Jacob Snively

Jacob Snively, (1809-1871), surveyor and civil engineer, officer of the Army of the Republic of Texas, 49er, miner, Arizona .

Jacob Snively was born in Greencastle, Pennsylvania along with a twin brother David. His family moved soon afterwards to Hamilton County, Ohio. He became a surveyor and civil engineer before going to Nacogdoches, Texas in April 1835. He was a surveyor of land grants there for the Republic of Mexico and received a grant himself in July 1835.

Commissioned on March 26, 1836, during the Texas Revolution he served as a first lieutenant of Company A, First Infantry Regiment under Henry W. Millard. In August he was promoted to captain and assigned to command of Company B. Sam Houston appointed him an ambassador to the Shawnee Indians on January 24, 1837, to sound out the tribe's intentions towards the Republic of Texas and Mexico. On May 13, 1837, he was appointed to the rank of colonel and made paymaster general of the Army, and for a short time was acting secretary of war, before resigning from the army in September 1837. Later in 1839, he once again served as paymaster general under Albert Sidney Johnston and in 1843 was quartermaster of the army and an assistant inspector general of the republic.

In January 1843 Snively proposed an operation to intercept a train of Mexican traders who would be returning from Missouri on the Santa Fe Trail by way of Texas territory and to seize their goods. This was to be in retaliation for the Mexican raids on San Antonio in 1842 and for the mistreatment of Texas prisoners captured in the Mier Expedition and on the Texan Santa Fe Expedition. Snively was given authorization on February 16, 1843, but instructed not to violate the sovereignty of the United States. He was to raise and command a detachment of partisans not officially connected to Texas. Leaving on April 24, this 170 man strong Battalion of Invincibles fought and defeated a detachment of 100 Mexican soldiers on the Arkansas River on June 20. However, on July 15, they were in turn surrounded and disarmed by a detachment of the U. S. Dragoons under the command of Captain Philip St. George Cooke for intruding into U. S. territory and killing a Mexican citizen. Many of the expedition left for Texas or for Missouri with the Dragoons. The remainder, less than 70 did continue and intercepted the train of goods they were after, but guarded by a strong force of Mexican soldiers under Governor Manuel Armijo, in their weakened condition it was too strong to attack and they returned to Texas.

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