San Elizario Salt War
Encyclopedia
The San Elizario Salt War, also known as the Salinero Revolt or the El Paso Salt War, was an extended and complex political, social and military conflict over ownership and control of immense salt lakes at the base of the Guadalupe Mountains
of West Texas. What began in 1866 as a political and legal struggle among Anglo Texan politicians and capitalists gave rise to an armed struggle waged in 1877 by the ethnic Mexican
inhabitants living in the communities on both sides of the Rio Grande
near El Paso, Texas
against a leading politician, supported by the Texas Rangers
. The struggle climaxed with the siege and surrender of twenty Texas Rangers to a popular army of perhaps 500 men in the town of San Elizario, Texas
. The arrival of the African-American 9th U.S. Cavalry and a sheriff's posse of New Mexico mercenaries caused hundreds of Tejanos to flee to Mexico, some in permanent exile. The right of individuals to own the salt lakes previously held as a community asset was established by force of arms.
What began as a local quarrel grew in stages to finally occupy the attention of both the Texas and federal governments. Newspaper editors throughout the nation covered the story, often in frenzied tone and with lurid detail. At the conflict's height, as many as 650 men bore arms. (The presence of soldaderas
within the Tejano army is possible, but unrecorded.) About twenty to thirty men were killed in the twelve-year fight for salt, and perhaps double that number were wounded. The war's damage also included an estimated $31,050 in property damage. Crop losses sustained because local farmers did not till or harvest their fields for several months, but the wheat loss was estimated at $48,000. To these immediate financial losses (worth about $1.5 million in 2007) can be added the further political and economic marginalization of the Mexican-American community of El Paso County.
Traditionally, the Mexican-American uprising has been described by historians as a bloody riot by a howling mob. The Texas Rangers who surrendered, especially their commander, have been described as unfit. More recent scholarship has placed the Salt War within the context of the long and often violent social struggle of Mexican-Americans to be treated as equal citizens and not as a subjugated people. Most recently, the "mob" has been described as an organized political-military insurgency with the goal of reestablishing local control of their fundamental political rights and economic future.
and Apache
raids from the north. Prior to major water control projects on the Rio Grande such as Elephant Butte Dike, which was constructed in the early 1900s, the river flooded often. San Elizario was a relatively large community south of the river from its founding in 1789 until an 1831 flood changed the course of the river, leaving San Elizario on "La Isla", a new island between the new and old channels of the Rio Grande.
This position relative to the river became more important in 1836 when the Republic of Texas
proclaimed the Rio Grande the southern border of the new country. The nationality of the people of San Elizario was disputed until the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
, the treaty that ended the Mexican-American War, which identified the "deepest channel", i.e. the southern channel, as the official international boundary. The status of San Elizario was further made official by the 1853 treaty that sold the territory of the Gadsden Purchase
to the United States. At that time, San Elizario was the largest U.S. community between San Antonio, Texas
and Santa Fe, New Mexico
. It was a major stop on the Camino Real
and was the county seat of the region.
created great changes in the political landscape of West Texas. The end of the war and Reconstruction brought many entrepreneurs to the area. The families of San Elizario had deep roots and were loathe to accept the newcomers. Many Republicans
settled in the small trading community of Franklin, Texas, a trading village across the Rio Grande from the Chihuahua city of El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez
).
By the beginning of the 1870s the Democratic Party
had begun to reclaim political influence in the state. The Democratic operatives, with their ties to Southern United States
, were not accepted by the people of San Elizario either, as they retained generational ties to Mexico. Alliances shifted and rivalries developed between the Hispanic, Republican, and Democratic factions residing in West Texas.
, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of San Elizario, lie a series of dry salt lakes (located at: 31.74335°N 105.07668°W). Before the pumping of water and oil from West Texas, the area had a periodic shallow water table
, and capillary action
drew salt of a high purity to the surface. This salt was valuable for a wide variety of purposes, including preserving meats
and replenishing what evaporation took from humans and animals. It was also a commodity used for barter up and down El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and was an essential element in the patio process
for extracting the silver from ore in the Chihuahua mines. Historically, caravans to the salt lakes traveled either down the Rio Grande and then straight north or via what became the Butterfield Overland Mail
route. In 1863, the people of San Elizario, as a community, built by subscription a road running east to the salt lakes. The residents in the Rio Grande valley at El Paso were granted community access rights to these lakes by the King of Spain. These rights had been grandfathered in by the Republic of Mexico and in accordance with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Beginning in 1866, the Texas Constitution
, allowed individuals to stake claims for mineral rights
, thus overturning the grandfathered community rights.
favored the Hispanic community concept of commonwealth, and Albert Jennings Fountain
favored county government ownership with community access. This led to Cardis and Fountain to join together as the "Anti-Salt ring" while Mills became the leader of the "Salt ring."
