Battle of San Patricio

The plaque names Dr. James Grant as a leader of the expedition caught here, but his road to San Patricio began far from Texas. Born in Ross-shire, Scotland, in 1793, he studied medicine at Edinburgh and sailed as an East India Company surgeon. In Mexico he helped run the mortgaged Aguayo estates at Parras, became a citizen in 1830 and sat as a Federalist deputy in the state legislature. Arrested by Cos in 1835, he escaped to Texas. For Grant, Matamoros meant linking up with his Federalist colleagues against Santa Anna's government.

What the plaque says

Battle of San Patricio The battle of San Patricio was fought in the streets of Old San Patricio at 3:00 A.M. on February 27, 1836. The general council of the provisional government of Texas had instructed Francis W. Johnson and Dr. James Grant to lead an independent military force against Matamoros, Mexico. Although many of the troops left the command to follow Sam Houston, who opposed the expedition, about 60-70 men remained. Mexican general Jose Urrea, who learned of the plan from his network of spies, sent word to San Patricio settlers loyal to Mexico, instructing them to leave a light burning in their homes as a signal to mexican troops to spare them. After attacking a small force at Garza's Ranch (4 miles south), the mexicans struck San Patricio, killing 16 and taking 30 prisoners. Johnson, working late with a candle burning, and four others in his house escaped. The Mexican troops then proceeded to Agua Dulce Creek (about 20 miles south) and attacked the remaining Texan forces under Grant's command on March 2. Grant and 11 others were killed, seven were captured, and six escaped. Together with those captured at Garza's Ranch and in San Patricio, they were imprisoned in Matamoros and remained in captivity until January 1837. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 2.9 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.
• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 9.8 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Texas State Aquarium — 25 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 25 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.

More markers nearby

• Courthouses of San Patricio County — steps away
• Josepha Rodriguez — steps away
• San Patricio de Hibernia — steps away
• San Patricio County — steps away