Juan Cortina

Juan Nepomuceno "Cheno" Cortina Goseacochea, aka the Red Robber of the Rio Grande (1824-1894) was a 19th century Mexican rancher who served as a military, paramilitary, and political leader in a colorful career that eventually saw him live out his final years successively in exile, in a military prison, and under house arrest. In the popular Mexican imagination he has attained the status of folk hero. In the United States he is mainly remembered for leading a guerrilla war against the United States Army and the Texas Rangers in southern Texas from 1859 to 1861.

Juan Cortina in "Lee at the Alamo"
When Robert E. Lee was approached by a colonel of the Texas militia in February 1861, Lee, trying to determine what business the colonel might have with the commander of the Department of Texas, asked McCulloch whether he wished to request the US Army's assistance in fighting a new incursion by Juan Cortina. McCulloch replied that Cortina's raiders were well contained deep in the southern part of the state.