[1] Travis responded with a letter dated July 7, informing Wilson that the revenue cutter USRC Ingham had been dispatched by Customs Agent James W. Breedlove, as she was the only armed American naval ship in the western Gulf of Mexico.

Though the seizures of the two ships were deemed legal by the Texans and the Americans, a critical press, politics, and the "unofficial urging" of the use of force by President Andrew Jackson eventually resulted in the operation and a subsequent naval battle.

[1] The official report states that Captain Jones was sailing the Ingham on a twenty-five-day cruise for an anti-slavery operation, though his real intentions were to liberate the captured ships and the American citizens.

First the captain sailed past Galveston for Matagorda, Texas, but heavy seas prevented him from entering so Jones headed for the Brazos River, where on June 3 he was informed by a local pilot that "several Acts of Piracy" had been committed by the Montezuma and that there were no slave ships in the area.

"[1] On June 13, the Ingham passed the bar at Passo Cabello where she struck the ground several times, so a pilot was hired to take the ship to Brazos Santiago which was reached on July 14.

While six miles off the port, Jones proceeded with caution by having "all hands preparing grape shot & getting the Battery in fighting order & exercising the great guns & small arms."

The former master of the captured Texan ship Colombia was on board the Montezuma throughout the incident and he claimed that the Mexicans opened fire after the Ingham discharged a lee gun as a signal to communicate.

[1] After that Lieutenant Calvi had his men open fire again, making Jones believe that a battle had begun in earnest so he slowed his ship to allow the Ingham's broadside guns to be brought into action.

Calvi exploited this opportunity to disengage and he headed for the shore, jettisoning gear and weapons along the way to lighten the schooner, increase her speed, and to shorten the vessel's draft in order to cross the bars of the Rio Grande.

By 12:00 the Mexicans were unable to escape the pursuing Ingham so Clavi chose to run his ship "into the Breakers & on the Bar" which caused heavy damage to the Montezuma.

In the following months, an anonymous person claimed that the Ingham had purposely remained out of the Montezuma's range; this was contested by a sailor named Harby, who commanded the ship's guns.