Portugese Man O' War: The Forgotten Life of Joseph Sovereign

By Sloan Rodgers

         Joseph Sovereign or Portuguese Joe was an ordinary sailor, soldier, ranger, and merchant in the early Texas Republic. He would become one of the most respected non Anglo veterans of the Texas Revolution shortly before his tragic death. Few historians have written of Sovereign with the exception of Texas authors Louis W. Kemp, Stephen L. Moore and Dr. David A. Williams. Sovereign’s ethnicity is ambiguous as he has been called by some a Mexican or colored, which is a well-known euphemism for African. He was apparently dark-complexioned and may have had Moorish ancestry. Little is known about Sovereign’s early life, but he was apparently born around 1814 in Lisbon, Portugal. Sovereign was either unable to write English or completely illiterate. Early Sovereign signatures while he was serving as a militia officer in the Texas Army were written with various spellings (Sovern, Soverin, Sovein, etc.) and appear to be executed by people, who signed letters for him. In Sovereign’s later years he simply drew an X near his printed name. Shortly after immigrating to Cuba, Sovereign went to sea as a young boy on voyages between Africa and the Caribbean Islands. Sovereign eventually settled in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

The French Market in New Orleans

When the Texas Revolution broke out, the former sailor offered his nautical experience to the new republic. On December 20, 1835, he was paid $7.50 for services on the New Orleans docked LIBERTY. This schooner was the first war ship commissioned in the Texas Navy. In February 1836, he joined Capt. John M. Allen’s Company in New Orleans. The unit was sent to Velasco, Texas, where the men were reorganized under Capt. William S. Fisher in Col. Edward Burleson’s 1^st Regiment of Volunteers. On March 18^th at the request of Brazoria patriot Samuel C. Douglass, Sovereign was outfitted for war by Merchants Robert Mills and Company. He is listed as a private on Fisher’s muster roll and fought in the victorious battle at San Jacinto. On May 23, 1838, Sovereign was issued a donation land grant of 640 acres on the West bank of the San Jacinto River in Montgomery County for this documented battle service.

The Santa Anna Oak

In the summer of 1836, Sovereign returned to New Orleans and recruited a company of fifty men for Col. Charles L. Harrison’s regiment of Kentucky Volunteers. On August 10^th the new volunteers arrived at the port of Velasco on the schooner Julius Caesar and they were noticed by Texas President David G. Burnet. The colorful Captain Sovereign and his men were promptly honored with the important task of guarding Mexican General Santa Anna and his senior officers at the Orozimbo Plantation, near Columbia. A few days later, Spaniard Bartolome Pajes’ plot to rescue Gen. Santa Anna by sedating his guards with a dose of opium was discovered. The plot was foiled on August 16^th when one of Capt. Sovereign’s volunteers heard Pajes and the Mexican prisoners whispering their scheme and confiscated the bottle of opium. 

Receipt proving Sovereign guarded Santa Anna

Later, Bartolome Pages was thrown in irons and Gen. Santa Anna was unceremoniously lashed to a big oak tree. Capt. Sovereign’s company was relieved of guard duty and reassigned to Camp Johnson on the Lavaca River. The unit was disbanded in November after the soldiers’ three month enlistments expired. Years afterward, Capt. Sovereign fondly remembered that Gen. Santa Anna had once offered him a large quantity of gold if he would allow the prisoner’s flight, but apparently the Portuguese Texas patriot was not  tempted by the proposal.

