Reuben Fugate Ross: Commander of the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition (1783–1828)

Reuben Fugate Ross, a native of Virginia, was the third commander of the Gutiérrez-Magee expedition, the filibuster effort of Anglo-Americans to aid Mexican rebels against Spain in Texas in 1812–13. Although he never led the Republican Army of the North in battle, Ross was cited for conspicuous bravery at the battle of Rosillo, turning the tide of the engagement and leading to a republican victory.

According to genealogy sources, he was the son of William Ross and Rachel Deelwood (Fugate) Ross and was born in Montgomery County, Virginia, on March 21, 1783. Marriage records indicate that Reuben Ross married Catherine “Kitty” Lawrence in Montgomery County on April 1, 1806. They had a son, Thomas, in 1807, when Kitty died—likely from complications from childbirth.

Ross was a former Washington County, Virginia, sheriff, who, in the words of Capt. James Gaines, was “of fair character,” “brave,” and committed to the cause of Mexican Independence. William Shaler described him as a man of means. At some point, Ross joined the Republican Army of the North. After the army entered Texas, it occupied Presidio La Bahía, where it was besieged by Spanish royalist forces in early November 1812. In December, Ross was ordered to slip out of the presidio and head north to gain recruits and supplies to raise the siege. According to U.S. Special Agent William Shaler, writing to Secretary of State James Monroe on January 10, “His object is to bring on several tribes of Indians to the number of 200 warriors who had volunteered their services and about 50 Americans and natives of Nacogdoches: he informs me that they are all well armed and will rendezvous at Trinity on the 25 of this month….”

Ross was only able to recruit a fraction of the hoped-for troops. Many American Indians refused to join the cause at the time, due to the insistence of the influential chief Dehahuit of the Caddo, who urged his people to remain neutral in the conflict. Nonetheless, with about twenty-five American Indians under chief Charlie Rollins and the same number of Anglo Americans under Gaines, Ross started south. Along the way he received news that the Spanish had abandoned their siege of La Bahía after a series of defeats and had retreated to San Antonio. Ross’s reinforcements joined the main force around March 12, and shortly thereafter, the army left in pursuit of the Spaniards.

The Spaniards attempted to set up an ambush for the republican forces at the battle of Rosillo on March 29, 1813. In the battle, Ross commanded the right wing of the republican forces. After the rebels weathered the initial ambush, Ross along with his American Indian troops charged the guns on the Spanish left. He found himself engaged in a sword duel with former Nacogdoches garrison commander Bernardino Montero and killed the Spaniard. 

Ross’s intrepidity led to the capture of the Spanish guns and collapse of their left flank. The Spanish army broke in disorder—some surrendered, and others fled to San Antonio. Three days later, with the Republican Army on the outskirts of San Antonio, Spanish governor Manuel Salcedo surrendered his command. The governor, along with thirteen additional royalists, was taken out of San Antonio on the evening of April 3 by a group of Tejano rebels, who returned on the morning of April 4 after having brutally killed the royalists in an act that sowed great disaffection between Anglo and Tejano contingents of the army. Many Anglos resigned the army in protest; others, including the army’s commander, Samuel Kemper, left on furlough for the United States.

With Kemper’s departure, Ross was unanimously selected as the new commander of the army. He stemmed some of the Anglo-American departures but was unable to heal the growing ethnic rift in the army. Rumors spread that a faction among the Mexican/Tejano rebels was rumored to be conspiring against their Anglo allies. Ross learned of this from a Tejano officer, Miguel Menchaca, as well as his own girlfriend, San Antonio native Gertrudis Barrera (another source identifies her as Francisca Ochoa).

Barrera’s warning unnerved Ross, and he called his officers to a council and advised that the Anglo-American forces should quit Texas. This was rejected unanimously. Ross’s second-in-command, Henry Perry, berated Ross for his temerity. Nonetheless, convinced of the rumor’s truth and that he himself was targeted, Ross, with one friend, fled the army. Perry assumed command, united the Anglo and Tejano contingents, and led the army to victory at the battle of Alazán on June 20, 1813. The army was ultimately defeated at the battle of Medina on August 18, 1813, while Ross was in the United States.

Ross joined other filibuster survivors at the battle of New Orleans and served in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Consolidated Regiment. Here, he made his peace with Perry. Following that victory, Perry attempted to resume his filibustering efforts in partnership with a Mexican rebel exile, Juan Pablo Anaya. In 1816, on Perry’s behalf, Ross infiltrated into Texas and supplied arms and equipment to an anti-Spanish Comanche chief known as “Captain Cordero.” Perry’s filibuster, however, was suppressed by federal authorities, and Ross returned to Virginia. Marriage records indicate that he married Frances Miller in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on March 26, 1817, and the 1820 federal census listed him as a resident of Rockbridge County.

In 1821 Ross was settled in Sparta, Tennessee, when he learned of the ultimate success of the Mexican War of Independence. He believed he had a rightful claim on the new government for his services, as well as $10,000 in private funds he had advanced the cause. He decided to press this claim in person. In Philadelphia, he met with a member of the new Mexican provisional congress, Manuel Simón de Escudero, who was in the city on business, who gave him a warm letter of introduction to Mexican officials.

Ross hoped to profit from his wartime service to save his family from a crushing debt that his brother had built up, and which had entangled himself when he purchased some property from his brother, including slaves, possibly to shield them from the creditors. He established a small stock company with two proposed ventures. One was to establish a steamboat line on the Rio Grande, and the other was to set himself up as an empresario, much as Stephen F. Austin had recently done.

Ross sailed to Veracruz and arrived on April 28, 1826. While in Mexico, he found another Anglo-American veteran, Horatio J. Offutt, and took his deposition. He gained support from Juan Antonio Padilla, the Mexican general land commissioner for Texas. “The aforementioned Colonel Ross, because of his valor and disposition, won victory for the Republican Army in the Battle of Rosillo,” Padilla wrote Mexican officials. He added that Ross, while in San Antonio, had shown “honor, probity and fairness” to the locals.

Ross had to return to the United States in 1827 but was back in Mexico by 1828, pressing his claims. Unfortunately, while travelling across the interior of the country in the summer of that year, his party was attacked by bandits and Ross was killed.

Ross had a son, John Randolph Ross, and a namesake nephew, Reuben Ross, who both followed his path to Texas in 1836 to fight in the Texas Revolution. Reuben fought at the battle of San Jacinto, while John missed the battle but was appointed by Sam Houston as an Indian agent. He died of illness before fulfilling his duties. Reuben later served in the Texan allies to the Republic of the Rio Grande.