Norias Ranch Raid

Norias Ranch raid
Part of the Bandit War, Mexican Revolution
Date August 8, 1915 Location near Kingsville, Texas Result United States victory, rebels retreat.
Belligerents
United States	Seditionistas
Commanders and leaders
Henry Ransom	Antonio Roche Luis de la Rosca
Strength
16	~60
Casualties and losses
3 killed 2 wounded	~4 killed ~12 wounded

The Norias Ranch raid was an incident in August 1915 in which a large band of Mexican Seditionistas attacked an American ranch in southern Texas. It became one of the many small battles fought on American soil during the Mexican Revolution and resulted in an increased effort by the United States Army to defend the international border. At least seven people were killed in the raid and several more from among those wounded by gunfire may have died immediately afterwards.

In January 1915 a group of Mexican rebels drafted the Plan of San Diego which called for Mexicans in the American border states to rebel against the U.S. government and kill the white inhabitants. However, the overall plan was unrealistic and changed many times so the Seditionistas, as they were called, only launched small raids into Texas from the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Norias Ranch is located about seventy miles north of Brownsville and about sixty miles from Kingsville. At the time, Norias was the headquarters for the southernmost portion of the 825,000-acre King Ranch and was also used by the Missouri Pacific Railroad to water their trains. The site itself resembled a small town; it included a large two story wooden ranch house, owned by Caesar Kleberg, a small train station, a section house, a corral and a few other buildings. On August 7, Caesar Kleberg was in Kingsville when he learned that a large group of armed Mexican men were riding on horseback through the Sauz grazing division of the King Ranch with the intention of attacking Norias. Kleberg immediately informed the United States Army commandant at Fort Brown, near Brownsville, Texas, who informed Adjutant General Henry Hutchings. Hutchings organized a force of thirteen Texas Rangers, including Captains Harry (or Henry) Ransom, Monroe Fox, and George J. Head, plus eight cavalrymen, under Corporal Watson Adams, to go to the Norias Ranch by train and investigate the situation. Upon arriving, a ranch foreman named Tom Tate led Hutchings, the Texas Rangers, and a few local peace officers to the Sauz Ranch. While they were gone a second train arrived at about 5:30 pm, dropping off the Customs Inspectors D. P. Gay, Joe Taylor, and Marcus Hinds, as well as a deputy sheriff of Cameron County, Gordon Hill. All four were heavily armed with rifles and pistols.

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