Cattle Drive from La Bahia
Goliad, Goliad County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After Spain joined the American colonists in declaring war on England in 1779, Spanish soldier Bernardo de Galvez traveled to New Orleans to raise an army. Aware of the great number of wild cattle in Texas from his time spent stationed in the region, Galvez asked the Spanish governor of Texas to send cattle to feed his troops. As a result, about 10,000 head of cattle from Texas missions and ranches were assembled at Presidio La Bahia. Between 1779 and 1782, in what is believed to be the first major Texas cattle drive, cattle were herded from La Bahia to Spanish soldiers preparing to fight in the American revolution along the Gulf Coast. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Spain entered the American Revolution against Britain in 1779, Bernardo de Gálvez went to New Orleans to raise an army—and remembered the wild cattle of the Texas country where he had once been stationed. At his request the Spanish governor of Texas rounded up some 10,000 head from the missions and ranches, assembling them at Presidio La Bahía. Driven east between 1779 and 1782 to feed Gálvez's Gulf Coast campaign, this is regarded as the first major Texas cattle drive.
Why it matters
It links two great American stories—the Revolution and the birth of the Texas cattle industry—showing that Spanish Texas quietly helped supply the war for independence a full century before the great trail drives.
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Related people
- · Bernardo de Gálvez
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Manuel Becerra
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Born at Presidio La Bahía in 1762, Manuel Becerra came of age as Texas passed through the hands of four governments and helped shape its transition at every step. Elected the first secretary of La Bahía's town council in 1820, he was soon chosen to accompany Stephen F. Austin in scouting a site for Austin's first colony, and later managed the political and business affairs of Martín de León's Guadalupe colony. In 1827 he helped negotiate a treaty with the Coco and Karankawa peoples, and he went on to receive a large land grant and aid the settlement of the Power colony before his death around 1849.
First Baptist Church of Goliad
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The Rev. John F. Hillyer and twelve charter members organized the First Baptist Church of Goliad under an oak tree in 1849, then spent half a century worshiping in borrowed and self-built spaces. Storms repeatedly tested the congregation—a cyclone destroyed their 1899 building and a 1919 storm leveled its 1907 successor—and for a time the church carried the name Mary E. Lott Memorial in a parishioner's honor. Restored to the First Baptist name in 1959, the congregation has stayed active in outreach and mission work, including an early Mexican mission.
Cabeza Creek Crossing on the La Bahia-Bexar Road
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For nearly a century this ford on a San Antonio River tributary carried travelers along the La Bahía–Bexar road, a branch of the Spanish Camino Real linking the Gulf presidios to Bexar and, ultimately, to Mexico City. After the Presidio La Bahía and Mission Espíritu Santo resettled nearby in 1749, the crossing became a working artery for soldiers, ranchers, and traders, charted by Spanish captains and later mapped by Stephen F. Austin and the naturalist Berlandier. German immigrants of the 1840s followed the same ruts to new homes, until the railroads finally rendered the old road obsolete.
Weser
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