Near Campsites of Louis-Michel Aury and Francisco Xavier Mina

An exiled Spanish liberal, Mina left Liverpool in 1816, found backers in Baltimore and New York, and sailed from Port-au-Prince, reaching Galveston on November 22 with about 140 men. Louis Aury, who already held the island, quarreled with him before letting him land. In February Mina went to New Orleans and rejected a plan to attack Pensacola as too commercial. He came back in March with two ships and Colonel Henry Perry's hundred men. After defeat at Venadito he was executed on November 11, 1817, aged twenty-eight.

What the plaque says

Near Campsites of Louis-Michel Aury and Francisco Xavier Mina A bivouac in late 1816 and early 1817 for an oddly mixed group of soldiers from many nations joined in the common purpose of freeing Mexico from Spain. Under two spirited leaders-- Mina (1789-1817), an impetuous young Spanish general, and Aury (about 1788-1821), a French privateer and soldier of fortune-- the forces drilled while waiting reinforcements and the best time to strike. For six years Mexico had been trying to wrest power from Spain but lacked military leadership and supplies. These items the two young adventurers hoped to furnish. Aury had already been chosen by Mexican rebel leaders as "Commissioner" of Galveston Island, from which he preyed on Spanish shipping. At the campsite, Mina's cargo was stored in the hulk of an abandoned ship and, under a torrid sun, he set up tents west of "Galvez Town." Aury, from his store of booty, supplied all with excellent rations. On April 7, 1817, Mina's invaders sailed, with eight ships and about 235 men, for Soto la Marina; Aury stayed at Galveston. At first victorious, Mina moved inland but was defeated at Venadito on October 27. Three years later, having gained from early rebel efforts such as these, Mexico won her freedom. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 0.5 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.
• 1892 Bishop's Palace — 0.6 mi
  Nicholas Clayton's stone house on Broadway for the railroad lawyer Walter Gresham, later home to Galveston's Catholic bishops and one of the most admired Victorian houses in the country.
• The Strand — 0.6 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.
• 1859 Ashton Villa — 0.9 mi
  A brick Italianate house on Broadway, built with enslaved labor in 1859, whose lawn has held Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration of General Orders, No. 3 every year since 1979.

More markers nearby

• Jean Lafitte — steps away
• Homesite of Dr. William Keiller — 0.2 mi
• Dominican Sisters Congregation of the Sacred Heart — 0.2 mi
• Galveston Immigration Stations — 0.3 mi