CORTINA'S FOES RECOUNT THE "GOOD OLD DAYS" OF STRIFE

San Antonio Daily Express
January 19, 1890

(Ed.'s Note: Col. Frank DeWitt C. Foster served under John "Rip" Ford in the Cheno Cortina Wars, sided with the Confederacy against the Union, and later joined the Mexican military where he was used as a courier based on his previous experience as a Pony Express rider in the United States. His letter to Ford follows his dining with Cortina in Mexico City where he was under house arrest on orders from Porfirio Diaz.)


By Col. Fco. DeWitt C. Foster.
San Antonio Daily Express
January 19, 1890
Concerning Old Times

Letter from a Veteran of the Cortina War

Containing a Deserved Tribute to the Man who Commanded the Americans - A

Breath from the Past

Editor S.A.  Daily Express: The writer must apologize for offering to the public the annexed letter of Colonel Foster. It speaks of days gone by and of events quite forgotten by old settlers and generally unknown to the more recent ones of Texas. The writer does not all that his old ranger ascribes to him, but is induced more by the object of reviving memories of troublous times, and especially of the dangers arising from the “Cortina War” on the Rio Grande.

Governor Richard Runnels sent John S. Ford to the Rio Grande. He left Austin with eight men and no public money. As he went he recruited. He arrived on the Rio Grande with a company of about fifteen men-DeWitt Foster was one - on December 6, 1859.

The fight just above Mrs. Cortina’s ranch was going on and was finished before he arrived, the Americans victorious. On December 28, 1859, the battle at Rio Grande City occurred. The next affair was at La Bolsa, in Mexico. Then Captain Stoneman and Ford crossed into Mexico, scoured the country and had a fight at Cortina’s ranch, 15 or 20 miles from Matamoros. Cortina left the Rio Grande. In all those affairs Foster took part. It is with pleasure that the writer recognizes him as a man who has achieved success.

CITY OF MEXICO, January 7, 1890
To: General John S. Ford, San Antonio, Texas.

Dear “Old Rip,”

I duly received your kind and welcome letter of December; and I am proud as well as thankful to yet merit the prized esteem of my old commander.

Years, yes, long and many years have passed, “Old Chief," since you and I fist met to join our fortunes in the hazard of war. You were then a fine handsome young man, straight as an arrow, full of life and spirits, and loved, as well as respected for your bravery, by every man and boy in your command. I was then a mere boy, whose pin feathers were commencing to show upon his upper lip, but as full of devilment and exuberant animal spirits as an egg is of meat.

Many a cuss word have I caused you to fire at me, and many a moment of vexation, with my pranks and devilment; and yet, Rip dear, I don’t believe that you ever harbored in your whole lifetime one
single angry thought against me; and I will swear that I loved as well as respected you, even when I was up to some mischief which I know would vex you; and I love you still and revere your memory as one of the few now living but never rightly appreciated nor valued by their companions who risked their lives daily and nightly for many long years fighting the fierce Comanches, then in the pride of their strength in Texas, the equally fierce and dangerous Mexican Conditte (?), who then almost ruled
the entire frontier, and subduing and exterminating the old border outlaws, a class far more dangerous and audacious than either of the preceding ones, in order that our beloved Lone Star State should ultimately became what she is to-day, the peer of her very proudest sister in the Union, in point of order, progressiveness and security.


And what reward have you reaped in your old age for you abnegation, reckless bravery and the mental and physical hardship and anxiety endured by you in the consummation of the work which you so cheerfully undertook, so well and faithfully carried to a successful termination? The mere privilege of existing?

Then, my dear old “Rip,” had you your deserts you would to-day be the richest as well as the most honored man in Texas, for it was you, and you only, who destroyed the Comanche nation in Texas by your work in the campaign and expedition for the “Big Wichita.”

It was you who defeated and obliged the famous border outlaw, Juan Nepomuceno Cortina, to flee back to Mexico after his reign of terror upon the Rio Grande del Norte In 1859; and lastly, when, in 1861, our state seceded and again unfurled the Lone Star flag, you were the first to come to the front and re-organize your old command and march to our old camping ground, the Rio Grande frontier,
and finally to you belongs the glory of whipping the last fight fought under the flag of the Southern Confederacy (Palmetto Hill).

Later on we were again united under the same banner (the Mexican) at Matamoros in 1866, under the command of our old and esteemed friend, patriot and chief, old General José Maria de Jesus Carvajal; and although then I was not in your command, yet you will know that I respected and loved you all the same.

It makes me proud, “Old Rip,” to have you express yourself in such terms of endearment as you do of the old boys who served under your orders in those times which “tried men’s souls.” Well may you be proud and fond of them, for a finer and braver set of boys than those whom you commanded in the 50’s, you could search the world over for, and search in vain. With very few exceptions, they were all young men of good family and some property-true, faithful and brave, fine horsemen and crack shots, practical scouts, trailers and plainsmen; and, above all they revered and looked up to you as their criterion of excellence and would once and all follow to the devil, where old Rip led.

Friendship was not the false and empty attribute in these days which it is today, but then we were like brothers and shared in each other’s weal and woe. The bond of mutual companionship in peril endeared us to one another forming ties to become broken by death only; and although there are now but few, very few of us left, and those few scattered to the four winds of heaven, yet I am sure that their reminiscences of those times are the most pleasant ones of their lives, and that they often recur to them.

What a pity it is that we cannot recall in reality those time, but that is impossible, for they belong to the history of the past. But we can always recur to them, and our companions, although materially absent, are mentally present to us, as we live those moments over again, and are happy until sober reality comes to us and dispels the pleasant illusions forever. Would that we possessed then the
philosophy and experience that we have now. Our fate would have been far different from what it is.

But why repine! We must accept the inevitable, so we may as well abstract all the good from it we can, whilst our mundane pilgrimage lasts. After all, we have not got much reason to growl. We are still here, and no beggars either, whilst many of our dear comrades have been under the sod for long years.

So let us thank the grand “Architect of the Universe” for the benefits we enjoy, and enjoy them without envious repinings as long as we can. This is the only true philosophy: I wish you could come on and visit us here at the City of Mexico, old man. It should cost you nothing here and I would try and make things agreeable as possible for you.

I dined last Sunday with General Cortina and we spoke of you. He respects you and remembers you kindly. He is now a old gray haired man, not bent or broken by the rigors of twelve years imprisonment, but straight and tough yes, with his spirit yet unbroken.

I have a large family of seven children now, all good (???) during the last twelve years. I, looking good and healthy. Mexico has progressed. I'm still in the army, have a tailoring establishment here, and do a large live stock importing and commission business.

Adiou with love to Mrs. Ford, Lula and Addie, believe me ever your affectionate and true friend. COL. FCO. DeWitt C. Foster.

P.S. – Mother sends her kindest regards to you and wishes you a happy New Year. She is confined to her bed by a partial dislocation of her hip, caused by a fall. She is 65 years old. I will be 50 upon the 30th next March.