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Oh, and also:

While reading about Utopia, it mentioned John C. Duvall, a survivor of the Goliad Massacre (in which his brother was killed). He was an educated man, leaving college to go help with the Texas Revolution and afterward returning to a different college (UVA) to study engineering and become a surveyor.

He returned to Texas and used his writing skills to write stories about what he saw and did in Texas. His stories first appeared as a series in a newspaper, and later were collated into book form, Early Times in Texas. He also became friends with Bigfoot Wallace of the Texas Rangers (who also lost a brother and a cousin in the Goliad Massacre). Bigfoot liked to talk, at least to John Duval, who recorded his stories in another book: The Adventures of Bigfoot Wallace, the Texas Ranger and Hunter.

Happily both books survived and are available on Amazon. You can get the Kindle versions for 99 cents each. Bargain! I have downloaded both and intend to embark on a Texas history reading binge.

joe817 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 2:05 pm Cannot disagree with you there ELB. You've found many errors for me to correct.

But you have to admit, it makes for interesting reading. Thanks for your input.

Oh, I didn't set out to "fact check" but I wanted to see exactly where the battle site was, and one thing led to another...

joe817 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 9:53 am 1789 - Col. Juan de Ugalde was appointed governor of the province of San Francisco de Coahuila in northern New Spain by King Charles III. His primary charge was to protect Coahuila from Indian attacks, specifically from the Lipan and Mescalero Apaches. On August 20, 1789, he launched a lengthy campaign against the Apaches in West Texas within an area bounded by San Antonio, San Saba, and El Paso.

On January 9, 1790, he and his troops, with more than 100 Indian allies, surprised and defeated 300 Lipan, Lipiyan, and Mescalero Apaches at the Arroyo de la Soledad, the present Sabinal River canyon. In commemoration of this victory, the battlefield was named the Cañón de Ugalde; from it the city and county of Uvalde derived their names.

Texas Handbook online places the Texas town of Utopia in Sabinal/Ugalde Canyon, and says this is the site of the battle. Utopia is in northeast corner of Uvalde County, just barely in the county, and looking at Google Maps satellite view about half the "canyon" appears to be in Bandera County to the north.

I always thought of canyons as being a relatively narrow, but the satellite view shows this to be a pretty broad flat area between ridges, about 15 miles north-south and 5 miles at the widest east-west measurement.

Google maps puts Sabinal Canyon well north, near Vanderpool in Bandera County. The same Texas Handbook entry for Utopia says that the Spanish sank a silver mine shaft into "...Sugarloaf Mountain, five miles south of Utopia" but Google maps and every other reference I find says Sugarloaf Mountain is in Hearne, Milam County, roughly in the middle of a triangle defined by Temple, Waco, and Bryan. That's a long way from Utopia!

Not sure how reliable Texas Handbook is.