James Long (filibuster)

James Long (filibuster) (born February 9 1793 Culpepper County Virginia died 11 May 1822 in Mexico) led the unsuccessful filibuster Long Expedition to Texas. He was the first President of the first Republic of Texas.

Biography

Long was a former US Army surgeon in the War of 1812 who served at the Battle of New Orleans. He married Jane Herbert Dent Wilkinson in 1815 [http://www.texas-settlement.org/markers/brazoria/64.html] and owned a plantation in Natchez, Mississippi.

Many Americans and French settlers in America and Mexico were opposed to the Adams-Onis treaty that established the borders of Texas and Mexico. Long teamed up with José Félix Trespalacios a former Mexican who had fought against Spanish rule in Mexico [http://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/TT/ftr9.html] . They made their first filibuster expedition to Texas in 1819. He attempted to recruit Jean Lafitte and his men, but Lafitte turned him down. [http://www.galveston.com/history/] Several of Long's recruits were former French soldiers who had started a settlement in Texas the Champ d'Asile [http://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/uec2.html] that Spanish troops crushed in 1818. [ p.58 Lieber, Francis, Wigglesworth, Edward "Encyclopædia Americana " 1851] Long was successful in capturing Nacogdoches, with his followers proclaiming Long the first President of the Republic of Texas. [http://www.answers.com/topic/james-long-1] However a Spanish expedition routed Long and his followers.

Long led a second unsuccessful expedition from the Bolivar Peninsula the following year where his men seized Presidio La Bahía. He was imprisoned, then shot in Mexico. [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/LL/flo10.html] One of Long's followers, Benjamin Milam believed that Trespalacios who had been captured and freed was responsible. [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txmilam/history.html]

His widow, Jane Long, the first woman of English descent to settle in Texas gave birth to Mary Jane Long the first child born in Texas of English descent. [http://www.galveston.com/history/]

Footnotes