now the truth flashed upon them & they knew they had to pay the Penalty of their crimes & commenced praying eagerly & piteously for Pardon[.] At 12.20 the Signal Gun was Fired & the four Prisoners run up to the Fore Yard.

Lat at Meridian 23º31’03” N

The Journal of Alfred Walke, April 16-27, 1843.

https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/navy/al_walke_apr16-27_1843_3.html 

I first learned about the Texian navy when I saw pay warrants for sale in a dealer’s showcase at a coin show in Austin in the late winter of 2018. I had seen the more common and well-documented so-called “Red Back” notes of the Republic of Texas. The navy scrip was different from them and I bought the one on display and asked the dealer to have it certified. As that was in process, he found another and I bought that as well. At that time I was serving in the Maritime Regiment of the Texas State Guard where I was assigned as a technical specialist in future operations to the Texas National Guard. I donated both of them to the Brigadier General John C. L. Scribner Texas Military Forces Museum at Camp Mabry. 

I believe that the pay warrants provide evidence about the mutiny that has not been published elsewhere. I found corroborating evidence in the archives of the Texian navy at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin. 

 

Historians Jim Day Hill, Tom Henderson Wells, and Jonathan W. Jordan all make Marine Sergeant Seymour Oswald the ringleader. Indeed, surviving records agree that he was at the front of the gang when they cut down the officer of the watch. However, also among the mutineers was William Simpson who was one of the four hanged for their crimes. It is interesting that Simpson’s endorsement appears on the warrants originally issued to three other men (not mutineers). Simpson then signed over all four notes to Galveston store owner, Christopher Fox. 

Roster of Texian Navy Marines

As a boatswain’s mate, Simpson was a frontline supervisor and trainer. Social psychology and group dynamics suggest that Simpson may have been the instigator and ringleader. Even though the historians agree that Simpson was a Marine corporal at the time of his execution, his endorsements on the warrants all say “Boatswain’s Mate” and he does not appear in the muster book of Marines. Two fires that destroyed Republic archives leave many unanswered questions.

 

Pay Warrant issued to
William Simpson, Boatswain's Mate

One question that every author asks, some with more imagination than others, is why was discipline lost? Most authors assume that the men were drunk. Where did the men get the whiskey? Some authors follow each other in claiming that rogue merchants in small boats traded among the sailing ships. In point of fact, the Texian Navy floated on a sea of whiskey. I found seven receipts between 14 May 1841 and 6 December 1841, totaling 2527 gallons of whiskey. 

 

And then there was this for 10 February 1842 at New Orleans for another short barrel of 37-1/2 gallons "for immediate use." The full truth is that unlike this receipt, the whiskey usually was among other purchases for beans, rice, bread, butter, lard, beef, pork, molasses, vinegar, and fresh food as well. Even so, hardly any stores were brought aboard without whiskey.

 

It is axiomatic that historians rely on primary documents. Those sources are not always accurate. At the University of Texas Briscoe Center I found the Adams-Gilmore Family Papers. Many of the sheets were typewriter written, apparently from older handwritten diaries. One entry detailed a patriotic celebration at the first anniversary of Texas Independence. It said that Sam Houston nailed a $20 gold coin to a flag pole for any man who could climb to the top and place the Texas flag. No such coin existed at that time. The first US $20 Double Eagle was struck in quantity in 1850. 

 

Sources

[1.] “Pay Warrants of the Texas Navy,” Michael E. Marotta, The Numismatist, November 2020. 

[2.] “Pay Warrants of the Texian Navy,” Michael E. Marotta, ANA eLearning Academy, 4 August 2020. 

[3.] “Pay Warrants of the Texian Navy,” Michael E. Marotta, TNA News, September 2019.

[4.] Mabry Museum Receives Texian Navy Scrip, Texas Navy Association, Invincible Newsletter, July 2019.

[5.] “Texas” Whitman Encyclopedia of Obsolete Paper Money, Volume 7. [Michael E. Marotta, editor].

 

• Bevill, James P. The Paper Republic: The Struggle for Money, Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas. Houston: Bright Sky Press, 2009.
• Eller, E. M. The Texas Navy. U.S. Navy Department. Naval History Division. January 1, 1968. (TMF Museum online archives at http://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/articles/texasnavy/texasnavy.htm and online at University of North Texas archives https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2419/)
• Fischer, Ernest G. Robert Potter: Founder of the Texas Navy. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1976.
• Gouge, William M. The Fiscal History of Texas Embracing an Account of its Revenues, Debts, and Currency from the Commencement of the Revolution in 1814 to 1851-52 with Remarks on American Debt. Philadelphia,1852; reprinted  New York, Burt Franklin, 1969.
• Hill. Jim Dan. The Texas Navy in Forgotten Battles and Shirtsleeve Diplomacy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937.
• Jones, Anson. Memoranda and Official Correspondence Relating to the Republic of Texas Its History and Annexation 1836 to 1846. Chicago: The Rio Grande Press, Inc., 1966.
• Jordan, Jonathan W. Lone Star Navy: Texas, the Fight for the Gulf of Mexico, and the Shaping of the American West. Washington, D. C.: Potomac Books, Inc., 2006.
• Medlar, Bob. Texas Obsolete Notes and Scrip. Society of Paper Money Collectors. San Antonio: R. A. Glasscock, 1969/
• Olson, Joseph D. Texas Currency: A Catalog 1813-1868. San Antonio: Corporate Image; Waco: James D. Olson, 2006.
• Siegel, Stanley. A Political History of the Texas Republic 1836-1845. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1956.
• Wells, Tom Henderson. Commodore Moore and the Texas Navy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1960.

