| Santos Benavides | |
| [[Image:File:Santos Benavides.jpg|center|200px|border]]' | |
| Born: | November 1, 1823 |
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| Place of Birth: | {{{place of birth}}} |
| Died: | January 9, 1891 (aged 67) |
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| Allegiance: | United States of America Confederate States of America |
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| Branch: | Confederate States Army |
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| Rank: | Colonel (CSA) |
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| Battles: | American Civil War |
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Copy of Santos Benavides photograph in the Republic of the Rio Grande Capitol Building Museum in Laredo
Entrance to Colonel Santos Benavides Elementary School in the Winfield subdivision of Laredo, Texas
Santos Benavides (November 1, 1823 – November 9, 1891) was a Confederate colonel during the American Civil War. Benavides was the highest-ranking Tejano soldier in the Confederate military.
Biography[]
Benavides was born in Laredo, the seat of Webb County, a descendant of Don Tomas Sanchez de la Barrera y Garza, the founder of Laredo. Benavides also served as county judge in Webb County in 1859.[citation needed] He was the captain of the 33rd Texas Cavalry, also called Benavides' Regiment, until he was promoted to colonel in November 1863.
On May 22, 1861, at the Battle of Carrizo (also called Battle of Zapata), Benavides engaged the local Tejano leader Juan Cortina (who had invaded Zapata County, an event usually referred as the Second Cortina War), and drove him back into Mexico. On March 19, 1864, he defended Laredo against the Union's First Texas Cavalry, whose commander was Colonel Edmund J. Davis, a Florida native who had previously offered Benavides a Union generalship, and defeated the Union forces. Probably his greatest contribution to the Confederacy was securing passage of Confederate cotton to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in 1863. On March 18, 1864, Major Alfred Holt led a force of about two hundred men from the command of Col. Davis near Brownsville, Texas to destroy five thousand bales of cotton stacked at the San Agustín Plaza. Colonel Santos Benavides commanded forty-two men and repelled three Union attacks at the Zacate Creek in what is known as the Battle of Laredo.[1] Davis was elected in 1869 as the first ever Republican governor of Texas.
After the American Civil War ended, he resumed his merchant and ranching activities and remained active in politics. He died in Laredo and was buried there.
See also[]
- Hispanics in the American Civil War
External links[]
- Santos Benavides from the Handbook of Texas Online
References[]
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