3/29/1813: Rebels defeat Spanish royalists

[Craig Tx]

On this day in 1813, the battle of Rosillo was fought on a prairie near the confluence of Rosillo and Salado creeks, nine miles southeast of San Antonio.

The engagement was between the Republican Army of the North led by José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara and Samuel Kemper and a Spanish royalist force under Texas governor Manuel María de Salcedo and Nuevo León governor Simón de Herrera. The republican army, variously estimated at 600 to 900 men, was advancing along the road from La Bahía to San Antonio when it was confronted by a royalist force variously reported to be 950 to 1,500 men. The ensuing battle was bloody and brief, lasting no more than an hour but resulting in the complete rout of the royalists and the capture of most of their arms and ammunition, six cannons, and 1,500 horses and mules. Royalist losses were heavy, estimated to be 100 to 330 men, while the republicans lost only six men. The battle of Rosillo resulted in the capture of San Antonio and the establishment of a first "republic of Texas," but the rebellion was eventually crushed at the battle of Medina in August 1813.