Nemesio de Salcedo

1804 - 1813) was a Spanish colonial official who served as the Commandant-General of the Provincias Internas, which at the time included much of northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States.

In 1783 he was awarded the rank of graduate lieutenant-colonel, serving with success in the expedition of Algiers, as well as in the capture of Mobila (present Mobile, Alabama).

As a reward he was promoted again in 1795 to Brigadier and placed in charge of the Free Company of Volunteers of Catalonia and of the General Body of Invalids of New Spain.

One of Salcedo's major concerns was to bring order to the defensive measures that had to be taken in Texas, whose problem with the Indians, especially the Comanche, was becoming endemic.

Previous military officials of Texas had welcomed American immigrants from anywhere, pleased to increase the sparse and widely-dispersed population of the province.

In the 1780s and 1790s, when Spanish officials had invited Americans to Louisiana and Florida, private US citizens who ventured into Texas, and deeper into the Internal Provinces, were in danger of apprehension, long imprisonment and even death.

[3] His administration occupied a tumultuous period of the region's history, including the Louisiana Purchase, which brought the borders of the United States to the edge of Texas, and the War of Mexican Independence.

[3] Despite his efforts, the revolution spread into the Provincias Internas; among the casualties of the fighting was his nephew Manuel, who was one of the royalist leaders executed after the Battle of Rosillo Creek in 1813.