The Alamo and the Revolution of Texas
Although the Battle of the Alamo was a daunting loss for the Texan revolutionaries in their fight for independence, in the end, this shortcoming served a higher purpose in inspiring recruits in their droves to support the fight for Texas independence from Mexico and “Remember the Alamo!” served as the wars battle cry helping to inspire Texan revolutionaries to defeat Santa Anna once and for all.
The Texas Revolution lasting from October 5, 1835 — April 21, 1836, has been explained throughout history in a plethora of diverse ways. The Texas Revolution is explained as a triumph over the tyranny of the Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, with striking similarities to the American Revolution in the regard that Texans were fighting to preserve the rights of man, the rights defined in the Mexican Constitution of 1824. There have also been claims within reason that the Texas Revolution was a result of American expansionism with key areas of evidence being the dispute over territory constituted to the United States of America by the Louisiana Purchase, Coahuila y Texas being overrun by Anglo-American immigrants by the empresario system and the close relationship between President Andrew Jackson and Texan revolutionary Sam Houston. Regardless of the description you subscribe to, the battle that took place on March 6, 1836, near modern-day San Antonio at the Spanish mission The Alamo, set the tone for the rest of the war by bringing a sense of realism to the cause and by putting on full display the relentlessness that Santa Anna was willing to take to end Texan cries for independence. On March 6, 1836, after a lengthy siege of the Spanish mission, a small band of Texan revolutionaries in the hold of The Alamo was overrun by a large force of the Mexican Army under the command of Santa Anna and served as a devastating affair. Although the Battle of the Alamo was a daunting loss for the Texan revolutionaries in their fight for independence, in the end, this shortcoming served a higher purpose in inspiring recruits in their droves to support the fight for Texas independence from Mexico and “Remember the Alamo!” served as the wars battle cry helping to inspire Texan revolutionaries to defeat Santa Anna once and for all.
Contributing Factors to The Texas Revolution
The result of the Mexican War for Independence placed Mexico’s northern territory, that being of areas of modern-day California, New Mexico, and Texas in a position of economic influence by a foreign nation, the United States of America, that did not previously exist legally before the war because any available instances of trade with the country was barred by Spain.[1] Now that Mexico was independent its northern territories naturally were capable of forming the most efficient trade routes with the United States because of their geographical locations and they began to experience an economic upturn that provided enough reassurance for Mexico to further invest in the area who sought to take advantage of this economic advantage by further growing the population. This was accomplished through the use of empresairos. The use of empresairos was a huge step in the population development of Texas which had been combined with the gigantic neighboring Mexican state Coahuila in 1824 following the Mexican War of Independence due to the lack of Texan population in its state.[2] The work of an empresario, who translates from Spanish to English as a businessman, was to do just that conduct business with the business being the growth of Texas through the formation of colonies that were comprised of at least one hundred families and were self-sustaining, and in return the empresario would receive land.[3] The success of the empresario system would place Mexico in a precarious position for the fact that Mexico’s northern territories were already hard to manage because of their self-identification and with the influx of Anglo-American settlers that quickly outweighed the Tejanos of the area speculation of the underlying effect of American expansionism was at the helm.
