Combat· South America and Pacific Protective Operations
USS Natchez captures Mexican brig-of-war off Texas coast
A sharp naval reprisal during the friction that followed Texas independence.
The Mexican navy had seized two American merchant vessels, and in answer the sloop-of-war USS Natchez, cruising the Gulf, captured a Mexican brig-of-war off Brazos de Santiago on the Texas coast. The Natchez's Marines stood ready for the boarding as the capture was made. The action was a small but pointed assertion of American rights at sea in a tense period, with the new Republic of Texas a constant source of trouble between Washington and Mexico City, and it foreshadowed the far larger conflict that would come a decade later. No casualties resulted from the capture. The Natchez was among the busier ships of the era, having taken part in the protective landings at Buenos Aires the previous year before turning to the enforcement of American maritime claims in the Gulf.
Record no. 321