Fountain was elected to the Texas State Senate and began pushing for his plan of county government ownership with community access. San Elizario's Spanish priest, Father Antonio Borrajo, opposed the plan and gained the support of Cardis. On December 7, 1870, Judge Gaylord J. Clarke
, a supporter of Mills, was killed. Fountain and Cardis sparred with every political and legal tool at their command. The Republican's loss of state government control in 1873 prompted Fountain to leave El Paso for New Mexico
his wife's home.
In the summer of 1877, Howard filed a claim for the salt lakes in the name of his father-in-law, George B. Zimpelman, an Austin capitalist. Howard offered to pay any salinero who collected salt the going rate for its retrieval, but he insisted that the salt was his. The Tejanos of San Elizario, encouraged by Father Borrajo (by now the former pastor), with the support of Cardis, to gather and keep salt in spite of Howard's claim. The people did not only look to outside leaders. Falling back on a long tradition of local self-government, they formed committees (juntas) in San Elizario and the largely Tejano neighboring towns of Socorro, Texas
and Ysleta, Texas
to determine a community-based response to Howard's action. During the summer of 1877 they held several secretive decisional and organizational masacree.
The Tejano people of El Paso County were outraged. They effectively put a stop to all county government, replacing it with community juntas and daring the Sheriff to take any action against them. In response to pleas from a frightened Anglo community (numbering fewer than 100 residents out of 5,000 in the county), Governor Richard B. Hubbard
answered by sending to El Paso Major John B. Jones
, commander of the Texas Rangers' Frontier Battalion. Arriving on November 5, Jones met with the junta leaders, negotiated their agreement to obey the law (or so he thought) and arranged Howard's return, arraignment, and release on bail. Jones also recruited twenty new Texas Rangers, the Detachment of Company C, under the command of Lieutenant John B. Tays, a native Canadian. Traditionally, Tays has been described as an uneducated handyman, but later research indicates he was a mining engineer, El Paso land speculator, and smuggler of Mexican cattle. His appointment to command the local Ranger detachment was approved by leading Anglos. The Ranger detachment recruited by Jones and Tays was a mixed bag, composed of Anglos and a few Tejanos, including an old Indian fighter, several Civil War veterans, an experienced lawman, at least one outlaw, and a few community pillars. Individually, they included some capable men, but the unit lacked tradition or cohesion.
led by John B. Tays. Once again, a mob descended upon them. Howard and the Rangers took cover in the buildings, eventually taking refuge in the town's church. After a two-day siege, Tays surrendered the company of Rangers marking the only time in history a Texas Ranger unit ever surrendered to a mob. Howard, Ranger Sergeant John McBride, and merchant and ex-police Lieutenant John G. Atkinson were immediately executed and their bodies hacked and dumped into a well. The Rangers were disarmed and sent out of town. The civic leaders of San Elizario fled to Mexico, and the people of the town looted the buildings. In all, twelve people were killed and fifty wounded.
s were sent to reestablish Fort Bliss
to keep an eye on the border and the local Hispanic population. When the railroad came to West Texas in 1883, it bypassed San Elizario. The town's population decreased, and Hispanics lost their political influence in the region.
Guadalupe Mountains
The Guadalupe Mountains are a mountain range located in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The range includes the highest summit in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, , and the "signature peak" of West Texas, El Capitan, both located within Guadalupe Mountains National Park, as well as Carlsbad Caverns...
of West Texas. What began in 1866 as a political and legal struggle among Anglo Texan politicians and capitalists gave rise to an armed struggle waged in 1877 by the ethnic Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
inhabitants living in the communities on both sides of the Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
near El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
against a leading politician, supported by the Texas Rangers
Texas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
. The struggle climaxed with the siege and surrender of twenty Texas Rangers to a popular army of perhaps 500 men in the town of San Elizario, Texas
San Elizario, Texas
San Elizario is a census-designated place in El Paso County, Texas, United States. The population was 11,046 at the 2000 census. It is part of the El Paso Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
. The arrival of the African-American 9th U.S. Cavalry and a sheriff's posse of New Mexico mercenaries caused hundreds of Tejanos to flee to Mexico, some in permanent exile. The right of individuals to own the salt lakes previously held as a community asset was established by force of arms.