This assumption was a fair allegation. The United States of America under President Jackson did show interest in purchasing the Mexican state of Texas and the immigration of Anglo-Americans into Texas created an alarming situation for Tejanos who saw their state being over-encumbered by a group of foreign people. It cannot go without saying that even though the evidence stacks in favor of the Texas Revolution being the result of American expansionism, there are equal amounts of evidence that supports the fact that the cause of the revolution was the result of a power shift in Mexico under Santa Anna that created an overpowered central government that eradicated state autonomy. As a result of the empresario system by the early 1830s, it was alarming to see that Texas only was comprised of 2,000 Tejanos, or people who identified as Mexicans and lived near the San Antonio-Goliad region.[4] This highly uneven balance of the Texan population did not go unnoticed. Those of centralist circles like the Mexican Minister of the Interior Lucas Alaman through political speech explained with disgust that the unevenness of population balance in Texas as a result of the empresario system was just a ploy in which the United States of America planned on taking control of the state not by sending in conquering armies but through its settlers.[5] President Andrew Jackson did little to disprove the allegations put forth by Alaman with his attempt to purchase the Mexican state of Texas throughout his presidency making a rather specific claim that in a way insinuated what was to come. President Jackson in his determination to purchase Texas tried to justify its acquisition to the United States Congress by claiming that “if Texas was not purchased, it would create jealousy between the United States and Mexico, on account of the Americans settling there; they would declare independence as soon as their numbers justified, and the United States would be accused of instigating it.”[6] In a way, President Jackson was completely correct, by the time the proposal of the purchase of Texas was to be presented to Mexico, Alaman had presented before Mexico’s Congress a law to be imposed and was accepted on April 6, 1830, that effectively ended any immigration of Anglo-Americans from the United States to Texas.[7]
Henceforth, President Jackson who had assigned Colonel Anthony Butler to present the United States proposal of the acquisition of the Mexican state of Texas for the amount of five million U.S. dollars to the President of Mexico who had up until this point anxiously waited for the right time to present the proposal to cease all communications regarding the acquisition.[8] The reason for this termination of the proposal was the change in the political atmosphere of Mexico. Alaman’s proposal to the Mexican Congress and the implementation of the law that followed that ended Anglo-American immigration into Texas put the United States in a precarious situation that any proposal to purchase the state of Texas that would follow this event would paint the United States as guilty as suspected by Alaman and the centralists. Furthermore, another factor that contributed to President Jackson’s dismal of the proposition to purchase Texas from Mexico was the overthrow of the Mexican President Bustamente and the later election of Santa Anna in April of 1833 when in the meantime the interim President Pedraza expressed his strong feeling to end the westward expansion of the United States boundaries.[9] Lastly, President Jackson decided to end his attempts based on insider information presented to him by his close friend General Sam Houston who resided in Texas and explained to President Jackson by letter that it was best to let the situation in Mexico resolve for American colonists were prepared to declare their independence at a conference on April 1, 1833, stating, “The people of Texas are determined to form a State Government and separate from Coahuila, and unless Mexico is soon restored to order, and the constitution revived and re-enacted, the Province of Texas will remain separate from the Confederacy of Mexico.”[10]
The separation from Mexico that Sam Houston discusses stems from an earlier conference held in October of 1832 where Texans met to try to settle the quarrels between Mexico and itself in an attempt to preserve the sanctity of the country and at the same time preserve their rights. The conference was called together by the alcalde (mayor) of San Felipe and lasted from October 1–6 with the most prominent matter of discussion being Texas’s separation from the state of Coahuila which it had been attached to for over a decade.[11] With delegates ready to take quick actions wanted to draft a provisional constitution on the spot, but Stephen F. Austin historically the great mediator that he was when it came to matters between the state of Texas and Mexico thought it best that Texans petitioned for their rights first, and his opinion prevailed.[12] Austin up to this point and henceforth served Texas with his amount of useful insight always trying to preserve the state of Texas within the Republic of Mexico, until there was nothing left to save. What followed this conference was the start of a short road to the Texas Revolution with matters only escalating. The result of the conference left Mexico in a state of great paranoia for they believed that Texas did not only want to succeed from Coahuila, but from the Republic of Texas entirely. Austin could see the writing on the wall and confined within the Chief Magistrate both by expressing his fear of the impending doom that would be a revolution by saying “There is little probability that we shall soon have a stable and peaceable order of public affairs, and I give it as my deliberated judgment that Texas is lost if she takes no measure of her own for her welfare,” and by questioning claims of the Mexican government that Texas has violated the Mexican Constitution, “I do not know how the State or General Government can presume to say that the people of Texas have violated the constitution when the acts of both governments have long since killed the constitution, and when the confederation itself has hardly any life.”[13] With this conglomeration of issues, with the Presidency of Santa Anna being the most detrimental for its destruction of the federal system and replacement with a centralized government similar to the consular government of France under Napoleon Bonaparte, all hope of a civilized settlement of disputes was amidst, and a revolution in Texas became unavoidable.[14]
The Battle of The Alamo
The Texas Revolution lasted from October 5, 1835 — April 21, 1836, and although its duration was short, under a year’s length in total, the revolution was not short of defining events. Of these defining events, it was not its start at the Battle of Gonzales or its end at the Battle of Jacinto that proved to be the most momentous event in influencing the outcome of the war, the Battle of the Alamo was. Before the Battle of the Alamo Texan revolutionaries found themselves in conflict with the Mexican army on two separate occasions at the aforementioned Battle of Gonzales that started the war and the battle that immediately proceeded it, the Siege of Bexar which resulted in a Texan victory and the acquirement of the Alamo. The Texan revolutionaries were rapid in securing victories in the first two battles of the war but would be quickly humbled by the reality of warfare at the Battle of the Alamo when Santa Anna put on full display his willingness to not only defeat but eradicate the rebellious force held up in the Alamo, an indication to his undying devotion to end the revolution, through the practice of no quarters when he relentlessly slaughtered all military combatants.
