San Antonio Falls Early

Stephen Austin called a "consultation" of Texas leaders in November 1835.  The delegates appointed a provisional government of Texas with a 12 man council.  Three of the commissioners including Austin, were dispatched to the United States to solicit loans and rally volunteers.  One of the experienced frontiersmen recruited was Sam Houston who was named commander-in-chief of the Texas army.

American aid would be crucial to Texan success, and Houston's appeals appeared in the US newspapers.  "Let each man come with a good rifle, and come soon!" the ads read.  Promises of land as a reward for any man who helped defeat Santa Anna were given, and Texas rallies across the US brought ready volunteers.

On paper, Santa Anna's 6000 men army looked formidable, but many of the soldiers were poorly armed and poorly trained Indians who didn't even speak Spanish, led by incompetent officers.  Morale was low and supplies inadequate.

The provisional government was unwillingly to give Sam Houston total control of the settlers outside San Antonio. The settlers took it upon themselves and mounted a savage assault on the town led by Ben Milam who died in the attack.   General Cos and his  1100 man army surrendered on December 10, 1835 and vowed to go home and not fight again.  The volunteer settlers left a small force in the walled Alamo mission and set out to attack Matamoros in the south.

In 1836, Houston ordered the skeletal forces at the Alamo disbanded but, the provisional governor, Henry Smith, countermanded Houston and dispatched William Travis, now a colonel in the Texas Army, to reinforce the Alamo mission, setting up one of the most celebrated tragedies in American history. 

Next time...Remember the Alamo!
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On this Day in Pioneer History: "On September 22, 1554,  Spanish explorer Francisco Coronado, his health badly deteriorated from injuries and the toll of his strenuous travels, dies. He never found the fabled cities of gold that he had sought for decades.