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The Texas Revolution
Mexican Constitution
of 1824
Declared Mexico a federation of free and sovereign states.
The document under which Texas Colonists were invited to emigrate
to Mexico, and was the one they swore to defend.
In 1835, President Antonio López de Santa Anna declared that
Mexico was not ready for democracy and took away the 1824
Constitution. He then centralized national power under himself.
Battle of Gonzales
First Shots of the Revolution
A Mexican officer ordered the citizens of Gonzales to hand over a brass
cannon, but they refused.
The settlers buried the cannon and called for reinforcements that
reached 140 men.
The settlers dug up their cannon, mounted it on a wagon, and placed a
flag on it that read:
On October 2, 1835 the citizens of Gonzales attacked a force of 100
Mexican soldiers and forced them to leave for San Antonio.
General Martín de Cos
Headquartered in San Antonio
Ordered 300 more troops to Texas
to put down the rebellion
Triggered the formation of a
volunteer army of Texans under the
command of George Collinsworth
and Ben Milam that captured the
town of Goliad
The capture of Goliad cut off the
supply lines of General Cos’ army
The Texan victories at Gonzales
and Goliad inspired more volunteers
to join the rebel army
The March on San Antonio
The Gonzales volunteers elected Stephen F. Austin as
their general and began to organize their attack on
San Antonio
To find a good defensive position
outside San Antonio, Austin sent a
search party of 90 men led by Jim
Bowie and James Fannin
Stephen F. Austin
The scouting party was attacked by 400
Mexican soldiers at the Mission Concepción
But were able to hold them off with their
more accurate rifles. This clear victory
boosted the morale of the Texas rebel army.
Jim Bowie
James Fannin
Some Texan troops wanted to attack
General Cos immediately, but Austin
chose to wait for reinforcements due to
the large number of soldiers and artillery
in San Antonio.
Los Tejanos
Already opposed to Santa Anna’s government, the
Tejanos of San Antonio suffered further under the
occupation of General Cos
Prominent citizens were forced to sweep the city streets,
Tejanas had to bake tortillas for the troops, and the
Mexican forces also took supplies from citizens and
destroyed some of their homes
Juan Seguín
More than 100 Tejanos joined the fight in San Antonio,
most notably Juan Seguín and Placido Benavides. Many
of these Tejanos were skilled horsemen and became a
part of Stephen F. Austin’s plan to build a strong cavalry
Placido Benavides
The Grass Fight
After the fight at Concepción, Stephen F. Austin
moved his troops just north of San Antonio, where the
Texans were able to lay siege to General Cos’ army
Since the Mexican troops had taken the supplies of
the local Tejanos, the siege first appeared to have
little effect.
Edward Burleson
deaf smith
Stephen F. Austin learned of his appointment as
commissioner to the United States, and Colonel Edward
Burleson was chosen by the soldiers to take command in
Austin’s place.
As Edward Burleson began to consider giving up the
siege, one of his scouts, “Deaf” Smith reported that
100 Mexican soldiers with a pack of animals were
headed for San Antonio.
Erastus “Deaf” Smith
A rumor quickly spread among the Texans that the Mexican
soldiers were carrying silver to pay General Cos’ soldiers.
About 40 Texas cavalry troops and 100 infantry soldiers
ambushed the Mexican soldiers and captured their horses,
mules, supplies, and cargo.
The Texan troops eagerly opened the bags that they thought
contained silver, but found grass meant to feed horses
The Texans were disappointed, but it was the first sign that their siege
was working.
Capture of San Antonio
After the Grass Fight, the Texans were preparing to withdraw to Goliad
when they got word that General Cos’ army was weak and disorganized.
The Texans attacked San Antonio and battled the Mexican forces for five days.
Although Ben Milam was killed in the fighting, the Texans still defeated General Cos,
and allowed him to lead his troops back to Mexico.