Before the Battle of the Alamo was conducted on March 6, 1836, a thirteen-day siege was laid upon the once-Catholic Mission and the revolutionaries who were held up inside. Of the Alamo’s approximately 150 inhabitants were three renowned names in Texas and American History, Lieutenant Colonel William Travis, Jim Bowie, and David Crockett, all of whom alongside their fellow revolutionaries chose to stay and defend the Alamo in an attempt to keep it from falling back into the hands of the Mexican Army, and in doing so they watched on as a fearful sight amassed in the form of a large force of the Mexican Army ascending upon San Antonio and their position within the Alamo prompting Lieutenant Colonel William Travis to write one of the most recognized pleas in American History, his letter appropriately named, “To the Citizens of Texas.”[15] In his letter, Travis explained the situation at hand to his fellow citizens of Texas and asked for immediate reinforcements. In his explanation, he showed great fortitude in how he at the time handled the situation and reported to the citizens of Texas that he was “besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Ana,” and that he had “sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade, for twenty-four hours,” without losing a single man and when demanded by the enemy to surrender or face certain death he responded with cannon fire stating in his letter “I shall never surrender nor retreat.”[16] Other elements of Travis’s letter explain the daily growth of Mexican reinforcements and that he was apt to defend the Alamo to the bitter end and die a soldier’s death, signing in closing before his name, VICTORY OR DEATH.[17]
The aftermath of the Battle of the Alamo saw the first official report come from Santa Anna, the man to whom the revolutionaries held a strong aversion. Despite this strong distaste between the two, in his report Santa Anna paid respect to the steadfast actions of the Texan revolutionaries who decided to fight to the bitter end by saying, “The enemy fortified itself in the Alamo, overlooking the city. A siege of a few days would have caused its surrender, but it was not fit that the entire army should be detained before an irregular fortification hardly worthy of the name. Neither could its capture be dispensed with, it must be admitted, were very courageous.”[18] However, this paid respect to his adversaries was a short break from the reality of the situation and his ruthlessness. Santa Anna would further explain the result of the Battle of the Alamo and his part in the intensity of the actions. Santa Anna reported that not all of those who defending the Alamo died within its walls and that many had died around its proximity attempting to flee only to be cut down by the sabers of the cavalry, and further explained his opinion on the matter of the Texas Revolution entirely in stating that Mexico would not “suffer any foreigners, whatever their origin may be, to insult our country, and pollute its soil.”[19]
By March 11, 1836, General Sam Houston received the news of the fall of the Alamo and learned that at dawn on March 6, 1836, the Battle of the Alamo commenced and saw an attacking force of 2,500 Mexican soldiers fall upon the fort killing its 150 Texan revolutionaries inhabitants, seven of which were executed after the battle as they sought quarters.[20] Sam Houston expressed his emotions felt as a result of the traumatic event in a letter to Phillip Dimmit on March 12, 1836, by saying, “The Alamo has fallen, and all of our men murdered!”[21] Though at the surface the Battle of the Alamo seemed to be a daunting loss of momentum for the Texan cause, in due time it served to be quite the opposite. The Battle of the Alamo would serve to be a great motivator, a true symbol of resiliency, and proved that the deaths suffered at the Alamo were not in vain, and the lost lives were forever immortalized in the battle cry “Remember the Alamo!” that rallied Texan revolutionaries in the long-awaited defeat of Santa Anna at the Battle of Jacinto.
