In the year 1841 Capt. Philip Dimmitt. long distinguished as a pioneer and gallant defender of Texas, became their victim. He was engaged with some workmen on the 4th of July in erecting a mercantile establishment on Corpus Christi Bay, about fifteen miles below the present town of Corpus Christi (then known as the rancho of Aubry and Kinney), when the place was visited by Captain Sanchez, aid-de-camp to General Ampudia. with a party of fifteen cavalry, who took Captain Dimmitt and his men prisoners, and after plundering the establishment conducted them to Matamoros. From this point they were taken, with others, to Monterey and delivered over to General Arista. By his order they were ironed and started to the interior under a guard commanded by Captain Chaffind. That officer was a humane man, and had the irons taken off after the first day's march. . On the third day they arrived at Saltillo. Here their anticipations of a long imprisonment and horrid treatment were such that they resolved to attempt their escape. They proposed to procure a quantity of mescal (a Mexican liquor), well drugged with morphine, and give it to the guards, and while they were affected by it to make their escape. Two physicians who were among the prisoners were charged with this part of the programme. After being supplied with this mixture, they arrived at the place where they were quartered for the night. In the night, after the guard had been well supplied with the liquor from water gourds, the signal was given to make the attempt to escape. By some means, however, the morphine proved inefficient, and the mescal alone had only served to keep the guards more wideawake and to stimulate their courage. There were nineteen of the Texans, and a few of them had guns that they had succeeded in picking up as occasion offered, and they succeeded in getting out of their quarters, although the guards were more than a hundred. They succeeded in getting off some distance before daylight came, and a messenger came to them from Captain Chaffind, stating that if they returned they would be forgiven; if not, he would have Captain Dimmitt shot, who had been confined separate from his men, and therefore not able to escape with them. The captain heard of this threat, and knowing Mexican treachery generally, and that it would be carried into execution and likely all of the others shot if they returned, determined to end it all and relieve his men by taking his own life. He had morphine about his person, and at once took a large dose of it. He then wrote a letter to his wife in San Antonio, made disposition of his property, and lay down on his blanket to die. A few prisoners were in confinement with him, and these he requested to convey his letter and manner of death, if they ever returned, and tell the Texans to throw the mantle of charity over his act. "I do not fear death," he said, "but dread the idea of ending my life in a loathsome dungeon. Tell them I prefer a Roman's death to the ignominy of perpetual imprisonment, and that my last wish is for my country's welfare." Soon after he sank into a sleep from which he never awoke.

Thus died Capt. Philip Dimmitt, a noble spirit, who virtually died for his men, and by whose hands the first Lone Star banner of Texas was unfurled to the breeze on the height of La Bahia (Goliad). The other prisoners, when they learned of their captain's death, continued their flight and reached Texas. Source: Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas, by Andrew Jackson Stowell, pp 677-78. published 1900.
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PHILIP DIMMITT
Philip Dimmitt was an early emigrant to Texas, and was for some time a merchant. Captain Dimmitt commanded the post of Goliad for some time after its capture in 1835. He was killed in Mexico in 1841. [A Texas Scrapbook Made Up Of The History, Biography, and Miscellany of Texas And Its People, compiled by D. W. C. Baker, 1875.