Philip Nolan can well be styled the original “Texan Ranger.” He was one
of the first, if not the very first, of the adventurous spirits to
explore Texas, and whose daring and persistent bravery finally added the
Lone Star state to the American Union. His romantic career and tragic
fate, it is said, furnished a name for Edward Everett Hale’s “Man
Without a Country.”
He was of direct Irish origin and a citizen of the United States. He
left Natchez, Miss., in the summer of 1797, ostensibly to buy horses,
but in reality to reconnoitre and survey the country. A second trip was
made in 1800. He was accompanied by thirty armed men. The viceroy of
Mexico, looking on his movements with suspicion, issued orders to arrest
any foreigners who might enter the Spanish province.
He had been informed that a number of them had gone into Texas, and that
Philip Nolan was considered the most dangerous among them; that he was
authorized by General Wilkinson to reconnoitre the country, and make
maps of it, and that it was of the utmost importance that he be captured
and disposed of. In accordance with these instructions an expedition was
fitted out to secure him.
It was composed of one hundred men, sixty-eight of whom were regulars,
well armed, and possessed of one field piece. It started in pursuit on
March 4, 1801. Two weeks later they reached the point where he had
entrenched himself on the bank of a river. The Spanish commander
thereupon sent a messenger, “Mr. William Barr, an Irishman,” who had
joined his command as interpreter, to summon Nolan to surrender. Nolan
and his men determined to fight, and at daybreak next morning, began the
engagement by firing on the Spaniards. The contest lasted until nine
o’clock a. m., when Nolan was struck and killed by a cannon ball. His
party then surrendered.
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