Tlie Struggle for Independence, I835.:1836
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Sesma with some 700 men had arrived on the Colorado a few miles up the river. During the week, volunteers and reinforcements increased Houston's army to more than 1,200 men. The Texans were anxious for a fight, and had Houston been willing to give battle, he could have de- feated Sesma at this time. But the cautious commander, afraid of a reverse, ordered a retreat on March 26 to the Brazos on the pretext that he had not received the cannon sent from Velasco. It was at this time that the news of the Goliad massacre reached the colonies. Once more panic spread and by the time Houston arrived in San Felipe, two days later, almost half his men had deserted. He ordered the retreat to continue to Groce's Place, but Captains l\fosey Baker and Wiley Martin refused to fall back. Baker was left in San Felipe with 120 men, Martin went to Fort Bend with 100, and Houston took the rest of the Texan army to Groce's Place, where he remained inactive for two weeks. 57 Meanwhile Santa Anna had sent General Sesma from San Antonio on March 11 to Gonzalez with orders to pursue the retreating Texans. A few days later he ordered General Gaona to change his line of march-to Nacogdoches-and to move from Bastrop to San Felipe. He sent 500 men to reinforce Sesma, instructed Urrea to take Brazoria, and commanded Filisola, his second in command, to move with the main body of the army to Gonzalez. Santa Anna now hurried to join Sesma, and overtook him just before he forded the Colorado at Atascosito Crossing. Upon learning that Houston was but a few miles away, Santa Anna, flushed with victory and well aware of the panic reigning among the Texans, decided to give immediate chase. He hoped either to destroy the Texan army and capture its commander, or to surprise the provisional government of the rebels and, with one swift stroke, end the campaign. He found San Felipe in ashes on April 7, burnt by Captain Baker the day before. The river was high. Santa Anna sent scouts to find a crossing. Three days later, with the aid of a river boat captured from a runaway slave, he crossed near Fort Bend, and took the Texan out- post under Captain Martin completely by surprise. Sesma, who had remained at San Felipe, to wait for Filisola, now joined Santa Anna on April 13. 51 At Fort Bend Santa Anna heard that the Texan government had moved to Harrisburg and was without defense. Anxious to capture
57Johnson, op. cit., 443-445, 51 /bid., 444-446; Castaneda, Alexica11 Side of tl,e Texan Revolutio11, 7 5.
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