The Texas Revolution

We begin our journey two years before our travelers did, with the circumstances that led to their excursion: namely, the Texas Revolution.

In 1835, the present-day U.S. state of Texas was part of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas. Recent immigrants from the United States—some who had legally arrived, many who had not—formed a majority in the Texas part of the state. In some parts, they outnumbered Mexicans by ten-to-one, according to an 1830 report by Mexican General Manuel de Mier y Terán.

In 1835, several parts of Mexico rebelled after the new Centralist government, led by President Antonio López de Santa Anna, gradually centralized power in Mexico City. States with elected governors became departments with appointed governors. Santa Anna personally led the force that suppressed the state of Zacatecas’s rebellion in May 1835.

Tejano (Hispanic Texan) and U.S.- and European-born residents of Texas rebelled in October 1835, initially proclaiming loyalty to Mexico's now-overturned 1824 Constitution. In December, they defeated Mexican government forces in San Antonio, clearing central government control from Texas.

Meanwhile, Santa Anna took a leave of absence from the presidency (a common practice at the time) to lead an army northward to suppress the rebellion. Santa Anna’s army surprised Texas rebels in San Antonio, and defeated them on March 6, 1836, after a 13-day siege at an old Spanish mission known as the Alamo. A force under General José Urrea defeated a rebel force at Goliad, and carried out the government’s Tornel Decree—classifying rebels as pirates instead of soldiers.

Meanwhile, on March 2, a convention in Washington-on-the-Brazos declared Texas an independent republic. General Sam Houston rallied a Texas rebel army, retreating east ahead of Santa Anna’s and Urrea’s pursuing forces. In mid-April, Houston received intelligence that Santa Anna had split from his main force. Houston turned his army around and encountered Santa Anna’s at San Jacinto, near present-day Houston.

In a short battle on April 21, Houston’s forces routed Santa Anna’s. But when the battle cleared, Santa Anna was nowhere to be found...

Further reading:

Castañeda, Carlos Eduardo. The Mexican Side of the Texan Revolution (1836). The Chicano Heritage. New York: Arno Press, 1976.

Fowler, Will. Santa Anna of Mexico. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.

Hardin, Stephen L. Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836. 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.

Lack, Paul D. The Texas Revolutionary Experience: A Political and Social History, 1835-1836. Texas A&M Southwestern Studies no. 10. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1992.

Valadés, José C. México, Santa Anna Y La Guerra De Texas. 1. ed. México: Editorial Diana, 1979.

Winders, Richard Bruce. Crisis in the Southwest: The United States, Mexico, and the Struggle Over Texas. The American Crisis Series no. 6. Wilmington, Del: SR Books, 2002.

Winders, Richard Bruce. Sacrificed at the Alamo: Tragedy and Triumph in the Texas Revolution. Military History of Texas Series no. 3. Abilene, Tex: State House Press, McMurry University, 2004.