Name/Title
William Hurd [Family Letter]Description
Stampless cover addressed to "Miss Caroline M Hurd / German Flats / N York" and postmarked "MIDDLEHADDAM / CT / FEB 4." Family letter between A.B. Hurd (brother) to Caroline Matilda Hurd (sister) providing news of their brother Captain William Hurd's actions during the San Felipe Incident.
"Feb 1st 1836
Dear Sister
I have long delayed writing expecting every mail to hear from our brother Wm. We have heard nothing of him excepting through publick prints since I wrote you. I learn by them that our brother ever the sport of fortune he again met with its reverses in the loss of the San Phillippe. Paper states that she was run on shore be the carelessness of a drunken mate & was in the meen time attacked by the enemy. However he since did in beating them off having a company of volunteer riflemen onboard & as I learn by ??? letter safely arrive in Orleans. Norman further the states that himself & Wm has received commissions from the texian government to fit out each a privateer at government's expense to cruise against the mexicans.
The fate of Thomson his old enemy is not yet desided the jury could not agree upon a verdict. Consequently the case is submitted to the decision of our senate now is session. We are fearful of disaster our news when next we hear from Wm.
A.B.H.
P.S. there has just been handed in too papers from Harriet stating all well. papers contain an account of Expidition of Wm retaking an American vessel that was captured by the enemy. He is much extoled for his bravery. I shall include the papers to you."Context
The San Felipe was the first ship to transport munitions into Texas after Stephen F. Austin made his decision to support the cause of Texas liberty. The duel between the San Felipe and the Correo was the first engagement in the Texas Revolution, and the victory of the San Felipe cleared the Texas coast of the Mexican naval presence, thus guaranteeing, at least for a time, the unhampered importation of arms and volunteers for the struggle for independence.
William A. Hurd, Republic of Texas naval officer, was born in East Hampton, Connecticut, in October 1805, the son of Captain Jacob and Abigail (Curry) Hurd. He became a sailor at an early age as records show him arriving at the port of New York when he was sixteen. How he came to Texas is unknown, but he commanded the armed schooner San Felipe, which returned Stephen F. Austin to Texas from New Orleans in August 1835 after his incarceration in Mexico. The ship also carried arms and ammunition for the Texas revolutionaries.
In August 1835 Stephen F. Austin returned to Texas from his imprisonment in Mexico by way of New Orleans aboard the San Felipe, commanded by Capt. William A. Hurd. Although not a warship, the San Felipe was then heavily armed and laden with a cargo of munitions. Upon approaching Brazoria on September 1, she was taken in tow by the steamer Laura. Austin, his fellow passengers, and much of the San Felipe's cargo had been removed to the Laura for transshipment across the bar when she was approached by the Mexican revenue cutter Correo de México. The Mexican cutter attempted to come within cannon range of the San Felipe, and Hurd attempted to bring the San Felipe alongside the Mexican ship to board her. The ensuing heavy exchange of cannon and rifle fire lasted from about 8:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M., a battle in which two of the Correo's guns were dismounted, most of the crew were wounded, and her captain, Thomas M. (Mexico) Thompson, was shot twice in the legs. Thereupon Thompson put to sea, and the San Felipe gave chase through the night. On the morning of September 2 the Laura towed the San Felipe into range of the Correo, and Thompson surrendered unconditionally. Hurd then escorted his prize back to New Orleans. Because Thompson did not have a copy of his commission on board, he and his crew were charged with piracy, and a comic-opera trial ensued.
In October, the San Felipe returned to Brazoria, and when the Mexican schooner-of-war Montezuma appeared off the coast on the twenty-seventh, the Columbia Committee of Safety ordered Lt. William J. Eaton of the Texas militia to take charge of the San Felipe and give chase. Hurd's schooner overtook the Mexican ship in Matagorda Bay on November 3. The San Felipe, with a crew of seventy men (including McKinney) and a complement of seven cannons, attempted to close with the Montezuma but ran aground on the morning of November 4. A part of the crew returned overland to Brazoria; the rest remained with the ship. On November 6 the San Felipe became the target of the Mexican man-of-war's broadsides. "No blame can be attached to Captain Hurd either from want of skill or attention," wrote Franklin C. Gray, one of the ship's volunteer crewmen. The mate had, however, "indulged too freely with the bottle," Gray believed.