The War After the Alamo
The result of the Battle of the Alamo served as a momentous shift for the cause of the war and not what one might initially expect. Instead of breaking the spirits of the Texan revolutionaries, leaders of the Texas cause through resilient actions were able to influence a type of vengeful inspiration to those who supported the ideas of the Texas Revolution and gained the support of those who might have initially been irresolute on the matter. Upon hearing the news of the result of the Battle of the Alamo General Sam Houston made quick work of spreading the newly learned news to all reaches of his command. On March 16, 1836, the news of the Alamo reached members of the public safety committee at San Felipe who in response issued an address to inform the public, that shared a similar title to Travis’s plea for support, “To the People of Texas” and in it explained the information learned about the Alamo from Col. William T. Austin and the massacre of Texans that had commenced.[22] The hopeful intent of this address was that the news delivered would provoke citizens into military action as a result of the news of their fallen peers, and it did.[23] General Sam Houston was able to capitalize on the situation, being the result of the Alamo and the rally of revolutionary support through that of capable bodies, allowing him to grow and train an even stronger army than had preceded the event.[24] Local support was not the only support General Sam Houston would gather at this point, he would also gather support from citizens of the Southern reaches of the United States who also found inspiration to take up arms against the Mexican army in support of the Texas Revolution after hearing about the fall of the Alamo and what was described as the murder of the Texans who attempted to defend the Alamo with who they more than likely shared some affiliation with because of where these tenants may have been originally from.[25]
The quick actions that took place following the Battle of the Alamo and the army raised by General Sam Houston are a testament to the everlasting influence of the event that helped to shape the result of the war. Texan revolutionaries were able to seize the moment and raise an army that would be the death sentence for Santa Anna’s resistance to the revolutionary cause. Once more the Alamo was called upon as a means of vengeful influence to allow Texan revolutionaries to once and for all stand victorious in the battle that closed the war, the Battle of Jacinto.
The Battle of San Jacinto that occurred on April 21, 1836, served not only as the battle that concluded the Texas Revolution but as the battle that helped to immortalize the lives lost at the Battle of the Alamo through the battle cry, “Remember the Alamo!” that paralleled the victory. The morning of April 21 before the battle ensued General Sam Houston displayed his admirable leadership qualities and the value of the close relationship that he held with his troops by visiting groups of his men huddling amongst campfires and asking if they wanted to fight.[26] James Washington Winters who documented his firsthand account of the Battle of San Jacinto explained that this was not an uncommon practice by General Sam Houston who often called upon the opinion of his men before entering such engagements, and to answer the question of whether his men were ready to fight, James Washington Winters and his companions shouted with anxious support and to it received the response of “Very, well, get your dinners and I will lead you into the fight, and if you whip them every one of you shall be a captain” from General Sam Houston.[27] The short-lived battle that sealed the fate of the Texas Revolution shortly followed this communication.
The Battle of San Jacinto proved to be one of the most decisive victories to take place during the entire revolution and as explained by James Washington Winters in his first-hand account of the event, “The battle was won in fifteen or eighteen minutes.”[28] Further descriptions of the impressive feat that took place as described by James Washington Winters include the valor of General Sam Houston who “had two horses killed from under him and was on his third” when the Texas cavalry was finally able to defeat the fleeing Mexican calvary, and the endurance of himself and the men around him who “ran and fought fully two miles.”[29] These accomplishments were all fueled by the battle cry of “Remember the Alamo!” and “Remember Goliad!” started by the men of General Sidney Sherman who led the charge.[30] General Sam Houston’s official report of the aftermath of the Battle of San Jacinto would support James Washington Winters’ documentation of the battle lasting around eighteen minutes and account for 630 Mexicans killed, 730 taken prisoner, and only 9 of the 910 Texans killed or mortally injured as well as 30 wounded.[31] The following day, April 22, 1836, General Santa Anna was captured, and despite the cries of General Sam Houston’s men to “Shoot him, hang him!” he was spared.[32] Henceforth, on the cry of “Remember the Alamo!” the Texas Revolution ended and Texas independence was secured.
