Illusions of Empire: the Civil War and Reconstruction in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands by William S. Kiser

Author:William S. Kiser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 11. Map of Regional Operations, Northeast Mexico, 1864–1867.

As Hale pursued these objectives in the Mexican capital, Confederate military officers took approaches of their own. General Edmund Kirby Smith wrote directly to one of Maximilian’s generals, Florentino Gomez, “to cultivate the most agreeable and friendly relationship with the Imperial Government of Mexico.”68 Brigadier General James E. Slaughter, stationed on the lower Rio Grande, hoped that Maximilian would honor previous trade agreements between Texans and Mexicans. At the same time, however, he understood the utility of local negotiations and reached out to General Mejía in an attempt to normalize relations with the imperial military commander in Tamaulipas. In December 1864, Slaughter and Mejía drafted articles of extradition for criminals and deserters on both sides of the international line and established a working relationship to uphold mutual interests, leading the Confederate officer to boast that his Mexican counterpart “promised to do all in his power to aid us.”69 The arrangement resembled that of Hamilton Bee and Albino López two years earlier, and indeed one Mexico City newspaper told its readers that Mejía had merely followed in the footsteps of his gubernatorial predecessors.70 The fact that each successive leader in Tamaulipas had to recreate the same basic deal with Texans served as a testament to the interminable headaches that bandits and smugglers caused, as well as the generally unmanageable nature of the border itself. But when Mejía began deporting Unionist refugees back to Texan custody, he drew the fury of U.S. diplomats. Consular agent E. D. Etchison, who replaced Leonard Pierce in Matamoros, threatened the use of force to protect U.S. citizens abroad, and a personal spat quickly developed between the two men. Mejía denied the allegations, saying that he never apprehended or expelled any Americans, and he scorned Etchison’s “strange hallucination of mind.” The frustrated federal diplomat departed Matamoros in a huff, leaving the office vacant until his replacement, Amzi Wood, arrived several weeks later.71

Matters remained complicated in the Texas-Mexico borderlands as the Civil War entered its final months. In Matamoros, U.S. diplomats quarreled with imperial officers over the extradition of Unionists. At Monterrey, Kimmey complained that city leaders “sympathize warmly with the so-called Confederate States.” Maximilian’s staff refused to recognize Kimmey’s diplomatic credentials because his exequatur had originally been issued by the Juárez government, and at one point the embattled American envoy was imprisoned for refusing to enlist in a French foreign legion.72 Union agents in Tamaulipas and Nuevo León struggled throughout the Civil War to perform their consular duties and prevent Mexican leaders from deporting American refugees. The Confederacy once again had multiple agents working regionally and nationally, courting French officials much as they had Mexican figureheads earlier in the war. Rebel operatives were usually willing to cooperate with whomever wielded power, whether it be imperial commanders like Mejía, Mexican governors like Vidaurri, or independent revolutionaries like Cortina.73 With so many rulers coming and going in Mexico, Confederate representatives remained flexible in their diplomatic tactics, seeking first and foremost to protect their military and commercial interests regardless of who prevailed south of the border.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.