The Battle Of Medina - an invitation to solve a mystery!

[Shaw]

Anyone know the closest hotel to the meet up site?

Really considering heading over Saturday sometime if I can put it together. It would be great to participate in something like this.

Call me tomorrow morning Myelo.

Jason

 

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[myelo1023]

Will do Shaw!

 

[texan connection]

Theres quite a few hotels right around there I dont remmeber where we stayed but it wasent hard getting a room

 

[Marc]

Dang I'll miss another one!

Good luck there... I REALLY wish I was going to be there!

Marc

 

[Shaw]

If I get to head that way I will take plenty of pics for the board Marc.


Is there anyone else from Houston going to attend?

 

[cooltone23]

Can't make out this time around, again . Hope you all who go have luck finding something. Its beautiful country side out there. I am helping Dan from my desk when I can and I will keep everyone posted with his lates news and digs as always. Go get 'em!!!

 

[Cuerno]

How close do you want to get? the only ones I know of are located on S.E. Military Drive. That will put you about 8 miles from where they will meet.

Anyone know the closest hotel to the meet up site?

Really considering heading over Saturday sometime if I can put it together. It would be great to participate in something like this.

Call me tomorrow morning Myelo.

Jason

 

[STAA]

The Battle Of Medina

The Battle of Medina is a very interesting puzzle. It has long been thought that the battle site should be on the Galvan Creek in Atascosa County, but an early metal detecting survey at the site of the current marker in the 1970s was fruitless, as was another larger effort carried out there in 2006. Current research indicates that the battle probably did not begin at the the Galvan after all. This location, originally put forward in the early 1970s by the historic research of and Ted Schwarz and Robert Thonhoff was based largely on the account of a William McLane who recounted the story to his son, Hiram McLane.

William McLane’s powerful narrative was presented in three issues of Southwestern Historical Quarterly in 1962 and 1963. McLane, an Anglo veteran of the battle, described the movement of the army 47 years later, and this text was ultimately edited by Henry Walker for the Southwestern Historical Quarterly article. McLane began by stating that “…on the morning of the 18th they marched out of town, cheered with the sounds of martial music, and smiles and salutations of the ladies…” There is no mention of an initial camp at Piedras Creek on the night of the 17th (commonly accepted fact from other other accounts). McLane then went on to say “They encamped four or five mile southwest of the Medina River, at a small stream of water where they were joined by Colonel Kemper, Judge Bullock, William Bullet, and six others”. This statement has been logically used to argue that Toledo in fact encamped near Gallinas Creek on the night of the seventeenth.

Without going into too lengthy of a discussion of what I believe may have gone wrong with McLane’s account, I would suggest that in fact, the mention of the second stream should have gone first (and would thus be a description of the first night’s camp at Piedras Creek) and that the actual camp should have been described on the Medina River itself. The distance between Piedras Creek and the Medina is the same as McLane named to this “other” drainage. Thus, his statement “…they encamped four or five mile southwest…” would be a correct meets and bounds description for the movement of the army on August 17th.

If you shift the William McLane account to the north bank of the Medina on the night of the 17th, many of his other details of the battle on the 18th fall right in line with other accounts.

The other part of the puzzle are the roads. Arredondo was traveling along the Laredo Road and made camp along it. The next morning he moved his cavalry under Elizando along a "Cortoba" or cut-off, but the Republican Army was waiting for him along the Laredo Road. The Current battle marker is placed at a site along the Lower Presidio Road on the way to the presidio and mission at Guerrero. This road veered southwest just past the Bexar/Atascosa line and passed through modern Poteet (wrong road). The Old Laredo Road followed the general route of the Old Pleasanton Road near the county line and crossed the Atascosa just east of modern Pleasanton.

All very interesting...very interesting indeed.

 

[rmptr]

What a great hunt to participate in, if you can...

Hopefully, some day someone can sort it all out, from the evidence.

Best,
rmptr

 

[qkslvr]

SO did anyone go last month that can update us on what was found?

