THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF RIP FORD
by Bob Heinonen
Incursions in Texas…there was to be a fight but who would know this fight would go on for 17 years. And who would be right in the middle of it from start to finish? Who else but Old Rip Ford.
After Cortinas’ capture of Brownsville in September, 1859, “Several affairs occurred that were disastrous to the Texians. An expedition under Captain Thompson, sent out to engage Cortina [who had withdrawn from Brownsville], was defeated and lost two small pieces of artillery. This mishap inspirited the Mexicans greatly. The arrival of a volunteer company under Captain Tobin gave confidence to the Americans. This disappeared when the Texians attacked General Cortina in his camp about ten miles above Brownsville, but he rode away without giving fight. In truth we lost in all the fights with that desperado until Major Samuel P. Heintzelmans’s regular troops appeared on the theatre of action. The legislature of Texas convened in November. A rumor reached Austin that Cortina had taken and burned Corpus Christi. The writer [Old Rip Ford] went in search of General Forbes Britton and found him on Congress Avenue, near where the Raymond House now stands [in the 1890’s]. General Britton lived in Corpus Christi, and the rumor was calculated to make him extremely uneasy, if nothing more. Ford endeavored to convince him the report was unfounded, and thought he had succeeded. Meantime, Governor H. R. Runnels passed along. General Britton accosted him, portrayed the condition of things at Corpus Christi: the town sacked by a dissolute crowd of barbarous marauders, the houses burned to the ground, his family depending for the necessities of life upon the charities of a cold world. The general’s eyes danced wildly in their sockets, his chin trembled, and his voice quivered with emotion.
“Governor Runnels was deeply moved, and exclaimed: ‘Ford you must go; you must start tonight, and move swiftly.’ The governor was assured his order would be obeyed as soon as a horse could be obtained to ride.”[i] By the first of December, 1859, Ford and 53 well armed men were in the field near Brownsville.
Cortinas now decided to avoid confrontation with the forces against him – U. S. Army troops under Major Heintzelman and Texas Ranger units under Captain Tobin and Major Ford. Cortinas pillaged and burned as he escaped up the Rio Grande. The combined forces finally caught up with Cortinas at Rio Grande City and soundly defeated him. “After the defeat and dispersion of Cortina’s forces at Rio Grande City, the bandit crossed into Mexico, near Guerrero. A large detachment of his men were driven across just below Mier. They were well received by the Mexican people.”[ii]
“Though the Cortinas War was at an end, its evil consequences lived after it. Fifteen Americans and eighty friendly Mexicans had lost their lives; Cortinas was supposed to have lost one hundred and fifty-one men. The valley was laid waste, damage claims by American citizens alone aggregating $336,826.21. Cortinas was still at large, well on his way to fame and fortune. He became a brigadier general of the Mexican army and later governor of Tamaulipas. He amassed a fortune estimated at half a million, and continued to sponsor depredations in Texas until the end of his long life.”[iii]
The official “war” was over but Cortinas was still alive and well…and so was Old Rip Ford.
Next Month – Part 25: The Cortinas Wars – The End
Bob Heinonen is the founder of Texas Heroes and has been portraying Rip Ford since 1993.
[i] Rip Ford’s Texas by John Salmon Ford edited by Stephen B. Oates, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX 1963, pp 265
[ii] Rip Ford’s Texas by John Salmon Ford edited by Stephen B. Oates, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX 1963, pp 274
[iii] The Texas Rangers A Century of Frontier Defense by Walter Prescott Webb, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX 1935, pp 193