The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 4, July 1900 - April, 1901 Page: 239
366 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The San Jacinto Campaign.
239
siege of the Alamo, defended by a hundred and fifty-six men under
command of Colonels Travis and Bowie. Another division of 900
or 1,000 men' was advancing from Matamoros under General Urrea
towards San Patricio and Goliad.
The Texan volunteers had successfully measured arms with Mex-
ican regulars in the fall and winter of 1835 at Gonzales, Goliad,
Lipantitlan, Concepcion, and San Antonio; and besides the garrison
in the Alamo at this time, there were. nearly five hundred men with
Fannin at Goliad, about a hundred with Johnson and Grant at
San Patricio, and some four hundred on the march to concentrate
at Gonzales.
The consultation which met October 16, 1835, but, from scarcity
of members, did not organize until November 3, had declared that
Texas would "defend with arms the republican principles of the
constitution of 1824" against the centralizing encroachments of
Santa Anna, and, on November 12, elected Sam Houston com-
mander-in-chief of "all the forces called into service during the
war," giving him the rank of major-general. And Houston, with-
out attempting to assume command of the volunteers then besieging
San Antonio, had established his headquarters at San Felipe and
begun with scant success the work of organizing a regular army.
The Mexicans had temporarily abandoned Texas after the evacu-
ation of Bexar by General Cos, about the middle of December, and
the General Council, encouraged by promises of generous support
from the republicans of Mexico and desiring to secure the content-
ment of their volunteers by keeping them busy, determined to direct
an attack upon Matamoros and continue the war in the enemy's
country. Governor Smith was -opposed to, this expedition, but the
Council having authorized it over his veto and separately commis-
sioned both J. W. Fannin, Jr., and F. W. Johnson to prepare for
it, he ordered General Houston, on January 6, to proceed to Goliad,
to take charge of the troops there and at San Patricio and Refugio
and lead them upon Matamoros. The latter found the forces at
these places unprepared and in considerable confusion, and becom-
'Bancroft, II, 222.
Santa Anna (Report in Caro's Verdadera Idea de la Primera Oampacia
de Tejas, 79) says this force was 1300 strong; while Urrea (Dia/rio, 7)
says it numbered only 550, 200 of whom remained in Matamoros.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 4, July 1900 - April, 1901, periodical, 1901; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101018/m1/271/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.