TOO BRAVE TO DIE

THE HEROIC TALE OF THE DAWSON BRIGADE AND HENRY GONZALVO WOODS’S REMARKABLE SURVIVAL AT THE SEPTEMBER 1842 DAWSON MASSACRE

- BEN FRIBERG

“We have marched a long way to meet the enemy and I do not intend to return without meeting them. I had rather die than retreat.” Thus did old frontiersman Zadock Woods cast the deciding vote sending his companions to slaughter.

The situation was this: The Mexican Army invaded Texas and captured San Antonio on September 11, 1842. Couriers raced across the settlements drumming up volunteers to drive off the invaders. Zadock and his sons, Norman and Henry Gonzalvo (Gon), answered the call. Snatching up rifles and cornbread, the three rode for San Antonio, joining more volunteers from nearby La Grange along the way.

Two days hard riding later, the 53 volunteers, through a series of missteps and just plain bad luck, found themselves between the Texan and Mexican forces, slugging it out on Salado Creek north of San Antonio. One hundred and fifty Mexican dragoons started galloping in their direction.

Their captain, Nicholas Mosby Dawson, laid out the options: fall back four miles and join up with other reinforcements they had passed earlier in the day or seek shelter in a nearby mesquite motte and fight it out. The older men grumbled at the very thought of retreat and Zadock roared out his own challenge sealing their fate.