With nearly every Mexican soldier forced out of
Texas, many Texans thought the fighting was over,
and hoped they could now form a state government
under the rules of the Constitution of 1824
Santa Anna had different plans for
Texas, however.
The Consultation
November 4, 1835
A group of delegates met in San Felipe to decide the future of Texas
The delegates elected Branch T. Archer president of the
convention, and began to attend to the following business:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Debate Independence
Create provisional government
Choose commissioners to send to United States
Address military matters
Branch T. Archer
Debating Independence
Pro-War Group:
• Argued that Texas should declare
independence
Pro-Peace Group
• Wanted the Constitution of 1824 restored
• Feared that declaring independence would cost them the support of the Tejanos
• Felt they were loyal Mexican citizens
The Compromise
• Delegates pledged loyalty to Mexico
• Explained that they only used force to defend themselves
• Warned that if the Constitution of 1824 was not restored, Texas would declare
independence
Provisional Government
Elected Henry Smith governor
Elected James Robinson lieutenant governor
Created the General Council to help Smith and Robinson run the government
Negotiations with the Cherokee
The Provisional government sent Sam
Houston and an African-American man
named William Goyens to make peace
with the Cherokee Indians
Because of their efforts, the Cherokee
promised to remain neutral during the
revolution
Commissioners to the United States
Stephen F. Austin
William H. Wharton
Branch T. Archer
Texas Military
Sam Houston was named commander-in-chief of the Texas Army
The General Counsel created the
Texas Navy to protect the
coast and to attack Mexican ships.
Meanwhile:
President Santa Anna and 6,000
Mexican soldiers marched north
towards Texas, bent on revenge
To be continued…..
The Mexican Army advances
By February 1836, Santa Anna was
crossing the Rio Grande marching
towards San Antonio
General José de Urrea
approached from
Matamoros towards
Goliad
Sam Houston was
alarmed by how
unprepared the Texans
were, and ordered the
Alamo destroyed and
its artillery removed.
Houston sent Jim Bowie
to San Antonio to evaluate
the situation there.
In January 1836, Jim Bowie arrived at the Alamo
with 25 men, and decided the Alamo should not
be destroyed.
Because of Bowie’s recommendation,
Governor Smith ordered Lieutenant Colonel
William B. Travis to raise a
force and head to
San Antonio.
Col. Travis
A few days after Travis arrived,
Davy Crockett arrived with a
dozen volunteers from
Tennessee.
James Bonham soon followed
with a volunteer force from
Alabama.
William B. Travis was put in
command of the Alamo in
February 1836
Jim Bowie argued with Travis over
control of the troops, but finally
agreed to share command with him
The Alamo was built as a mission,
not a fort. So the
Texans had to
work hard to
build higher and
thicker walls,
add cannons,
and add high
fences made of
stakes
The Alamo needed about 1,000 soldiers to
properly defend it, but would never have more
than 200
Santa Anna ordered the
surrender of the Alamo and the
defenders, but the Texans replied
with a canon shot fired back at
him.
In response, Santa Anna raised a red
flag that told the Texans that he would
take no prisoners and leave no
survivors.
On February 24, 1836 Santa Anna ordered his
forces to begin firing on the Alamo.
That day William Travis
wrote a famous letter
“To the People of Texas
and All Americans” to
plea for help.
Jim Bowie had been ill, and collapsed on the
second day of Santa Anna’s siege. Travis then
took over full command of the Alamo.
Travis made many more pleas for aid to the
provisional government and to Colonel James
Fannin at Goliad, but they sent no help.
Alamo Flag
The only help that arrived was when 32
volunteers arrived from Gonzales under
cover of the morning darkness.
On March 6, 1836, Santa Anna launched his
assault on the Alamo after 13 days of siege.
Texas artillery held the advancing Mexicans off
briefly, but they regrouped and eventually
overwhelmed the Alamo defenders and poured
into the mission by the hundreds
After a few hours, all the 182 defenders
and 600 Mexicans were dead.
