Nolan was overtaken on the banks of the Blanco river, at the block house he had built, and in the ensuing engagement he was killed and the remainder of the expedition were captured and brought back to Nacogdoches. They were placed in the Old Stone Fort, from whence they were taken prisoners to Mexico; the sole survivor of the band, so far as history records, was Peter Ellis Bean, one of the most colorful and resourceful men Texas has seen.
Correspondence found in the possession of Nolan enabled Musquiz to discover various ramifications of the plot of Nolan, Burr and Wilkinson among the inhabitants in Nacogdoches. One of the local leaders was a Spanish woman, Gertrudis Leal, and her husband, Antonio Leal, who were tried for treason by Musquiz. The priest in charge of Mission Guadalupe, Padre Bernadino Vallejo, was also one of the conspirators, but the robes of St. Francis saved him from punishment for his part in the plot. Samuel Davenport was also found to be in some manner connected with the affair, but he was shrewd enough to escape being tried, as was also a man by the name of Cook, who then lived at Nacogdoches.
In the beginning of the new century the purchase of Louisiana by the United States from the French, in consequence of the Napoleonic upheaval in Europe, brought about a great change in the political and military affairs of Nacogdoches. There was great jealousy between the two countries, and a territorial dispute to be settled before the old status of somnolent peace could prevail. The Americans built Fort Jesup, west of Red River, near Natchitoches, and in 1806, Governor Cordero, with 1500 Spanish troops, advanced to Nacogdoches to meet the American threat across the Sabine. As a result of the negotiations of Governor Cordero and General Wilkinson, there was formed The Neutral Ground, a strip of territory lying between the Sabine and the Rio Hondo, over which neither government exercised dominion, and which consequently became the rendezvous of the lawless, until the settlement of the present boundary between Texas and Louisiana.
The Mexican Revolution Against Spain
The next band of adventurers found Nacogdoches in a very different temper. In 1810 the Mexicans rebelled against the government of Spain, and Nacogdoches lost no time in assisting in the formation of the Magee-Gutierrez expedition, under the leadership of Lieut. Augustus Magee, who resigned his position in the United States garrison at Fort Jesup to take command of the American and Mexican forces in their effort to throw off the yoke of Spain.
It is said that every able-bodied man east of the Trinity river joined in this expedition. For a time it prospered, and by 1813 had successfully driven the Spanish military forces from Eastern Texas and pursued them to San Antonio, where Governor Manuel Salcedo and most of the high Spanish officials there were butchered.
One of the interesting incidents of this expedition, to the whole province as well as to Nacogdoches, was the publication of two newspapers here, the first ventures of their kind in Texas; the first of these, “The Gazette,” appeared in May, 1813, while the second, “El Mejicano,” was published the following month.
Vengeance of Spain was swift, and the Spanish army sent into Texas swept the inhabitants of Nacogdoches beyond the Sabine and into American territory, where they remained until 1818-20. Erasmo Seguin was sent by the new government of Mexico in 1821 to Nacogdoches to invite the old settlers back to their former homes, as well as to welcome Stephen F. Austin to Texas.
Dr. James Long—1819
The settlement of the boundary dispute between the United States and Texas on February 22, 1819, by fixing the Sabine river as the boundary, met with strong opposition in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as Eastern Texas. The American settlers had contended for the Neches river as the true boundary, and Dr. James Long, who had married the daughter of a wealthy planter at Natchez, Mississippi, lost no time in exploiting his scheme of forming the Republic of Texas. Leaving Natchez June 17, 1819, with 75 men, he reached Nacogdoches with approximately 300, including Samuel Davenport, Bernado Guitierrez de Lara, and many others who had fled in 1813.