Tejano History
Long Expedition
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LONG EXPEDITION. The Long expedition, named for its commander, James Long, was an early attempt by Anglo-Americans to wrest Texas from Spain. The expedition, the last of a series of early filibustering campaigns that included the Gutiérrez-Magee expedition and the expedition led by Francisco Xavier Mina, was mounted by citizens in the Natchez, Mississippi, area who were opposed to the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase as set up in the Adams-Onís Treaty. Financed by subscriptions said to total about $500,000, the expedition attracted recruits with a promise of a league of Texas land to every soldier. An advance force of 120 men, led by Eli Harris, crossed the Sabine River on June 8, 1819, and went on to Nacogdoches, where Long, a Natchez merchant and doctor who had been placed in command, arrived on June 21. At Camp Freeman, citizens of Nacogdoches met to organize a provisional government with Long as its chief. On June 23 this “government” declared the independence of Texas. Its Supreme Council voted ten sections of land to each private and provided for selling Red River lands at prices ranging downward from fifty cents an acre
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Full article on the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online
Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.
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