Happy Texas Independence Day!
I hope you have a great March 2! Raise a glass in honor and remembrance.....
In early January 1831, Green DeWitt wrote to Ramón Músquiz, the top political official of Bexar, and requested armament for defense of the colony of Gonzales, in the Mexican territory of Texas. This request was granted by delivery of a small used cannon. The swivel cannon was mounted to a blockhouse in Gonzales and later was the object of Texas pride.
At the Battle of Gonzales—the first battle of the Texas Revolution against Mexico—a small group of Texians successfully resisted the Mexican forces who had orders from Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea to seize their cannon. As a symbol of defiance, the Texians had fashioned a flag containing the phrase "come and take it" along with a black star and an image of the cannon that they had received four years earlier from Mexican officials. This was the same message that was sent to the Mexican government when they told the Texians to return the cannon; lack of compliance with the initial demands led to the failed attempt by the Mexican military to forcefully take back the cannon. The flag became a rallying cry across Texas.
The Battle of Goliad was the second skirmish of the Texas Revolution. In the early-morning hours of October 9, 1835, Texas settlers attacked the Mexican Army soldiers garrisoned at Presidio La Bahía, a fort near Goliad. La Bahía lay halfway between the only other large garrison of Mexican soldiers (at Presidio San Antonio de Bexar) and the then-important Texas port of Copano. The garrison at La Bahía was understaffed and could not mount an effective defense of the fort's perimeter. Using axes borrowed from townspeople, Texians were able to chop through a door and enter the complex before the bulk of the soldiers were aware of their presence. After a 30-minute battle, the Mexican garrison, under Colonel Juan López Sandoval, surrendered. One Mexican soldier had been killed and three others wounded, while only one Texian had been injured. The majority of the Mexican soldiers were instructed to leave Texas, and the Texians confiscated $10,000 worth of provisions and several cannons, which they soon transported to the Texian Army for use in the Siege of Béxar. The victory isolated Cos's men in Béxar from the coast, forcing them to rely on a long overland march to request or receive reinforcements or supplies.
On March 2, 1836, fifty-nine delegates at Washington-on-the-Brazos, near present day Chappell Hill, adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico becoming the third sovereign nation to spring from the North American continent.
On March 6, four days after Texas declared her independence, the Mexican combined armies under General Santa Anna stormed the Alamo and slaughtered the garrison galvanizing the Texas rebellion for eternity.
On March 19, Mexican forces quickly advanced and surrounded 300 men of the Texian Army on the open prairie, near La Bahia (Goliad). The two-day Battle of Coleto ensued, with the Texians holding their own on the first day. However, the Mexicans received overwhelming reinforcements and heavy artillery. In this critical predicament, Texian Colonel James Walker Fannin and the majority of the men voted to surrender the Texian forces on March 20. Led to believe that they would be released into the United States, they were returned to the fort at Goliad, now their prison.
The next day, Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, the Mexican commander Portilla had between 425 and 445 Texians marched out of Fort Defiance in three columns on the Bexar Road, San Patricio Road, and the Victoria Road, between two rows of Mexican soldiers; they were shot point blank, survivors were clubbed and knifed to death in what is known to the ages as the Massacre of Goliad.
Fannin was the last to be executed, after seeing his men killed. Aged 32, he was taken by Mexican soldiers to the courtyard in front of the chapel, blindfolded, and seated in a chair (due to his leg wound from the battle). He made three requests: that his personal possessions be sent to his family, to be shot in the heart and not the face, and to be given a Christian burial. The Mexicans took his belongings, shot him in the face, and burned his body along with those of the other Texian Patriots who died that day.
In the afternoon of April 21, 1836, while Mexican General Santa Anna, the dictator of Mexico, took his siesta with his mulatto slave concubine later memorialized as the Yellow Rose of Texas, Texian General Sam Houston, commander of the Texian armies, stormed the Mexican encampment on a coastal marsh plain along Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River 30 miles east of present day Houston. The unprepared Mexican forces were overrun and forced backward into marsh and tidal waters along Peggy Lake.
Texian riflemen stationed themselves on the banks and shot at anything that moved. Texians continued to chant "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" while frightened Mexican infantry yelled "Me no Alamo!" and begged for mercy to no avail. In what has been called "one of the most one-sided victories in history", 650 Mexican soldiers were killed and 300 captured. Eleven Texians died, with 30 others, including Houston, wounded.
General Santa Anna was captured hiding in tall marsh grasses wearing a lady’s dress, brought before General Houston, compelled to execute a document of surrender and cessation, and was forced to march his remaining forces back across the Rio Grande River, forever cementing the independence of Texas. He was overthrown for the last time by the Mexican Revolution of Ayutla in 1854 and lived most of his later years in exile.
On March 2, wherever two Texans shall meet, they shall raise their glasses in honor and remembrance of the Texian Patriots who gave their lives for the birth of the independent Republic of Texas.
“I have sworn to be a free Texan, I shall never foreswear.”
----Jose Antonio Navarro, Son of Texas, 1795-1851
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