Tl,e Struggle for lndeptfndence, 1835-1836
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Paris had been for the Greeks. Bitter differences arose over how to deal with Santa Anna. Six weeks after San Jacinto only three of the seven original members elected by the Convention to form the interim government were still serving the de facto independent Republic. 32 .Military o,perati.ons: Tlie first ,pliase. A hurried call for volunteers was issued from San Felipe during the latter part of September of 1835 by the excited colonists to meet a contingent of Mexican troops expected to arrive in C6pano. The first open clash, on October 2 at Gonzalez, was followed by a brief encounter at Goliad with the result that the Mexican garrison left the old post in the hands of Captain Dimmit and his men on October 9. The small detachment at Lipan- titlan capitulated on November 3. The only remaining Mexican force was in San Antonio. The volunteers in Gonzalez, therefore, after elect- ing Austin their commander, set out early in November to lay siege to the city held by General Cos. Almost a month later, shortly after Austin left to go to the United States, Ben Milam led the impatient Texans in the final assault. Although Milam fell mortally wounded on the third day of the attack, Cos was forced to surrender on December 11, 1835, to end the first phase in the military operations of the re- bellious Texans. In less than four months the Texans had driven every Mexican soldier from Texas.ss The seccnd plzase. The Matamoros expedition had its inception in December of 1835. This expedition led ultimately to the tragedy of the Alamo and the massacre of Fannin's men at Goliad. Volunteers from the United States had continued arriving through- out December. They replaced the Texans in San Antonio who had been discharged after four months' service in order to permit them to join their familites for Christmas and be at home for the early spring planting. Dr. James Grant, a Scotchman from Parras, Coahuila, a Liberal of the dissolved Legislature of Monclova, who had successfully fled from Cos, had joined the Texan forces before San Antonio and had helped capture the city. It was he who first presented to Austin the advantages of an expedition against Matamoros. Austin favored the idea, but departed before he could do anything about it. After the fall of San Antonio the volunteers from the United States, some four hundred in number, elected Frank W. Johnson their com- 32 Binkley, Official CurreS-,ondence of lite Teras Revoluliolf, I, 505-508; Johnson, Teras (Ula Te:ra11s, I, 386-396, 456-460. 33 For details of the capture of San Antonio, see pp. 287-295.
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