[1] According to the narrative of Spanish missionary Juan Agustín Morfi, there were so many wild horses swarming in the Nueces Strip in 1777 "that their trails make the country, utterly uninhabited by people, look as if it were the most populated in the world".
Ever since 1848 the border area has had a reputation for lawlessness and smuggling,[3] and was a main zone of activity of the Texas Rangers.
[5] U.S. President James K. Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor and his forces south to the Rio Grande, entering the Nueces Strip.
On April 25, 1846, a 2,000-strong Mexican cavalry detachment attacked a 70-man U.S. patrol that had been sent into the contested territory north of the Rio Grande and south of the Nueces River.
In the Thornton Affair, the Mexican cavalry routed the patrol, killing 16 American soldiers.