 

Websites

• Handbook of Texas Online, Joseph Milton Nance, “REPUBLIC OF TEXAS,” accessed December 29, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/mzr02.
• Handbook of Texas Online, James M. Daniel, “TEXAS NAVY,” accessed December 29, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qjt02.
• Handbook of Texas Online, Marie Giles, “MOORE, EDWIN WARD,” accessed December 29, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmo24.
• The Texas navy: Fortune Favors the Brave. “THE YUCATAN ALLIANCE,” accessed January 18, 2019, https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/navy/alliance.html
• Texas Navy Association https://texasnavy.org/Resources/Documents/Historical/General/Texas_Navy_Bibliography.pdf
• Wikipedia, The First Texas Navy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Texas_Navy

Museums and Libraries

• Brigadier General John C. L. Scribner Texas Military Forces Museum, Camp Mabry, 3038 West 35th Street, Austin, Texas 78703, P.O Box 5218, Austin, Texas 78763. 
• Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, 2300 Red River St, Austin, Texas 78712
• Texas State Library and Archives Commission, 1201 Brazos Street, P.O. Box 12927, Austin, Texas 78711

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

 

The Texas Navy 

The Somers Mutiny 

A Few Good Men: a Few Deep Flaws 

JAG: Ten Seasons of Military Bearing 

Texans Serving Texas 

 

The GOP as Pushy Beggars

That Donald Trump is a bully is obvious. His influence on the Republican Party and conservatives is also apparent. Back in late October 2016 when Trump’s election was still in some doubt in the minds of Democrats, at a press conference in Michigan, Michael Moore explained in clear language why Trump would win: Donald Trump brought to the polls millions of disaffected non-voters and other centerists whose personal losses and disappointments opened them up to a Leader making Promises. Now, the Grand Old Party attempts to energize its loyalists by reacting as a victimized bully.

 

Where do these "matching funds" come from?

Back in 2007, I was elected as a Republican precinct delegate from Ann Arbor Township. It was pretty easy. Ann Arbor is heavily Democrat. There were six slots on the GOP side of the ballot and I was one of four people running. Before moving here, I joined the Austin Tech Republicans luncheon club. Since then, I have been registered on both sides depending on the candidates in the local elections. Austin is heavily Democrat, but sometimes it is important to send the GOP leadership a message in a primary. The same is true of the Democrats. In 2016, I voted for Bernie Sanders as a vote against Hillary Clinton. 

 

Because I still have my Ann Arbor cellphone number, I have been getting these text messages from the Republicans. Their strategy reveals their soul. (And, yes, I block each one. They use a different number the next time.)

 

Now, it's my fault.

Aggressive beggars kept us from moving to Portland, Oregon. Back in 2010, after completing an associate’s, a bachelor’s, and a master’s, work was still hard to find in Michigan. So, we looked around. Portland was nice. The beggars were hard to take. They followed us on the street; sometimes they stood in front of us. Austin was different. With four months of 100-degree highs and no rain, brown was the new green. The beggars in the medians were selling ice water. I liked that entrepreneurial spirit. 

 

Despite the political narratives to the contrary, government in Texas follows the Taxachusetts model. Our senior federal senator, John Cornyn, never met a new law he did not like. We got a problem? Make it illegal. The state legislature made it illegal to buy Tesla automobiles by making it illegal to buy a car from a manufacturer who did not have a dealership in the state. It was the Texas automotive dealers association who got that passed in the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed by the Republican governor. That was changed a couple of years ago. Tesla is in orbit now and that plays well in Houston. 

 

Insistent Begging from Trumps Senior and Junior 

Working on a state agency project now, I have been diving into the Texas Compiled Laws, especially the Texas Government Code and the Texas Administrative Code. We have a franchise tax here. If you license your music or your painting or your poetry, you pay a tax on the income. But, if you license mineral rights, you are exempt from the franchise tax. That’s what makes fascism more successful than socialism: they know whose bread to butter.

 

Showing some concern and then blaming others.

