A la Comision Mista de la Republica Mejicana y de los Estados Unidos de America, en la ciudad de Washington, Distrito de Columbia / To the Honorable American and Mexican Joint Commission, in the City

£2,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Apparently unrecorded, this dual-language memorial by Severo de Luna seeks compensation for a controversial incident along the Texas-Mexico border during the 1855 Callahan Expedition. “The Callahan Expedition occurred in October 1855, when James Hughes Callahan led a force of 111 men into Mexico near Piedras Negras, Coahuila. The announced purpose of the unauthorized invasion was to punish Lipan Apache Indians who reportedly had raided along the Texas frontier during the summer and fall of 1855, then returned to Mexico, where they were protected by the authorities. In fact, the expedition likely was an attempt by Texas slaveholders to regain fugitive slaves who had fled to northern Mexico and to prevent Mexican authorities from permitting runaway slaves to settle in their midst” ( Handbook of Texas online). This short-lived expedition saw Callahan and his men cross the Rio Grande on 1 October. Two days later, they skirmished with a Mexican detachment at the Río Escondido and, retreated to Piedras Negras, twenty-two miles away, where they took over the town. “As the Mexican force approached … on October 5, Callahan ordered his men to set fire to houses to cover their retreat, and on the evening of October 6 Maj. Sidney Burbank, commander of the American forces across the river at Fort Duncan, turned four cannons to cover the Texans as they recrossed the river … The claims originating with this invasion of Mexico were not officially settled until 1876, when the Claims Commissio

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.