Famous Texans: The Edwards Brothers (Part 2)

On November 22, 1826, Benjamin Edwards led thirty-six armed men, who supported the Edwards brothers, Haden and Benjamin, and arrested the anti-Edwards Mayor Samuel Norris and other o cials in Nacogdoches. e party then arrested Jose Antonio Sepulveda, the commander of Nacogdoches’ tiny Mexican militia. Within hours, they signed a peace treaty with a powerful Cherokee tribal leader. On December 16, 1826 the rebels rode into Nacogdoches and occupied the Old Stone Fort. Haden Edwards raised a ag of independence over the fort with two stripes, one white and one red to re ect the Anglo-Indian alliance. Inscribed on the banner was the motto, “Independence, Liberty and Justice.” us began the rebellion of the Edwards Brother’s and their followers. Haden the oldest had attempted to coerce, con, and steal land frommany of the Mexican land owners in the area of his colony to resell to rich plantation owners in the United States.

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