What began as a local quarrel grew in stages to finally occupy the attention of both the Texas and federal governments. Newspaper editors throughout the nation covered the story, often in frenzied tone and with lurid detail. At the conflict's height, as many as 650 men bore arms. (The presence of soldaderas
Soldaderas
Soldaderas were female soldiers who went into combat alongside men during the Mexican Revolution, which initially broke out in opposition to the conservative Díaz regime...
within the Tejano army is possible, but unrecorded.) About twenty to thirty men were killed in the twelve-year fight for salt, and perhaps double that number were wounded. The war's damage also included an estimated $31,050 in property damage. Crop losses sustained because local farmers did not till or harvest their fields for several months, but the wheat loss was estimated at $48,000. To these immediate financial losses (worth about $1.5 million in 2007) can be added the further political and economic marginalization of the Mexican-American community of El Paso County.
Traditionally, the Mexican-American uprising has been described by historians as a bloody riot by a howling mob. The Texas Rangers who surrendered, especially their commander, have been described as unfit. More recent scholarship has placed the Salt War within the context of the long and often violent social struggle of Mexican-Americans to be treated as equal citizens and not as a subjugated people. Most recently, the "mob" has been described as an organized political-military insurgency with the goal of reestablishing local control of their fundamental political rights and economic future.
National ambiguity
The Rio Grande is a natural barrier in West Texas. Spain, and later Mexico, had settled a series of communities along the south banks of the river, which provided protection from ComancheComanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
and Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
raids from the north. Prior to major water control projects on the Rio Grande such as Elephant Butte Dike, which was constructed in the early 1900s, the river flooded often. San Elizario was a relatively large community south of the river from its founding in 1789 until an 1831 flood changed the course of the river, leaving San Elizario on "La Isla", a new island between the new and old channels of the Rio Grande.
This position relative to the river became more important in 1836 when the Republic of Texas
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...
proclaimed the Rio Grande the southern border of the new country. The nationality of the people of San Elizario was disputed until the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
, the treaty that ended the Mexican-American War, which identified the "deepest channel", i.e. the southern channel, as the official international boundary. The status of San Elizario was further made official by the 1853 treaty that sold the territory of the Gadsden Purchase
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed by James Gadsden, the American ambassador to Mexico at the time, on December 30, 1853. It was then ratified, with changes, by the U.S...
to the United States. At that time, San Elizario was the largest U.S. community between San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
and Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. It was a major stop on the Camino Real
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail is a part of the United States National Historic Trail system. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was a 1,600 mile long trade route between Mexico City and San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, from 1598 to 1882...
and was the county seat of the region.
Civil War and Reconstruction
The American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
created great changes in the political landscape of West Texas. The end of the war and Reconstruction brought many entrepreneurs to the area. The families of San Elizario had deep roots and were loathe to accept the newcomers. Many Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
settled in the small trading community of Franklin, Texas, a trading village across the Rio Grande from the Chihuahua city of El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
).
By the beginning of the 1870s the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
had begun to reclaim political influence in the state. The Democratic operatives, with their ties to Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, were not accepted by the people of San Elizario either, as they retained generational ties to Mexico. Alliances shifted and rivalries developed between the Hispanic, Republican, and Democratic factions residing in West Texas.
The Salt
At the base of the Guadalupe MountainsGuadalupe Mountains
The Guadalupe Mountains are a mountain range located in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The range includes the highest summit in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, , and the "signature peak" of West Texas, El Capitan, both located within Guadalupe Mountains National Park, as well as Carlsbad Caverns...
, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of San Elizario, lie a series of dry salt lakes (located at: 31.74335°N 105.07668°W). Before the pumping of water and oil from West Texas, the area had a periodic shallow water table
Water table
The water table is the level at which the submarine pressure is far from atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as...