Gentleman of the 1830's

Now a civilian, Sovereign settled in the new boom-town capitol of Texas at Houston and became a merchant. In 1838, he was arrested for dealing faro and fined. The next year Sovereign leased his riverfront property to J. F. Torrey and seeking adventure, he headed west to San Antonio. In March 1841, Sovereign joined Capt. James Dunn’s small Victoria Company as a private for Major Mark B. Lewis’ six week campaign against the depredations of Native American tribes on the Upper Colorado River. The mounted volunteers searched for a large enemy force, but only fought minor skirmishes with small bands. With the annexation of Texas by the United States and the start of the Mexican War, Sovereign enlisted in Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker’s mounted ranger company, which at the time, was the only Texas unit assigned to the U.S. Army. A month later, he was discharged from the ranger company for unknown reasons. Sovereign also implied that he served directly under General Taylor and General Twiggs. After the war, Sovereign returned to the United States and moved from place to place (San Antonio-1852/ Brownsville-1854/ San Antonio-1860/ New Orleans-Ca. 1861/ Galveston-1868) for several years, which is shown in pension, land and other records. 

With increased depredations on the Lower Rio Grande by Native Americans and Mexican bandits, Sovereign was one of many veterans who sent formal letters to Texas Governor Peter H. Bell, requesting authorization to raise mounted ranger companies for frontier and border defense. Sovereign’s July 7, 1852, letter to his old San Jacinto battle comrade, Gov. Bell, emphasized his long acquaintance with the Governor, martial suitability and location in San Antonio for leading a company. Their old acquaintance set aside, Gov. Bell appointed more experienced and less controversial officers.  

Sovereign's Company 

 In April 1860, a San Antonio newspaper reported that a man familiarly known as Portuguese Joe was shot twice with a revolver in the house of a Mexican by someone called Printer. Shortly after this nearly fatal incident, Sovereign may have gone to New Orleans for better medical treatment for his wounds. He wed Mary Rich in the Crescent City the next year.  Sovereign returned to Texas in mid 1870, shortly after his arrest for having violated a New Orleans city ordinance (possibly illegal gambling) and settled in Houston. Here Sovereign applied to the State of Texas for a military pension and the next year he made an extended trip to Austin, where he testified about his battle of San Jacinto service. On April 22, 1874, the Galveston City Fire Department sponsored a big parade to celebrate the first official San Jacinto Day. The State Legislature had recently passed a law creating the Texas holiday. As a founding member of the recently formed Texas Veterans Association and participant in the battle, Sovereign was presented with a floral tribute. The old soldier was then ushered into a conspicuous carriage and he rode proudly in the first Galveston San Jacinto parade. In 1876, a special United States of America centennial medal was struck and presented to Sovereign in Galveston, where he was again honored on San Jacinto Day. Someone later remembered that a man called Portuguese Joe, once walked barefoot on the island’s beaches, but remarkably his tough bare feet remained uncut by the many jagged seashells. The old beachcomber wore gold earrings, so the witness assumed that this eccentric character had been a sailor or pirate in his distant youth. Sovereign passed away on January 16, 1877 in Houston. His body was found in a room on the third floor of a building at the corner of Main and Preston Streets. The Houston Health Department listed the cause of death as exhaustion due to a lack of food or water. Five days later, Capt. Joseph Sovereign or Portuguese Joe’s simple coffin was conveyed down Dallas Street to the Old Houston City Cemetery by Texas Revolution veterans, who acted as pall bearers. Under the guidance of a clergyman, the ranger, soldier and sailor was placed in the earth. The exact location of Sovereign’s now unmarked grave is lost, like much of the veteran’s history.

Dedicated to my old high school social studies teacher Dr. David A. Williams, who introduced me to African American history

Bibliography: Bricks Without Straw, A Comprehensive History of African Americans in Texas by Dr. David A. Williams, Eakin Press, 1997/ Santa Anna, Prisoner of War in Texas by Kenneth R. Durham, Wright Press, 1986/ January 22, 1877 Galveston Weekly News/ April 14, 1860 Ledger and Texan, San Antonio, Texas/ Papers of the Texas Revolution 1835-1836 (3833 and 3941) by John H. Jenkins/ Republic Claims 187-232-235, 31-684 and various other claim rolls, State Archives, Austin, Texas/ General Land Office Grant, Abstract #759, Austin, Texas/ Other Texas records and newspapers.