Welcome to Finding Medina.

Episode 10, The Battle of Medina Revisited.

I'm Brandon Seal.

On August 4, 1813, Jose Alvarez de Toledo took over command of the Republican Army of the North.

That same day, news reached him that not one, but two Spanish royalist armies were converging on San Antonio.

The first army consisted of the remnants of Colonel Elizondos force, which the Republicans had convincingly whipped at the Battle of Alasam Creek back in June.

The second army, however, was the formidable and unbeaten Veracruz regiment under Joaquin de Arredondo, the newly appointed commandante for all of the northeastern provinces of New Spain.

In what amounted to a coup d'etat, Toledo had in effect deposed the also unbeaten Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara to win his appointment as commander-in-chief, a move that had severely strained relations in the Republican Army.

Many of the soldiers openly suspected Toledo, himself a Spaniard, though born in Cuba,

of being a royalist plant, determined to hand over the Republican Army to the royalists at the first opportunity.

The loudest amongst these voices was that of Colonel Miguel Menchaca, commander of the Mounted Tejano contingent of the Republican Army, which made up eight or nine hundred of Toledo's 1400 man force.

With Gutierrez de Laragon, Menchaca remained as the most tenured, visible, and feared Republican leader.

The royalist commander, Joaquin de Arredondo, went so far as to place a $1,000 bounty on Menchaca's head in a laughable attempt to entice someone to betray him.

Perhaps Arredondo didn't appreciate, however, what the name Minchaca meant to Tejanos,

who had relied on Minchacas for nearly a century for their protection,

or to the hundred or so Native Americans in the Republican ranks,

who had been dealing or fighting with Munchakas since the 1690s.

Needless to say, the bounty bought Arredondo nothing. Toledo, by contrast,

remained an unknown to most of the men in the Republican Army. Many probably echoed the

sentiments of one's Signora Rodriguez, quote, were Menchaca in command, we would be safe.

But who is this Gachupin?

Has he ever won a battle?

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