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The Nueces Strip or Wild Horse Desert is the area of
South Texas South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 4.96 ...
between the
Nueces River The Nueces River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas, about long. It drains a region in central and southern Texas southeastward into the Gulf of Mexico. It is the southernmost major river in Texas northeast of the Rio Grande. ''Nueces' ...
and the
Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...
. According to the narrative of Mexican missionary
Juan Agustín Morfi Juan Agustín Morfi was a Franciscan monk, born in Asturias, Spain, in 1735, who died in Mexico, New Spain, in 1783. He is considered the most important chronicler and historian of the New Philippines; Mariano Errasti ranks Morfi among the most p ...
, there were so many
wild horses Wild horse (''Equus ferus'') is a species of the genus ''Equus'' that includes domesticated and undomesticated subspecies. * Przewalski's wild horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii'' or ''Equus przewalskii''), a rare and endangered subspecies of wild ...
swarming in the Nueces Strip in 1777 "that their trails make the country, utterly uninhabited by people, look as if it were the most populated in the world". In the 1830s, the
Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Me ...
claimed the Rio Grande as its southern border; Mexico claimed the Nueces River ( north of the Rio Grande). The area between the two rivers became known as the Nueces Strip. Both countries invaded it, but neither controlled it nor settled it. It was the scene of the first fighting in the
Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the ...
in 1846. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in 1848, Mexico ceded the Nueces Strip to the U.S. Ever since 1848 the border area has had a reputation for lawlessness and smuggling, and was a main zone of activity of the Texas Rangers. It was also used by enslaved people fleeing on the lesser-known southern route of the
Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...
.


Mexican–American War

U.S. President James K. Polk ordered General
Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
and his forces south to the Rio Grande, entering the Nueces Strip. The U.S. claimed the land citing the 1836 Treaties of Velasco. Mexico rejected the treaties and refused to negotiate; it claimed all of Texas. Taylor ignored Mexican demands to withdraw to the Nueces. He constructed a makeshift fort (later known as Fort Brown/Fort Texas) on the banks of the Rio Grande opposite the city of
Matamoros, Tamaulipas Matamoros, officially known as Heroica Matamoros, is a city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and the municipal seat of the homonymous municipality. It is on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from ...
. Mexican forces under General Mariano Arista prepared for war. On April 25, 1846, a 2,000-strong Mexican cavalry detachment attacked a 70-man U.S. patrol that had been sent into the contested territory north of the Rio Grande and south of the Nueces River. In the
Thornton Affair The Thornton Affair, also known as the Thornton Skirmish, Thornton's Defeat, or Rancho Carricitos was a battle in 1846 between the military forces of the United States and Mexico west upriver from Zachary Taylor's camp along the Rio Gra ...
, the Mexican cavalry routed the patrol, killing 16 American soldiers.


Further reading

* * Richardson, Chad, and Michael J. Pisani, eds. ''The Informal and Underground Economy of the South Texas Border'' (University of Texas Press; 2012) 335 pages; explores the risks and benefits of an "undocumented economy" in the region known as the Nueces Strip.


Notes

{{coord missing, Texas Regions of Texas Mexican–American War Republic of Texas