The root of the problem is that in essence fascism is just another kind of socialism. Right wing syndicalism and left wing syndicalism are mirror images. Whatever the shades in their rainbows, the radiation is on the same spectrum. 

July 14 -- Bastille Day. I am not going to post all of these as they keep coming in, but this is starting to sound like On the Waterfront.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Tycoon Dough is Democratic 

In Support of Paid Political Advertising 

President Trump and the Military 

Toxic Leadership 

World War II Victory Dinner and Dance

Once again, the Texas Military Forces Museum and the Texas Military Forces Historical Foundation hosted their annual Valentine's Day Sweetheart Dance featuring the Sentimental Journey swing band with their front singers, the Memphis Belles. 

Just about all of the music was from the 1940s:
foxtrot, swing, jitterbug, and jive--and a waltz or two.

Sentimental Journey and Memphis Belles
play the Dorsey brothers, Glenn Miller, Harry James,
and Woody Herman, among others.

"Oh, Johnny" is a standard.

In addition to the photobooth, the dinner features
a silent auction. I won a 50-round blank fire with a
Thompson submachine gun.

Previously on Necessary Facts

The Second World Wars by Victor Davis Hanson

2LT Frances Y. Slanger: American Nightingale

World War II Sweetheart Dance 2019

World War II Sweetheart Dance 2017

Museum Receives Texian Navy Scrip

On September 26, 2018, the Texas Military Forces Museum at Camp Mabry received a gift of two pay warrants issued to sailors and marines of the Texian Navy. They are now part of the permanent collection of the Texas Military Forces Museum and will soon be on display. The pay warrants were donated by Michael E. Marotta and received by the Museum Director, Jeff Hunt

Like other Texas Republic paper money, the promissory notes quickly lost value and few were ever redeemed. These pay warrants were actually cashed in and cancelled. In April 1841, on the verbal orders of President Mirabeau Lamar, $200,000 in promissory notes were printed, signed, and handed out mostly to Texian Navy sailors at Galveston. 

However, the only money available came from $8,000 in silver coin paid to the Texian Navy by Mexican federalist rebels at Yucatan. Very few promises were honored. Most of the silver pesos from Yucatan went for much needed repairs to the ships. Also, Sam Houston was not a supporter of the Navy. As soon as he was re-elected President in December 1841, Houston repudiated the notes. Houston so distrusted the Navy that at one point in 1838 he declared them all pirates, ordering any lawful ship to arrest them and bring them to Galveston for trial. 

The notes are signed by the Comptroller, James R. Shaw, and the Treasurer, James W. Simmons. They are endorsed on the back by the men who whom they were given. Both notes are cancelled.

The $25 promise carries the endorsement of John Deziel. The $50 note was paid to a Navy Yeoman.

   

TMF Museum director, Jeff Hunt 

and museum supporter Mike Marotta, 

stand in front of a Texian Navy display 

with the pay warrants. 

(TMF Museum staff photo.)

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

THE TEXAS NAVY 

THE SOMERS MUTINY

MAKE YOUR BED

FROM JOINT FORCE TO UNIFIED COMMAND

The Texas Navy

“Remember the Alamo!” For most people who care one way or the other, “Remember the Alamo!” encapsulates the history of Texas independence. The easy narrative is that the 185 defenders bought time for the government to form an army with which to defend itself. In fact, the government fled towards the United States in the Runaway Scrape. The truth is that Texas was created, secured, and maintained by its navy. 

TNS San Antonio from The Texas Navy
U.S. Navy Department. Naval History Division. January 1, 1968.

 The victory at San Jacinto (April 21, 1836) was made possible by the Texas flotilla which deprived Gen. Antonio López Santa Anna of supplies. On March 3, 1836, the Liberty captured the Pelicano. The cargo was manifested from an American firm, J. W. Zacherie of New Orleans. But inside the barrels of flour and other trade goods military supplies were concealed. The Liberty later seized another American ship, the Durango, which was also carrying military stores under a false manifest. However, it must be admitted that those seizures were among several others of no legal pretense whatsoever as hapless fishermen fell prey to the Texian corsairs. The Mexican army invading Texas was forced to forage, ultimately allowing the Texians to advance on an unprotected staging area. They captured Gen. Santa Anna who, as President of Mexico, granted independence to Texas. 

 

TNS Austin from The Texas Navy 
U.S. Navy Department. Naval History Division. January 1, 1968.

Mexico did seize and temporarily hold the town of San Antonio again in 1842 but it was an exception. Northern Mexico and southern Texas are wastelands. For either side to invade the other, an army of men with animals would need a month of food and water to be hauled with them over open country. Without access to the coast by which men and supplies could be moved, Mexico was never able to retake Texas.

