| Battle of Carrizo | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Cortina War | |||||||
 Captain Santos Benavides | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Cortinista militia |
 Confederate States of America | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Juan Cortina |
Captain Santos Benavides | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 30 Cortinistas |
| ||||||
The Battle of Carrizo was an 1861 battle, the only engagement of the Second Cortina War, and the final engagement of the wider Cortina Troubles. Juan Cortina, a Mexican rancher who had previously attacked American settlements in Texas' Rio Grande valley, sacked Carrizo, a settlement that was then the seat of Zapata County on May 22 with about thirty Cortinistas. In a forty-minute battle, Confederate Captain Santos Benavides decisively defeated Cortina, killing or capturing many of his soldiers and driving him back into Mexico.