, and capillary action
Capillary action
Capillary action, or capilarity, is the ability of a liquid to flow against gravity where liquid spontanously rise in a narrow space such as between the hair of a paint-brush, in a thin tube, or in porous material such as paper or in some non-porous material such as liquified carbon fiber, or in a...
drew salt of a high purity to the surface. This salt was valuable for a wide variety of purposes, including preserving meats
Salting (food)
Salting is the preservation of food with dry edible salt. It is related to pickling . It is one of the oldest methods of preserving food, and two historically significant salt-cured foods are dried and salted cod and salt-cured meat.Salting is used because most bacteria, fungi and other potentially...
and replenishing what evaporation took from humans and animals. It was also a commodity used for barter up and down El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and was an essential element in the patio process
Patio process
The patio process was a process used to extract silver from ore. The process was invented by Bartolomé de Medina in Pachuca, New Spain , in 1554. The patio process was the first process to use mercury amalgamation to recover silver from ore. It replaced smelting as the primary method of extracting...
for extracting the silver from ore in the Chihuahua mines. Historically, caravans to the salt lakes traveled either down the Rio Grande and then straight north or via what became the Butterfield Overland Mail
Butterfield Overland Mail
The Butterfield Overland Mail Trail was a stagecoach route in the United States, operating from 1857 to 1861. It was a conduit for the U.S. mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri, meeting Fort Smith, Arkansas, and continuing through Indian Territory, New Mexico,...
route. In 1863, the people of San Elizario, as a community, built by subscription a road running east to the salt lakes. The residents in the Rio Grande valley at El Paso were granted community access rights to these lakes by the King of Spain. These rights had been grandfathered in by the Republic of Mexico and in accordance with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Beginning in 1866, the Texas Constitution
Texas Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Texas is the document that describes the structure and function of the government of the U.S. State of Texas.Texas has had seven constitutions: the constitution of Coahuila y Tejas, the 1836 Constitution of the Republic of Texas, the state constitutions of 1845,...
, allowed individuals to stake claims for mineral rights
Mineral rights
- Mineral estate :Ownership of mineral rights is an estate in real property. Technically it is known as a mineral estate and often referred to as mineral rights...
, thus overturning the grandfathered community rights.
Salt Ring and Anti-Salt Ring
In 1870, a group of influential Republican leaders from Franklin, Texas claimed the land on which the salt deposits were found. They were unsuccessful in gaining sole title to the land, and a feud over ownership and control of the land began. William Wallace Mills favored individual ownership, Louis CardisLouis Cardis
Louis Cardis was an American politician.He was born in the Piedmont region of Italy. He served as a captain in Giuseppe Garibaldi's army before immigrating to the United States in 1854.Cardis moved to El Paso, Texas in 1864...
favored the Hispanic community concept of commonwealth, and Albert Jennings Fountain
Albert Jennings Fountain
Albert Jennings Fountain was a lawyer, Indian fighter, and Republican politician in Texas and New Mexico.-Biography:...
favored county government ownership with community access. This led to Cardis and Fountain to join together as the "Anti-Salt ring" while Mills became the leader of the "Salt ring."
Fountain was elected to the Texas State Senate and began pushing for his plan of county government ownership with community access. San Elizario's Spanish priest, Father Antonio Borrajo, opposed the plan and gained the support of Cardis. On December 7, 1870, Judge Gaylord J. Clarke
Gaylord J. Clarke
Gaylord Judd Clarke was an American newspaper editor, lawyer, poet and politician from New York and Texas.-Life:...
, a supporter of Mills, was killed. Fountain and Cardis sparred with every political and legal tool at their command. The Republican's loss of state government control in 1873 prompted Fountain to leave El Paso for New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
his wife's home.
Charles Howard
In 1872 Charles Howard, a Virginian by birth, came to the region determined to restore the Democratic Party to power in West Texas. His natural rival was Mills, so he struck up an alliance with Cardis, who controlled the Hispanic vote in the region. Cardis had a stronger allegiance to the former citizens of Mexico than to either U.S. political party, and was influential in swinging their votes in any direction he thought beneficial to the community or to himself. Howard was elected district judge and about the same time began feuding with Cardis over who would be the county's political top-dog.In the summer of 1877, Howard filed a claim for the salt lakes in the name of his father-in-law, George B. Zimpelman, an Austin capitalist. Howard offered to pay any salinero who collected salt the going rate for its retrieval, but he insisted that the salt was his. The Tejanos of San Elizario, encouraged by Father Borrajo (by now the former pastor), with the support of Cardis, to gather and keep salt in spite of Howard's claim. The people did not only look to outside leaders. Falling back on a long tradition of local self-government, they formed committees (juntas) in San Elizario and the largely Tejano neighboring towns of Socorro, Texas
Socorro, Texas
Socorro is a city in El Paso County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 27,152. By the 2010 census, the number had grown to 32,013. It is part of the El Paso Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city was reactivated in 1986 and has been a working city since then...
and Ysleta, Texas
Ysleta, Texas
Ysleta is a community in El Paso, Texas. Ysleta was settled between October 9 and October 12, 1680, when Spanish conquistadors, Franciscan clerics and Tigua Indians took refuge along the southern bank of the Rio Grande. This is the oldest European settlement in the area that is the present-day U.S....
to determine a community-based response to Howard's action. During the summer of 1877 they held several secretive decisional and organizational masacree.