 

[21stTNCav]

Well, I was going to go, but with the rain on Friday and the likleyhood that it was going north toward San Antonio, I thought it best to stay put. 4 hours just to get rained on would really have not been fun. I am looking forward to hearing if any hunting went on, what if anything was found and when the next one, if any, is. CAB

 

[pushback]

SO did anyone go last month that can update us on what was found?

Well, I guess I can ease your curiosity. I've been to all the hunts this year, and as in all the other hunts, it began with excitement and optimism, with about 15 hunters from all over Texas. We were following directions from ?Dan Martinez? who has been researching the battle for many years and is currently living in Greece. His current theory involves an area south of San Antonio near the old Pleasenton Road. Many hours later we had accumulated a lot of iron junk, the regular pulltabs and beer cans, and more modern ammo, but nothing from the period we were seeking and disappointment set in yet again. I will say that this hunt had a lot going for it, as we hunted several different fields, all of which had the proper topography and location near old "highways". This seems to be a better technique than the detailed hard hitting of the last hunts, allowing us to do several cursory checks of more areas, figuring that if we ever hit something period we could slow down and do more careful hunting. Even so, nothing was there. The last field was hideously overgrown though, very tough hunting, and caused me the onset of heat exhaustion, so I knew it was time to call it a day a little earlier than some of the younger guys, if they found anything in the late afternood I didn't hear about it. One of the young guys did find a small brass rivet with the Texas star in a circle; so possibly old militia or possibly newer decorative, as stars are a common decoration also. It never did rain as we anticipated but the humidity was powerful. Maybe next time. In the meantime, if you have interest in this, Dan Arellano ( mailto:darellano@austin.rr.com ) recently wrote:

“THE TEJANO BATTLE OF MEDINA” HIDDEN HISTORY......
The public is invited to attend the presentation of the “Battle of Medina ,” at the Main Library 217 So Main Street on Friday September 12 at 6 P.M. in Lockhart, Texas.

 

[X-Terra70_TreasureHunter]

Hi Update Tnetters:
After spending many hours on the phone w/ Dick Whatley who was the owner
of a publishing company called Mosquito Publishing located in Carrebelle Fl.
who had spent over 8 yrs doing research and accurireing Gps Coodinances
i have learned that there is a chance that from his research the Location of the
BATTLE of MEDINA is located in the South section of the county BEXAR right next
to the location of the SAWS water treatment plant, Mr. Whatley stated at the
time when he did the research he had multiple books, and maps which showed
the same location for the battle, dateing back to the 1820's to present day
books & maps.

As of right now i'm in contact w/ Dan Arellano in Austin, Tx. passing on this info.
to possibley go thru the right channels to see if he could get permission to set up
anouther hunt, since the property is located on the San Antionio Water Systems
property next to the San Antonio & Medina River area.

Mr. Whatley sold his company to:

Famous Treasures
Kissimmee Fl
1-888-788-1819
http://www.famoustreasures.com/dev/ Main Home Pg.
http://famoustreasures.chainreactio...d7c2a739b424f3c6caae743&keywords=site+locator SITE LOCATOR BOOKS

you can accuire the SITE LOCATOR from them for each state

Dave

 

[cooltone23]

The only thing that I can think of when I see this location, and it's not the first, is the accounts that the Texas Republic trops crossed the medina to charge the Spanish scouts. This sit is on the north side of the Medina. Unless the river altered its path, I'm still uncertain about the location being north of the Medina. I still believe it happened to the south.

Tony

 

[myelo1023]

Dave, it seems they would have come across quite a bit of CV relics when building the water plant, don't you think? It's certainly close enough to show some signs.

 

[Lat3ralus]

any news on this? all VERY intriguing, i think im gonna go for a drive....

 

[cooltone23]

No new news from Dan yet. I will keep you guys updated on any new dig dates when I get notified on them.

 

[Lat3ralus]

great! i DEFINITELY want to be part of this next time around!!!

 

[sandroz]

no solid evidence yet --alot of history in texas becoming legends.. that first area of probability will put troops marching in from mexico tru piedras negras perhaps

 

[cooltone23]

Here is an example of what I have used to research this topic. Maybe to some of you central Texas guys, these locations sound a bit familiar.