Benavides earned himself the sobriquet of the Paul Revere of Texas for his 1836 journey from San Patricio to Goliad to Victoria, warning residents of the approaching Mexican army.
Benavides fought against the dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna but did not feel Texas should be separated from Mexico.
He led a unit of Tejano fighters at the Battle of Goliad, and then he proceeded with his company to San Antonio, where they fought against Martín Perfecto de Cos in the Siege of Bexar.
Texas Historical Marker number 6563 was placed in 1936 at the SW Corner of S. Main and Juan Linn in Victoria, marking the site of the Benavides Round Top house.
[8] Recorded Texas Historic Landmark number 6563 placed in 1936 at the SW Corner of S. Main and Juan Linn in Victoria, marks the site of the Benavides Round Top house.
[11] General Martín Perfecto de Cos sent troops to shut down the legislature and ordered the arrest of all who voted for the Four Hundred League Law.
[12] Colonel Domingo Ugartechea, as principal commandant of Coahuila y Texas, ordered Cabajal arrested, but soldiers searching for him in Victoria were unsuccessful in their attempts at doing so.
Alcalde Benavides[13] had refused to surrender Carbajal and ordered his local militia to block the soldiers from entry into Victoria.
[14] After Gonzales, Texas repelled the Mexican attempted seizure of their cannon on October 2, 1835, Benavides teamed up with John Joseph Linn[15] to capture General Cos.
During the Battle of Goliad, Benavides was put in charge of thirty Tejano volunteers who were part of the October 1835 storming of Presidio La Bahía.
[19] José María Jesús Carbajal, his brother-in-law Fernando De León,[20] and Peter Kerr,[21] responded to an arms plea from Stephen F. Austin and began to run horses and mules to New Orleans in a trade for munitions.
[23][24] The alcalde of Matamoros had leaked to Benavides that Antonio López de Santa Anna planned to draw the Texas forces below the Rio Grande.
[25] On February 27, 1836, while Benavides and James Grant[26] were out with a detachment hunting wild mustangs, General José de Urrea captured San Patricio.
On March 2, 1836, Benavides and Grant stumbled into a trap set by Urrera at Agua Dulce Creek, south of San Patricio.
[28] On March 27, 1836, following the Battle of Coleto, Mexican soldiers under General José de Urrea gunned down 342 unarmed Texans.
[31] During the Texas War of Independence, many Mexicans were opposed to Santa Anna's regime but felt loyal to Mexico and its 1824 constitution.