Background
James Long was born on February 9, 1793 in Culpeper County, Virginia, United States and as a child moved with his father to Rutherford, Tennessee.
James Long was born on February 9, 1793 in Culpeper County, Virginia, United States and as a child moved with his father to Rutherford, Tennessee.
During the War of 1812 Long served as a doctor in Carroll's brigade, and saw action at New Orleans in 1815. Later that year he resigned from the army. In 1817, after attempts at medicine and farming, he became a merchant at Natchez, Mississippi. Two years later his fellow townsmen, aroused by the treaty of February 22, 1819, chose him to lead an expedition intended to open Texas to American settlement. He gathered three hundred men, mostly ruffians, and proceeded to Nacogdoches, where a republic was formed with Long as president of the supreme council and commander-in-chief. He declared independence, June 23, 1819, and thereafter made provision for easy land sales and land bounties to soldiers and settlers.
On August 14 Eli Harris began to issue the weekly Texas Republican, the first Texas newspaper. Long intended an early march against Bexar, but because of the non-arrival of expected supplies he was compelled to send most of his force in four trading parties to the Trinity and Brazos rivers. About October 10 culmination of negotiations with Jean Laffite took Long to Galveston, which he declared a port of entry. Laffite, as governor, was commissioned to outfit privateers. Meanwhile, the Spanish, having protested Long's presence to the United States, dispatched Perez from Bexar with several hundred troops to expel him. Perez routed Long's outlying parties, devastated east Texas, and drove Long's men on the lower Trinity to Bolivar Point. Long, forced across the Sabine, returned with provisions after the departure of Perez. Having issued a proclamation ordering his forces to gather at Bolivar, he coasted to New Orleans, where he enlisted Ben Milam and John Austin, and spent two months gathering supplies and men.
In June Long, again at Bolivar, decided that the republican cause would benefit by a new leader, and tendered the presidency to E. W. Ripley, who accepted but never assumed office. Long now proposed to free Texas by capturing La Bahia and Bexar, but his supporters required him to remain at Bolivar to await immigration, which his presence was expected to induce. About October 1820, Long and Ripley entered into alliance with Jose Trespalacios, a Mexican revolutionist, who secured formal recognition from juntas in Mexico, thus giving the enterprise the same status as movements in the interior. Trespalacios assumed command late in 1820, but little occurred until September 1821, when Iturbide's successes made action imperative. Trespalacios and Milam sailed for Mexico, and Long undertook a friendly visit to Bexar. Through misinformation acquired en route he was led to attack and capture La Bahia October 4. When Perez arrived from Bexar Long refused terms but was soon forced to surrender with his fifty-two men. They were sent from Bexar to Monterey, and Long was allowed to proceed to Mexico City in March 1822. There he found Trespalacios in high favor, and was himself well received. Nevertheless, he became offended by Iturbide's monarchism, and shortly determined to settle his affairs and quit the country; but on April 8 he was shot and killed by a sentry, ostensibly because of a misunderstanding concerning his passport. H. H. Bancroft contends that Long struck the sentry. Lamar and Milam both claim that Long's death was an assassination, but Lamar holds Iturbide responsible, while Milam charges Trespalacios. The three theories are about equally tenable. Long, though hot-headed and rather impractical, was extremely tenacious in the pursuit of his ideal, an Americanized Texas. His career may be regarded as an honest but ill-considered attempt to achieve by military force what the Austins were even then undertaking by peaceful colonization.
Long was married to Jane Herbert Wilkinson.