James Cramp Letters and Lock of Hair

James Cramp was seeking a new life in Texas when he was drawn into the disastrous Tampico Expedition. Like many others caught up in the Texas Revolution, his dream of a fresh start was never realized.

The Texas Revolution was part of a larger civil war in Mexico. Lorenzo de Zavala, Valentín Gómez Farías, and General José Antonio Mexía led the Federalists against Santa Anna. They used the Texas uprising to further their resistance. De Zavala went to Texas to help the revolt while Farías organized resistance in Mexico. Mexía led military efforts in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

On November 4, 1835, General Mexía and 150 men, mostly Americans, set sail for Tampico, a port city in Tamaulipas. The plan was for Federalists in Tampico to revolt with the help of Mexía and his men. Among the men on the ship was James Cramp. Cramp and his family left England for the United States in 1831. James went to New Orleans in 1835, where he joined a group he believed was headed to Texas. Instead, once they were underway, the group was told of Mexía’s plan to attack Tampico.

Mexía’s attack on Tampico failed. Most of the men were able to make it back to the ship, but 28 were captured, including James Cramp. Santa Anna ordered the men be put to death. As he awaited execution, James wrote a letter to his brother-in-law: “I have received the sentence of death with 22 [sic] other young men whose lives have been made a sacrifice to villainy and deception.”

The prisoners also wrote a declaration expressing their innocence. Cramp wrote his own copy of this document. In it, the men claimed they did not know it was a military expedition to attack Mexico. They believed they were headed to Texas, where they would have a choice whether to fight with the Texans opposing Mexico. Once the ship was on its way, they had little choice in their fate.

“The party were now tendered arms and ammunition, and never having been soldiers before, some probably took them from curiosity, others from necessity and others from compulsion.”

Declaration of Prisoners, 1835.

The day before his execution, Cramp sent a final letter to his parents and sister. It included a lock of his hair as a last memento. In the letter, he stressed to them that he was innocent of any crime. Despite pleas from the U.S. government and others, Cramp and 27 other men were executed on December 14, 1835.