Following the Brownsville Raid, on September 28, and a few skirmishes with the Texas Rangers, rebel leader Juan Cortina led his small army into the hills outside of town and dug in near a series of cattle ranches.
The United States Army responded by sending an expedition into the area, under the command of Major Samuel P. Heintzelman, with orders to pacify all resistance.
A minor battle began on December 13, at a ranch called La Ebonal, and continued for a few hours as the Americans routed and then pursued the retreating Cortinistas.
After killing between four and six people, releasing the prisoners from the town jail, and taking whatever arms and ammunition, the Cortinistas fled northwest to Rancho del Carmen, which was owned by Cortina's mother and used as his base for operations north of the river border.
On October 12, the sheriff of Cameron County, James Browne, led a posse to the ranch and succeeded in arresting the sixty-year-old Tomas Cabrera, who was not only a close friend of Cortina but one of his chief lieutenants that had participated in the Brownsville raid.
When Cortina found out what had happened to his friend, he issued an ultimatum to the people of Brownsville, threatening that he would "lay the town in ashes" if Cabrera was not released and if his enemies did not surrender to him.
[6][7][8][9] With Cortina's army growing stronger every day, the Americans sent for help and a force of Texas Rangers, under Captain William G. Tobin, was soon ordered to begin assembling in Brownsville.
Later he moved up the river to attack Rancho del Carmen but again Cortina was victorious and the rangers were driven back to Brownsville by a "galling fire of round shot, grape and canister."
Though the major would be starting out from Old Camp Verde, in central Texas, many of the units placed under his command would be coming from distant states or territories, such as Kansas and Virginia.
With information collected by Mayor Stephen Powers, District Judge Edmund J. Davis, and the filibuster José María Jesús Carbajal in Matamoros, Heintzelman concluded that Cortina probably had no more than 300 to 350 men, only 100 of whom were mounted.
[13][14][15] Immediately after arriving in Brownsville, Major Heintzelman reoccupied Fort Brown, rested his troops for a few days, and organized the rangers and the militia into one unit under his command.
On the morning of December 13, when he was ready, Heintzelman began marching 165 men west, up the Rio Grande road, to Rancho del Carmen.
When the expedition reached Rancho del Carmen, they found that the "ten-foot thick mesquite (wood) parapets" had only recently been abandoned.
The rebels made another stand a short distance away from La Ebonal and yet another four miles up the road that leads to Edinburg and Rio Grande City, at the ranch of Jesus de Leon.
Heintzelman reported that he counted eight more dead Mexicans as he rode up to the De Leon Ranch but overall casualties were difficult to determine because many of the rebels were literally "blown to pieces" by artillery fire.
At a fork in the road near Cortina's Rancho San Jose, fifteen miles from Brownsville, the Americans found a path leading through the chaparral where the rebels had dragged one of their cannons.
The major assumed correctly that he had successfully dispersed Cortina's army so he turned the column around and went back to Fort Brown, arriving later that evening.
[19] After arriving back in Brownsville and the fort, Heintzelman allowed his men to celebrate the victory with a barrel of beer that was captured during the skirmish at Rancho de Leon.
At about the same time, a prominent local rancher, named Henry Clay Davis, entered Brownsville and told Heintzelman that Cortina was still retreating west, "burning and plundering as he went."