On March 6, 1836, near modern-day San Antonio, Texan revolutionaries suffered a daunting loss to the Mexican army when they tried to defend the Catholic mission known as the Alamo from falling back into Mexican hands. This loss proved to be a momentous shift that affected the outcome of the war instilling a sense of realism in the ruthless aggression Santa Anna was willing to perform in an attempt to extirpate the Texas Revolution and the impressive resiliency held by the revolutionaries in times of great despair. On this day around 150 Texans including three famous names in history Col. William Travis, James Bowie, and David Crockett were slaughtered at the hands of the Mexican attacking force of 2,500. As the war proceeded, it would be proved that their lives lost were not taken in vain and their remembrance would be immortalized in history. Although the Battle of the Alamo was a daunting loss for the Texan revolutionaries in their fight for independence, in the end, this shortcoming served a higher purpose in inspiring recruits in their droves to support the fight for Texas independence from Mexico and “Remember the Alamo!” served as the wars battle cry helping to inspire Texan revolutionaries to defeat Santa Anna once and for all.
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Bibliography
Primary:
Travis, William. Letter to The Citizens of Texas. “A Plea to Defend the Alamo, 1836.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, February 24, 1836. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/plea-defend-alamo-1836.
Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez de. Letter to Mexico City. “That Battle of the Alamo.” Digital History, March 6, 1836. https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=545.
Winters, James Washington. “An Account Of The Battle Of San Jacinto.” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 6, no. 2 (1902): 139–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27784928.
Secondary:
Barker, Eugene C. “President Jackson and the Texas Revolution.” The American Historical Review 12, no. 4 (1907): 788–809. https://doi.org/10.2307/1839188.
Barker, Eugene C. “Stephen F. Austin and the Independence of Texas.” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 13, no. 4 (1910): 257–84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30242989.
Barker, Eugene C. “The Texan Declaration of Causes for Taking up Arms against Mexico.” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 15, no. 3 (1912): 173–85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30243037.
Flores, Richard R. “Memory-Place, Meaning, and the Alamo.” American Literary History 10, no. 3 (1998): 428–45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/490104.
Guedea, Virginia. “The Process of Mexican Independence.” The American Historical Review 105, no. 1 (2000): 116–30. https://doi.org/10.2307/2652439. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2652439
Kemp, L. W. “San Jacinto, Battle Of.” Texas State Historical Association, 1952. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/san-jacinto-battle-of.
Reséndez, Andrés. “National Identity on a Shifting Border: Texas and New Mexico in the Age of Transition, 1821–1848.” The Journal of American History 86, no. 2 (1999): 668–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/2567051. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2567051
Winders, Dr. R. Bruce. “Early Reports of the Battle of the Alamo.” The Alamo. Accessed January 14, 2024. https://www.thealamo.org/remember/battle-and-revolution/early-reports.
Footnotes
[1] Andrés Reséndez, “National Identity on a Shifting Border: Texas and New Mexico in the Age of Transition, 1821–1848.” The Journal of American History 86, no. 2 (1999): 668–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/2567051. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2567051
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Eugene C. Barker, “President Jackson and the Texas Revolution.” The American Historical Review 12, no. 4 (1907): 788–809. https://doi.org/10.2307/1839188.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Eugene C. Barker, “Stephen F. Austin and the Independence of Texas.” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 13, no. 4 (1910): 257–84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30242989.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] William Travis, Letter to The Citizens of Texas. “A Plea to Defend the Alamo, 1836.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, February 24, 1836. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/plea-defend-alamo-1836.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Antonio Lopez de. Santa Anna, Letter to Mexico City. “That Battle of the Alamo.” Digital History, March 6, 1836. https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=545.
[19] Dr. R. Bruce. Winders, “Early Reports of the Battle of the Alamo.” The Alamo. Accessed January 14, 2024. https://www.thealamo.org/remember/battle-and-revolution/early-reports.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Antonio Lopez de. Santa Anna, Letter to Mexico City. “That Battle of the Alamo.” Digital History, March 6, 1836. https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=545.
[25] Ibid.
[26] James Washington Winters, “An Account Of The Battle Of San Jacinto.” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 6, no. 2 (1902): 139–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27784928.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid.
[30] L. W. Kemp, “San Jacinto, Battle Of.” Texas State Historical Association, 1952. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/san-jacinto-battle-of.
[31] Ibid.
[32] James Washington Winters, “An Account Of The Battle Of San Jacinto.” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 6, no. 2 (1902): 139–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27784928.