Chambers County, Texas
Anahuac Area History
It could be said that Anahuac first got its start in 1812 when Spain discovered that international filibusters were using the region as a convenient staging area for attacks against Spanish Mexico. When the struggle for Mexican independence was opened on September 16, 1810, volunteer foreign adventurers joined the Mexican Rebels. The first undertaking, the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition of 1812, was led jointly by a native Mexican and a former officer of the United States Army. These filibusters had captured several areas before finally being defeated in 1813.
Veterans of that expedition regrouped in 1815 after the Battle of New Orleans in which some of the refugee Mexican Republicans had joined the Americans in repelling the British. Under the leadership of Gutierrez-Magee veteran Henry Perry, three hundred men left New Orleans for Bolivar Peninsula intending to attack Spanish outposts to the South. Finding Bolivar to exposed for a winter camp, Perry moved his men to a promontory overlooking the mouth of the Trinity River that was known later as Perry's Point, then eventually called Anahuac.
Home · Anahuac Area · Anahuac Area OverviewIn 1830 the Mexican government established a military post here to collect customs duties and to enforce the law of April 6, 1830 that curtailed further Anglo-American colonization, and was already a port of entry for early Texas colonists.
Situated on a high bluff at the mouth of the Trinity River, Fort Anahuac controlled access to East Texas Settlements. The fort was slow in getting underway, but Juan Davis Bradburn, Perry's quartermaster, had brought a cardboard model of the proposed structure with him, and the workers used it as a guide in its construction. The foundation was not completed until May 1831, and on May 14 a ceremony marking the setting of the cornerstone was held.
During and after the construction, Colonel Juan Davis Bradburn, by now the Commander of the Anahuac Garrison, angered Texas colonists by conscripting labor and supplies to construct the fort and by failing to control his disorderly troops. In 1832, he unjustly imprisoned William Barret Travis, Patrick C. Jack, Munroe Edwards, and other settlers here. When he refused to release the men, armed conflict erupted between Texas and Mexican forces. The confrontation here, where blood was shed, and which also sparked fighting at Fort Velasco and the adoption of the Turtle Bayou Resolutions is said to have been the first shots of the Texas Revolution. This confrontation resulted in Bradburn's dismissal and the removal of the Mexican Troops from the post. Today, the Historical Markers and a few exposed ruins are the only physical reminders of events that kindled the drive for Texas independence.