View presentation of 4 August 2020 
to ANA eLearning Academy 
on YouTube here

The reality is that the Texas navy can be credited with only two or three significant captures. Those were critical to disrupting the land operations of the Mexican army. Most of the actions of the Texas navy were around Yucatan and Campeche in support of rebels there. Those engagements forced the attentions of the Mexican army and navy away from Texas. The successes of the Texas navy must also be understood in the context of Mexico’s first war against France, November 1838 to March 1839. France won. Mexico surrendered her entire Gulf fleet. 

In the meantime, the government of Texas was at best lukewarm toward her navy. President Sam Houston refused to support it. He was famously insulting toward the men of the sea; and in his second term he reneged on the paper promises (pay warrants) issued by his political enemy, President Mirabeau Lamar. Houston occasionally flapped with the prevailing wind, but issued contradictory orders, authorizing actions and then withholding the funds for them. At one point, he declared Captain Moore and his flotilla to be pirates and authorized any lawful ship to seize them and return them to Galveston for trial. 

In addition to the sources cited below, most of my narrative is based on The Texas Navy in Forgotten Battles and Shirtsleeve Diplomacy, by Jim Dan Hill, University of Chicago Press, 1937, which I borrowed from the open stacks of the UT Austin library. They have other sources at the Briscoe Center for American History and I am cleared for patronage there, but they are only open weekday business hours. Jim Dan Hill’s history is prejudiced toward his subject, but he remained objective. For one thing, according to Hill, common military custom required that Gen. Santa Anna’s surrender at San Jacinto removed him from the authority to grant independence to Texas. Simply put, a hostage is never under any moral obligations to honor the promises made in duress. For that and other asides, I accepted Hill’s history at face value.  

One difficulty I had with Hill's history was with the language of the sea. Hill never explained anything about corvettes or barques closely hauling in pursuit of or being pursued by schooners or brigs. Then there were the mizzenmasts. I found safe harbor in another book from the UT Austin library, A Visual Encyclopedia of Nautical Terms Under Sail, Bathe, et al., Crown Publishers, 1978. 

The First Texas Navy

Brutus. Captain W. A. Hurd. 160 tons. 40 crew. Nine short guns. One 18-pounder. Run aground August 27, 1837.

Invincible. Captain Jeremiah B. Brown. 40 crew. Six “carronades” (low-velocity guns with custom-made anti-personnel shot). One 9-pound swivel. Lost August 27, 1837; aground on sandbar, destroyed by storm.

Liberty. Captain W. S. Brown; Captain George Wheelwright. 70-80 tons.  20 to 50 crew. Sold for the cost of refitting, May 22, 1837.

Independence. Captain Charles Hawkins “commodore” of the fleet. 140-160 tons. 40 crew. Nine to 11 guns. Captured April 17, 1837.

The Second Texas Navy

TNS Zavala. Captain Edward Ward Moore; Commander A. C. Hinton. Corvette; sidewheel steamship. 600 tons. 22 guns. Launched March 1839. In action November 1840 through February 1841. Victory against the San Juan Bautista. Damaged in action and abandoned.

TNS San Jacinto. Lieutenant J. O. O’Shaunessy. Schooner. 170 tons. Four 12-pound guns. One 9-pound long gun. Commissioned June 1839. Lost in a storm October 30, 1840.

TNS San Antonio. Lieutenant William Seeger. Schooner. Commissioned August 1839. Six 12-pounders. One 12-pound long gun. Lost at sea (presumed) October 1842.

TNS San Bernardo. Lieutenant D. H. Crisp. Schooner. Commissioned September 1839. Six 12-pounders. One 12-pound long gun. In action November 1840 through February 1841. With TNS Zavala took the San Juan Bautista. Run aground at Galveston September 1842.

TNS Austin. Captain Edwin Ward Moore. (Became his flagship.) Corvette or sloop of war. Commissioned April 1840. 600 tons. 18 24-pound guns. Two 18-pound guns. Participated in the capture of the San Juan Bautista. Survived to join the U.S. Navy after annexation.

TNS Wharton. Captain Edwin Ward Moore; Captain George W. Wheelwright. Brigantine. 16 18-pound guns. Commissioned October 1839. Survived to join the U.S. Navy after annexation. 

Sources

Texas Military Forces Museum, Camp Mabry, Austin, Texas. In addition to their displays, they provide an article online here. That citation to the publication of the U.S. Navy Department, Naval History Division, dated January 1, 1968, is also found at other locations.

Wikipedia (of course), The First Texas Navy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Texas_Navy

The Texas Navy by James M. Daniel

Texas State Historical Association

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qjt02

Texas Navy Association 

Bibliography of Sources

From the Visual Encyclopedia of Nautical Terms under Sail

Previously on Necessary Facts

Song Texans Serving Texans

From Texas to the Moon with John Leonard Riddell 

Around Austin 

Austin Security Alliance 

Austin’s Chinatown 

Shooting the Roadhouse Relics Gallery