Santa Anna responds: the Alamo and the Goliad Massacre

Determined to punish the rebellious Texans, whom he viewed as pirates who deserved to be executed, Santa Anna mounted a campaign to demonstrate his power by exacting the same kind of retribution upon them that he had visited upon Zacatecas. In command of an army that would eventually grow to perhaps more than 7,000 troops, he began a march northward that was made more difficult by unusually cold weather. Having crossed the Rio Grande in the first days of 1836, he advanced on San Antonio, which seemed a less likely military objective than Goliad, where the great preponderance of the Texas forces were deployed. However, some historians have speculated that Santa Anna was bent on avenging Cos’s earlier humiliation in San Antonio. Goliad and San Antonio each were located on one of the two main roads joining Mexico with Texas, and defending them was necessary to slow the Mexican advance on the other Texian settlements.

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As Cos had done during the siege of San Antonio, the Texans made the Alamo mission compound the locus of their defense, fortifying its grounds. A force of about 150 men and some 20 cannons awaited the Mexican advance, with the troops of the regular Texas army commanded by Col. William B. Travis while Col. James Bowie commanded the biggest contingent of the defenders, the militia. Because many of the Texian participants in the early engagements of the war had returned to their homes, a large portion of the defenders of both Goliad and San Antonio was made up of recently arrived volunteers from the United States, who had come in pursuit of adventure, in the hope of acquiring land, or out of a devotion to the era’s revolutionary élan (that was the time of the Revolutions of 1830 in Europe). Among those drawn to the Alamo was legendary frontiersman and onetime Tennessee congressman Davy Crockett. The Alamo defenders’ hope for reinforcements was dramatically reflected in the letter requesting support from Texans and Americans that Travis sent into the world; however, only about 30 additional troops would arrive before the battle. (Estimates of the actual number of Alamo’s defenders vary, usually falling in the range of 183 to 189, though some historians believe the figure may have been larger.) Santa Anna’s forces began arriving at the Alamo on February 23, and the Mexican siege and bombardment lasted until the Mexican attack on March 6, in which all of the Alamo’s defenders perished (a few noncombatant women, children, and slaves survived and were allowed to leave).

Meanwhile, a convention of Texans was held at Washington-on-the Brazos, where the future of Texas was debated by 59 delegates. It had been convened over the objections of Henry Smith, who had been chosen as the governor of the provisional government that had been established in 1835 but whose belief that Texas was already an independent state divided the provisional government. On March 1, the first day of the convention, a committee began drafting a declaration of independence; on March 2 the declaration was presented and adopted; and on March 3 the delegates began signing it. By March 17, as the Mexican army approached, a constitution had been written, approved, and signed; interim officials had been elected; and Sam Houston had been confirmed as the commander of the army.

During Santa Anna’s movement against San Antonio, a smaller Mexican force commanded by Gen. José de Urrea was advancing north from Matamoros. Col. James W. Fannin had planned, but then aborted, an action against Matamoros, and a large number of Texans remained under his command in Goliad. At the end of February and the beginning of March, other elements of the Texan forces met with defeat in encounters with the Mexicans at San Patricio (February 27) and Agua Dulce Creek (March 2). By the second week of March, Houston had rescinded an order for Fannin to reinforce the Alamo and directed him to consolidate his troops in Victoria. Awaiting the return of a contingent he had earlier dispatched to Refugio and another sent to rescue them, Fannin delayed the move to Victoria. Having taken the measure of those contingents in the Battle of Refugio (March 12–15), Urrea set his sights on Goliad, which Fannin abandoned on the morning of March 19. By that afternoon Urrea’s forces had overtaken and surrounded Fannin’s column in open country. The Battle of Coleto ended the next day with Fannin’s surrender. Urrea took his prisoners to Goliad, where he received an order from Santa Anna to execute them. On March 27 some 400 men in Fannin’s command were put to death in the Goliad Massacre.

The Battle of San Jacinto

In the wake of the Alamo debacle, with Mexican forces approaching, Houston and the troops under his command at Gonzales began an organized withdrawal to the northeast, accompanied by fleeing civilians. The Mexican pursuit of Houston was three-pronged, and though he had an opportunity on March 20 to strike back against the leading edge of that pursuit, Houston chose to wait for a more-opportune moment to engage his pursuers. That opportunity came in April when Houston’s army and the army of the Mexican force under the direct command of Santa Anna approached Lynch’s Ferry on the San Jacinto River from different roads. On the afternoon of April 21, Houston’s force of about 900 men surprised and overwhelmed Santa Anna’s resting army of some 1,200 to 1,300. The Battle of San Jacinto was over in only 18 minutes amid vengeful cries of “Remember the Alamo!” and “Remember Goliad!” According to legend, Santa Anna was slow to respond to the attack because he was engaged in a sexual liaison with a woman who reputedly inspired the classic song “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” though it is likely that the romantic assignation was apocryphal and that song had other origins. In his official report Houston listed 630 Mexicans killed and 730 taken prisoner, compared with 9 Texans killed. A fleeing Santa Anna was captured and made to order his army to retreat to Mexico. Still a prisoner, on May 14 he signed the Treaties of Velasco, one of which was public and one secret. The public treaty recognized Texas and ended the war. In the secret treaty Santa Anna pledged that upon his return to Mexico he would do everything he could to see that the Mexican government adhered to the public treaty. In Santa Anna’s absence, however, the Mexican government had deposed him and refused to recognize Texas. It would continue to periodically clash with Texas up to the Mexican-American War. Nevertheless, the Republic of Texas had been established.

Texas Revolution events

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Battle of the Alamo

February 23, 1836 - March 6, 1836

Battle of San Jacinto

April 21, 1836

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