STILLMAN TO KENEDY FROM NEW YORK DEC. 1859: "I WILL SOON BE WITH YOU TO SHARE YOUR TRIALS AND TROUBLES."

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Following the taking of Brownsville by Juan N. Cortina September 28, 1859 with between 40 to 80 men under his command,  Charles Stillman partner Mifflin Kenedy sent letters to newspapers far and wide seeking help from the State of Texas, the U.S. Army and the James Buchanan Administration.

He sent the same letter to Charles Stillman, who had not been in the city at the time Cortina seized it to look for several men who he considered murders and oppressors of local Mexicans.

Kenedy wanted Stillman to use his considerable influence on Buchanan and his Secretary of War John B. Floyd. He also wanted Stillman to have his letter asking for military assistance to hold Cortina at bay or have him killed to be published in all the New York City newspapers to alert the nation to the danger posed by the Cortinistas.

Stillman replied to Kenedy's Oct. 19 letter in a letter dated Nov. 1 from New York City. (The letter from Stillman to Kenedy is contained in a trove of South Texas correspondence archived at the Texas A&M-Kingsville Kenedy Collection. El Rrun-Rrun thanks author/researcher Dr. Teresa Hernandez, University of Houston, for making the letter known to us.)

"Yours of the 19th (Ult.) has been received, I was in hopes to hear that your difficulties had ceased, but I see from the tenor of your letters that the difficulty is more serious than ever. Have had letter published in the (New York) Herald, it will appear in this day's paper, or in the daily of the 2nd...

"Full representation has been made to the President (Buchanan) and Secretary of War (Floyd) but I fear that they are so much engaged in the Harper's Ferry affair (the raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, the night of October 16, 1859 by the abolitionist John Brown) and
presidential election (of 1860) to give our insignificant section any attention..

"Some of our public journals have given the affair quite a different character than what it really is, which shows, I think, that you have traitors in your midst(es)..It was reported here that Gen. (David E.) Twiggs had sent two companies to your assistance, as you have no advice of it, I fear it is false. You ought to have solicited Col. Fitzpatrick to have represented the fact at Washington, it would have had more weight than all of us united could have had...

"I have however no fear that the town will be destroyed, you are well armed, and you have men in your company who will obey you and stick with you, and your opponents might have changed greatly if they will advance on fifty armed men such as you have...

(Stillman also warned Kenedy not to attack Cortina in his stronghold, the chaparral. The city's "Tigers" disregarded this advice and were badly mauled and ended up fleeing toward Brownsville and losing a cannon to the cortinistas.)

"To attack them in their stronghold is, I fear, a risky expedition. You cannot move as a body of men without his (Cortina) knowing it, and he will not fight you unless he has a great advantage..such fellows never sleep in their houses when there is danger, (they) know every bush in the country and it is a dense forest from his mother's rancho to the Arroyo (Colorado) – still he must be driven from the country and to effect it requires more than you can muster on the Rio Grande...

"Assistance (now must come) from the state or general government or leave the country, which none will agree to..."

(Stillman then comments on the taking of cortinista Tomas Cabrera by the town's militia. He praises Kenedy for not executing him. Stillman does not know that Cabrera was turned over to arriving Texas Rangers, who allowed him to be taken from the city jail by a lynch mob and hung.) 

"The taking of Cabrera appears to have aroused this fresh attack (and) threats, it is reasonable to expect, also the interference of friends from Matamoros, as all their (sic) fear and respect Cortinas (sic) and they will protect him when he is compelled to flee their (there). 

"I am pleased that the prisoner (Cabrera) was not badly treated and I am certain many would have preferred to have hung him with or without a jury, such acts always have an injurious effect at a disturbance, all will admire the fairness displayed in not surrendering him or hearing to the supplications of his friends; had you complyed (complied) he (Cortina) then would have demanded the delivery of those who are obnoxious to him...

"Upon receipt of your letter I went with it to my lawyer and requested him to obtain an order from the court to postpone my examination until spring, if he succeeds in the motion I will soon be with you to share your troubles and trials..."