Catalog Archive
Auction 174, Lot 251

"Plan of Mier. The Texian Camp and Attack on the City, December 25th & 26th, 1842", Kemble, W.

Subject: Texas

Period: 1845 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Black & White

Size:
10 x 5.2 inches
25.4 x 13.2 cm
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This small map was issued in Thomas Green's Journal of the Texian Expedition Against Mier. The Mier expedition was organized in retaliation for the Dawson Massacre, in which 36 Texans were killed near San Antonio by the Mexican Army. These two episodes were part of a larger conflict between the Republic of Texas and Mexico for control of the contested lands between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers.

The plan itself shows the Texans camp to the east of the Rio Grande with the city of Mier to its west. When the Texans advanced to inside Mier, they were unaware that Mexican forces were waiting for them, outnumbering them by a staggering 10:1 ratio. While the Mexicans did incur heavy casualties, they eventually forced the Texans to surrender. Several months later after prisoner escape and eventual recapture, Santa Ana ordered that one in ten prisoners should be executed by drawing beans from a jar. Those who drew black beans were executed, and those who drew white ones were imprisoned (the infamous Bean Lottery). Published by Harper & Brothers in New York.

References:

Condition: A

Issued folding with a few faint spots of foxing.

Estimate: $180 - $220

Sold for: $80

Closed on 9/11/2019

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