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.

Come and Take It!

While Austin sat in a Mexican jail, Santa Anna changed allegiance from the Federalists to the conservative Centralists and proclaimed himself the permanent president of Mexico in 1834.  He abolished the federal government and installed his own yes-men.  Then he turned his attention to Texas...

In 1835 Santa Anna prepared to lead an army northward to crush uprisings in the northern regions of Texas.  This stirred the Texan radicals to action and with a band of 40 men, they forced the Anahuac garrison to evacuate.  William Travis and his men were promptly arrested and marshal law are proclaimed throughout Texas.

Stephen Austin who was by then released from jail, had come to the end of his patience along with most of the citizens of Texas.  When Santa Anna ordered San Antonio held under military watch, that was the last straw.  Austin ordered a petition declaring "there is no other remedy but to defend our rights, ourselves and our country by a force of arms."

The actual revolution began when General San Martin Perfecta de Cos (Santa Anna's brother-in-law) attempted to forcefully take a cannon belonging too the citizens of Gonzales.  The cannon had been given to defer Indian attacks and was a pseudo-symbol of the community.  The citizens responded to Cos by placing a sign on the cannon "COME AND TAKE IT".  Then they let fly with a load of nails, wire, and horseshoes, followed by rifle fire.  The Mexicans, shocked that the citizens would retaliate, fled to San Antonio.

The cocky Texans of Gonzales resolved to drive General Cos and his entire army all the way back to Mexico.  The "Army of the People" was hastily assembled with 500 armed farmers.  With their celebrated cannon they set out for San Antonio and found the city well fortified.  It was a long siege.

Next time...Preparing for Independence
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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 19, 1827, after a duel turns into an all-out brawl Jim Bowie disembowels a banker in Alexandria, Louisiana, with an early version of his famous Bowie knife. The actual inventor of the Bowie knife, however, was probably not Jim Bowie, but rather his equally belligerent brother, Rezin Bowie, who reportedly came up with the design after nearly being killed in a vicious knife fight.