The Santa Fé Disaster

Lamar also angered Mexico with his aggressive meddling in Mexican affairs. Intending to exert Texas' authority over New Mexico as far as Santa Fé, Lamar organized a paramilitary "trade" mission to go there, a total of 21 wagons hauling some $200,000 worth of goods. Six companies of volunteers protected the train and teamsters--a total of more than 300 men. They left Austin on June 19, 1841.

The expedition became hopelessly lost, suffered horribly with heat and thirst, mistook the Wichita River for the Red River, and then couldn't get their wagons over the Cap Rock, from whose thousand-foot summit Kiowa and Comanche warriors swooped down and raided at will. When desperate Texan scouts made contact with traders from Santa Fé, they were brought to Governor Manuel Armijo, who executed a couple of them before a third offered to get the rest to surrender.

The rest of the Texans were marched all the way to Mexico City. Stragglers were shot and their ears cut off to prove they had not escaped. Survivors of this "death march" were clapped into cells in Perote Castle. One of the prisoners, Henry Journeay, spent his time crafting this fiddle using only a razor and a shard of glass. Another prisoner, Sam Maverick of San Antonio, kept his irons as a memento.