Santa Anna spared
the women, children,
and a slave named
Joe.
Santa Anna felt that the defeat of the Alamo
would end the Texas Revolution, but it only
convinced the Texans to fight harder.
Texas Declares Independence
The Convention of 1836 was held at
Washington-on-the-Brazos to vote on
Independence
Some delegates were
former members of the
United States and
Mexican Governments.
The vote for independence was unanimous
Although two of the
signers of the declaration
were Tejano, many
Tejanos opposed
the declaration
Today Texans celebrate Texas Independence Day
March 2, 1836
A few days later, the delegates
learned of the siege of the Alamo
and wanted to leave to go to the
aid of the Alamo defenders.
Sam Houston convinced the
delegates to stay because
Texas needed a constitution
to form a legitimate
government.
The Texas Constitution was modeled after the
United States Constitution and guaranteed:
•Freedom speech
•Freedom of the press
•Freedom of religion
•Right to trial by jury
But the constitution also legalized slavery,
and required free blacks to petition Congress
for permission to
stay in Texas.
Among those who had to make a petition
was Samuel McCulloch Jr., the first Texan
to shed blood in the Revolution.
Since Texas was at war and could not
hold elections, an ad interim (temporary)
government was installed until elections
could be held.
President
Vice-President
David G. Burnet
Lorenzo de Zavala
Runaway Scrape
Sam Houston left the convention
and headed for San Antonio.
In Gonzales , he heard rumors of
the fall of the Alamo and sent
scouts lead by “Deaf” Smith to find
out what happened.
Deaf Smith
The scouts found the Alamo survivors and brought
them back to Gonzales where they told the story
of the Alamo.
Word came that Santa Anna was
approaching Gonzales, so Houston ordered
the town burned and took his army east.
As the Texas army moved east, citizens also
left their homes to escape Santa Anna.
Sam Houston used the retreat to gain time to
train his army, as well as to tire out the larger
Mexican force
chasing them.
Goliad Massacre
General Urrea was moving up the coastline and
defeated many Texan troops
on his march to Refugio
and Goliad.
While General Urrea fought
Fannin
with Fannin’s troops stationed
in Refugio, Fannin received
orders from Sam Houston to retreat to Victoria.
Fannin decided to wait for his troops in Refugio to
return before obeying Houston, but those soldiers
had been either killed or captured by General
Urrea
Fannin and Urrea finally met at the battle of
Coleto, where Fannin was wounded.
The morning after the battle
started, General Urrea received
several hundred more soldiers,
and Fannin decided to
surrender.
The Texan prisoners were marched back to
Goliad where they stayed for a week.
General Urrea wanted to keep them as prisoners
of war, but Santa Anna ordered him to execute
them all.
Grave of Fannin and his men
When the shooting of the prisoners began, a
few of them were able to escape in the
smoke and confusion.
Some were saved from the
Goliad Massacre by
Francita Alavez, who was
called the Angel of Goliad.
Battle of San Jacinto
After gathering supplies and
training his troops during the
Runaway Scrape, Houston
marched his troops down
Buffalo Bayou towards
Santa Anna’s camp.
Houston found that Santa Anna camped out in
the open in a vulnerable spot, and camped his
men in a spot that was partially hidden in a
grove of trees
The day before the battle, there were several
small fights. In one of the fights, a private named
Mirabeau B. Lamar saved the
lives of two Texans and was
promoted to Colonel and put
in charge of the cavalry.
Before the battle, Houston sent Deaf Smith on a
special mission to destroy the bridge at
Vince's Bayou.
This effectively destroyed the retreat route for
both the Mexican army as well as his Texans .
On April 21, 1836 Houston ordered his army to
attack the exhausted Mexican soldiers as they
took their afternoon siestas.
words
Taken by surprise, 630 Mexican soldiers were
killed and 730 captured in 18 minutes of fighting
The next day, Santa Anna was captured while
hiding in the nearby marshes.
Texas Independence was secured.