Benito Armiñán was a Spanish soldier who served as
interim
An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities.
Interim may also refer to:
Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept)
*Provis ...
governor of
Texas, replacing
Cristóbal Domínguez, from October 1814 to July 1815, resigning from the government of the province due to health problems. He also stood out as the leader of the Extremadura Battalion, which fought against the pro-independence troops in several places in New Spain: Texas,
Tamaulipas and
San Luis de Potosí.
Biography
Armiñán joined the Spanish army in his youth, becoming a
colonel. He joined the Spanish battalion of
Extremadura, which he went on to lead.
[ 3rd Volume.]
Later, Armiñán was appointed
General Commander of the
Huasteca, in the north of
Veracruz.
[ Chapter: La huída de Medina.]
In 1813, Armiñán led his battalion to Texas to fight against the Republican troops seeking independence from
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
. He arrived in the province after the
Battle of Medina had ended, but had to suppress some insurgent movements that rose up against the
Spanish Crown
, coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg
, coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain
, image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg
, incumbent = Felipe VI
, incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...
.
Later, in October 1814, Armiñán was appointed interim governor of Texas to replace Cristóbal Domínguez, but he only held the position until July 1815, resigning from the government of the province due to health problems.
Shortly afterwards, the
viceroy ordered Armiñán to travel with his troops to
Tampico and
Altamira, in Tamaulipas (in the north of present-day Mexico), to fight against the Republican troops.
In 1817, his battalion participated in the Battle of Peotillos, near the old
hacienda
An ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or ''finca''), similar to a Roman ''latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), ...
of the same name, in
San Luis Potosi. Leading a troop of two thousand soldiers, they attacked the troops of
Francisco Xavier Mina
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Nicknames
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...
. However, Mina defeated Armiñán in a space of only three hours. In this battle, Armiñán lost a fifth of the army that had arrived with him.
References
{{Reflist
Governors of Spanish Texas
People of the Latin American wars of independence
People of New Spain
Spanish soldiers