Garza Revolution
| Garza Revolution | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Third Cavalry Troopers Searching a Suspected Revolutionist, by Frederic Remington. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Mexico United States
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Garzistas | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Porfirio Diaz Frank Wheaton
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Catarino Garza Francisco Benavides |
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The Garza Revolution, or the Garza War, was an armed conflict fought in the Mexican state of Coahuila and the American state of Texas between 1891 and 1893. It began when the revolutionary Catarino Garza launched a campaign into Mexico from Texas to start an uprising against the dictator Porfirio Diaz. Because of this violation of neutrality, the United States Army became involved and assisted the Mexican Army in tracking down Garza's followers. The war was relatively minor compared to other similar conflicts in Mexican history though it has been seen as a precursor to the major Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1920.
The Garza Revolution was one of many outbreaks of rebellion during the four decades of Porfirio Diaz' regime. In September, Garza issued a statement, declaring that the citizens of Mexico were "treated like 'despicable slaves,' that the Mexican government was plagued by 'frightful corruption,' that freedom of the press had been squashed, and that the Constitution of 1857 had been betrayed." Garza called on Mexicans to "rise in mass in the name of liberty, the constitution and the public conscience." The war began on the night of September 15 when sixty to eighty Garzistas, as they were called, crossed the Rio Grande near Fort Ringgold, Texas to "overthrow the Mexican government." Many of the Garzistas were Mexican-Americans, recruited in Texas, known for being criminals before the war which is why they are often referred to as bandits or outlaws. A record of the war was created by American military and civil personnel in letters, telegrams and official reports, much of which has been preserved in a collection by the United States Army. On September 16, Captain E. L. Randall, United States Army, sent a telegram from Fort Ringgold to the army's Department of Texas with news of the event; "I have received information that at six o'clock last night C. E. Garcia [Catarino Garza] crossed into Mexico when 14 miles below here with over 50 armed men, his object to attempt a revolution" Guerilla warfare was a major factor in the conflict as the number of Garzistas remained very small and they blended into the civilian population. They never stayed in Mexican territory for more than a few days and they used horses to ride back and forth across the border, almost with impunity. Over the course of two campaigns, in three years, the Mexican military and the American army engaged in several small skirmishes, all of them occurring within the vicinity of the Rio Grande Valley. The majority of the fighting was between Mexican troops and the rebels in Coahuila but there were also a few encounters between the Americans and the rebels on Texas soil.
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