Salt Uprising 1877-1878
On September 29, 1877, José Mariá Juárez and Macedonia Gandara threatened to go collect a wagon load of salt at the lakes. When Howard learned of their activities, he had the men arrested by Sheriff Charles Kerber and went to court in San Elizario to legally restrain them. That evening, armed men arrested the compliant jurist. Others went in search of Howard, locating him at Sheriff Kerber's home in Yselta. Under the leadership of Francisco "Chico" Barela, they seized Howard and marched him back to San Elizario. For three days, he was held prisoner by several hundred men, led by Sisto Salcido, and Lino Granillo, and Barela. On October 3, he was finally released upon payment of a $12,000 bond and his written relinquishment of all rights to the salt deposits. Howard left for Mesilla, New Mexico, where he briefly stayed at the house of Fountain. He soon returned to the area and on October 10, shot and killed Cardis in an El Paso (formerly Franklin) mercantile store. Howard fled back to New Mexico.The Tejano people of El Paso County were outraged. They effectively put a stop to all county government, replacing it with community juntas and daring the Sheriff to take any action against them. In response to pleas from a frightened Anglo community (numbering fewer than 100 residents out of 5,000 in the county), Governor Richard B. Hubbard
Richard B. Hubbard
Richard Bennett Hubbard, Jr. was the 16th Governor of Texas from 1876 to 1879 and United States Envoy to Japan from 1885 to 1889. He was a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War and was a member of the Democratic Party.-Early years:Hubbard was the son of Richard Bennett and Serena Hubbard...
answered by sending to El Paso Major John B. Jones
John B. Jones
John B. Jones was a Confederate army officer and Texas Ranger captain. Born in Fairfield, South Carolina, his family moved to the Republic of Texas in 1838....
, commander of the Texas Rangers' Frontier Battalion. Arriving on November 5, Jones met with the junta leaders, negotiated their agreement to obey the law (or so he thought) and arranged Howard's return, arraignment, and release on bail. Jones also recruited twenty new Texas Rangers, the Detachment of Company C, under the command of Lieutenant John B. Tays, a native Canadian. Traditionally, Tays has been described as an uneducated handyman, but later research indicates he was a mining engineer, El Paso land speculator, and smuggler of Mexican cattle. His appointment to command the local Ranger detachment was approved by leading Anglos. The Ranger detachment recruited by Jones and Tays was a mixed bag, composed of Anglos and a few Tejanos, including an old Indian fighter, several Civil War veterans, an experienced lawman, at least one outlaw, and a few community pillars. Individually, they included some capable men, but the unit lacked tradition or cohesion.
The Rangers
On December 12, 1877, Howard returned to San Elizario with a company of 20 Texas RangersTexas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
led by John B. Tays. Once again, a mob descended upon them. Howard and the Rangers took cover in the buildings, eventually taking refuge in the town's church. After a two-day siege, Tays surrendered the company of Rangers marking the only time in history a Texas Ranger unit ever surrendered to a mob. Howard, Ranger Sergeant John McBride, and merchant and ex-police Lieutenant John G. Atkinson were immediately executed and their bodies hacked and dumped into a well. The Rangers were disarmed and sent out of town. The civic leaders of San Elizario fled to Mexico, and the people of the town looted the buildings. In all, twelve people were killed and fifty wounded.
Consequences
As a result of the unrest, San Elizario lost its status as county seat, which was relocated to El Paso. The 9th Cavalry of Buffalo SoldierBuffalo Soldier
Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas....
s were sent to reestablish Fort Bliss
Fort Bliss
Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in the U.S. states of New Mexico and Texas. With an area of about , it is the Army's second-largest installation behind the adjacent White Sands Missile Range. It is FORSCOM's largest installation, and has the Army's largest Maneuver Area behind the...
to keep an eye on the border and the local Hispanic population. When the railroad came to West Texas in 1883, it bypassed San Elizario. The town's population decreased, and Hispanics lost their political influence in the region.