The Grass Fight

The fight grew out of Ugartechea's absence. He had ridden out of San Antonio with a cavalry escort to guide reinforcements to Cos, and the Texan army, now under Burleson, kept watch for his return. Bowie went ahead with about forty cavalry, and William H. Jack followed with a hundred infantry. The two mounted forces skirmished west of town and fought on foot from ravines near Alazan Creek, and Cos sent fifty infantry with a cannon. The Mexicans counterattacked four times before reinforcements under James Swisher forced them back into town.

What the plaque says

The Grass Fight Near this site on Nov. 26, 1835, occurred The Grass Fight, one of the least decisive but certainly most unusual battles of the Texas War for Independence. For more than a month, the Texan forces, composed of both Anglo- and Mexican-Texans, had camped near San Antonio de Bexar waiting for an opportunity to engage the army of the Centralist regime stationed in the city. Erastus "Deaf" Smith, a Texas scout, learned that a Mexican pack train carrying silver to pay the garrison would arrive in Bexar. On Nov. 26 Smith sighted an approaching caravan and alerted the Texas camp. Col. James Bowie led about 100 volunteers, while others followed Col. Edward Burleson. Near the junction of Alazan, Apache and San Pedro Creeks, the Texans overtook the pack train. Soldiers from the garrison in Bexar rode to aid their comrades, but the Texans forced them to retreat and captured the pack animals. About 50 Mexican Soldiers were killed in the clash; two Texans were wounded. In the packs the Texans found not silver but hay that Mexican troops had foraged for their livestock. Two weeks later, supported by a contingent under Juan N. Seguin, Ben Milam led Texan volunteers in the storming of Bexar, expelling the Centralist army and setting the stage for the Siege of the Alamo, Feb. 23 - March 6, 1836. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 1.0 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 1.1 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 1.2 mi
  The Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.
• King William Historic District — 1.3 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.

More markers nearby

• Col. Jose Francisco Ruiz — 0.5 mi
• Jose Antonio Navarro — 0.5 mi
• Placido Olivarri — 0.5 mi
• Capt. Jose Antonio Menchaca — 0.5 mi