Fire on the Rio Grande: Cortina’s Rising and Stillman’s Town Under Siege

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Fire on the Rio Grande: Cortina’s Rising and Stillman’s Town Under Siege

In the summer of 1859, Charles Stillman was not in Brownsville.

He was in New York — managing business interests, tending to family matters, and worrying about affairs left in the hands of clerks and agents. His ranches stretched across the lower Rio Grande. His store and warehouse anchored the town’s commercial life. His schooner Florence moved hides and skins northward in great quantities.

Brownsville, in many ways, was his creation.

Then Juan Nepomuceno Cortina rode in.

The Spark

On July 13, 1859, Cortina entered Brownsville with a handful of armed followers. At the Market Plaza, he encountered City Marshal Robert Shears dragging a Mexican prisoner. Cortina intervened.

Shots were fired.

Shears survived, wounded in the shoulder. Cortina fled across the river.

At first, the incident did not seem extraordinary. Brownsville was still a rough frontier town. Gunfire was not unheard of. In fact, Stillman’s brother Cornelius wrote letters home without even mentioning the shooting.

But this was not an isolated flare.

It was the beginning of what would become the First Cortina War.

Brownsville Without Its Founder

When Cortina returned on September 28, 1859, he came not with a dozen men but with eighty to one hundred armed riders.

At dawn they rode through the streets.

They shot men they identified as enemies.
They broke open the jail.
They freed prisoners.

Four men were buried that evening.

Inside Stillman’s store and warehouse, his chief clerk Henry L. Howlett described the scene as chaos. The office became an arsenal. Double-barreled guns, muskets, six-shooters were stacked and distributed. A citizens’ militia formed under Captain Edward R. Hord.

Adolph Glavecke — one of Cortina’s declared enemies — took refuge in Stillman’s store.

Stillman himself was still in New York.

From afar, he could only receive letters describing panic, guard duty, and fear of fire. Families fled to Matamoros. Mexican troops briefly raised their flag over Fort Brown. Mail was escorted by armed cavalry.

The founder of the town had no control over it.

Why Stillman?

Cortina’s campaign was not random violence. It was personal and political.

He viewed certain Anglo officials and merchants as enemies of Mexican residents along the Rio Grande. Sheriff Browne, Marshal Shears, and others were on his list.

Historians have noted that Cortina despised Stillman as well — not because Stillman had personally attacked him, but because Stillman symbolized Anglo economic dominance along the river.

Stillman was:

• The largest merchant
• A major landholder
• A ranch owner with extensive cattle operations
• A creditor to many Mexicans
• A political and economic force in the region

He represented order — and hierarchy.

Cortina represented rebellion — and grievance.

The Collapse of Frontier Stability

As autumn progressed, Cortina’s men burned ranchos, stole livestock, and recruited Tejanos to their cause. Seven of Stillman’s ten ranch hands at Santa Rosa reportedly joined Cortina.

His Laureles rancho lost stock.

The countryside north of Brownsville became nearly depopulated.

The Brownsville “Tigers” — local volunteers — marched out and failed. Texas Rangers under Captain Tobin marched out and failed. Artillery was misfired. Ammunition didn’t fit muskets. Men fled in rain and mud.

Each morning Cortina’s captured howitzer boomed at six o’clock sharp, a reminder that Brownsville was not in control of its own frontier.

Stillman returned to Brownsville on November 29, 1859, stepping into a town half-emptied and deeply shaken.

He wrote:

“Cortina still holds possession of the greater portion of this frontier, and all our peaceable citizens have abandoned their homes and property.”

The merchant who built the town now watched it unravel.

The Army Returns

In December, Major Samuel Peter Heintzelman led U.S. Army troops back into the valley. This time they were joined by Texas Rangers under John Salmon “Rip” Ford.

On December 15, they marched north.

The fighting was hard in the chaparral. Cortina retreated toward Rio Grande City. After another engagement, he escaped across the river into Mexico.

The Rangers burned Tejano properties in reprisal.

Cortina survived.

The war did not end.

Stillman’s Position

Throughout the conflict, Stillman was not a soldier. He did not lead charges into the brush.

He was a merchant.

But merchants are not neutral in frontier wars.

His store sold weapons on Texas state credit.
His warehouse sheltered enemies of Cortina.
His ranches were raided.
His laborers defected.
His commercial network sustained Anglo settlement along the river.

Cortina’s rebellion was, in part, against the system that made Charles Stillman powerful.

The two men never fought face-to-face, but their lives intersected in that violent autumn.

One built a town of commerce.
The other tried to burn it down.

And Brownsville — barely ten years old — nearly did not survive.

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