Today in History:

997 Series I Volume XV- Serial 21 - Baton Rouge-Natchez

Page 997 Chapter XXVII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.

[Inclosure No. 5.]

Articles of an agreement concluded between the civil and military commandant of the State of Tamaulipas, Don Albino Lopez, and Hamilton P. Bee, brigadier-general, Confederate States Army, commanding the Western Sub-District of Texas.

ARTICLE: 1. The Mexican and Confederate forces will extend mutual aid in pursuing persons who may attempt to pass from one band of the Rio Bravo to the other, for the purpose of committing depredations, and to that effect the respective commanders will giver each other such notice as they deem necessary, and when the forces of either nation prove insufficient to carry out the pursuit to the full result expected from it the required help shall be immediately by those of the other nation; and should it be necessary for the of either Government to cross the Rio Grande without loss of time in the pursuit of malefactors, Indians, &c., the corresponding notice shall be given to the nearest military authorities.

A sufficient number of wed-armed troops shall be stationed at Reynosa, Camargo, Mier, and Guerrero by the State of Tamaulipas, and at Edinburg, Rio Grand, and Carrizo by the Confederate States, whose duty is shall be to guard the line, especially at the ferries on the river, as also to control the boats used in crossing persons from one side to the other; and there shall be adopted such a system of vigilance and observation as shall keep the authorities informed of any movements intended against Texas or Tamaulipas, so that the said authorities may respectively give each other timely notice thereof.

ART. 2. Persons crossing from the Mexican territory to the State of Texas or from the State of Texas to the Mexican territory shall take with them passport, signed by the civil or military authorities of the respective frontiers, to be given free of charge. Those who are found without such documents, if unknown, shall be held as suspicious, and consequently detained until they prove who and what they are; and it their object should prove to be the disturbance of the tranquility of either State or the hinderance of the action of their authorities they shall be sent to a distance into the interior not under 30 leagues, with no privilege of returning to it without special authority from the Governor of Tamaulipas or the general commanding Confederate troops. The political refugees now in either frontier or hereafter to be near the same, who may endeavor to disturb the tranquility of either side or to hinder the action of the authorities, upon proper representations being made to the satisfaction of the State wherein they may be shall be, treated in like manner.

ART. 3. Any stock taken from either side of the river to the other shall be accompanied by a permit from the civil or military authorities, which shall the name of the conductor or owner, the mark or brand, and the number of head; and the stock which shall be crossed into Texas or Mexico without this requisite be detained until it is ascertained obtained, and if it should to be stolen property is shall be turned over to the authorities of the State where the theft was committed to be restored to the owners, and proceedings shall be had against the persons assuming to be the owners or conductors.

ART. 4. The authorities of Tamaulipas shall doll in their power to recover the property stolen from the Confederate States train by the band of Zapata, and should they not succeed in so doing they shall


Page 997 Chapter XXVII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.