Our Catl,olic Heritage in T ezas
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If fortune favored them, they believed that it would not be long before arms and volunteers would flow into Texas. Unaware of the fate of Aldama and Father Salazar, however, they concluded that their two envoys had reached the United States. If the efforts of the two envoys proved successful by the time Allende, Hidalgo, and the others arrived in San Antonio, the leaders of the Revolu- tion would not themselves have to continue their journey to the United States. They could, removed from the immediate danger of attack, nurse their strength, reorganize their forces to defeat General Calleja, and plan their triumphant return to Mexico City. There really seemed to be no cause for despair. Yet the distant province, said by historians of Mexico and the United States to have taken little or no part in the Mexican struggle for independence, cast a long and ominous shadow over the first stages of the Revolution and Texas continued to be the determining factor in the progress of the Revolution until the ultimate attainment of independence. Having determined this course of action, the leaders of the Revolution held an important council on March 16, 1811. In preparation for their departure northward, they appointed Ignacio Rayon commander in chief of the Army of America, a pitiful handful of dispirited men. Insurgent Governor Pedro de Aranda was named second in command. The details of the march to be followed by the leaders in their flight northward was agreed upon, and all was made ready for an early start the next day.' In the midst of this fateful meeting there appeared an uninvited guest, Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara, to make a dramatic plea. This impassionate and indefatigable advocate of the cause of independence, who with his brother the cleric had so successfully spread the new doctrine in N uevo Leon and the Lower Rio Grande, came to offer his services, his wealth, and his life. Such fervor and enthusiasm at a time when so many were desert- ing the thinning ranks of the Army of America, they believed, deserved recognition. They, therefore, commissioned him a lieutenant colonel and instructed him to proceed to Nuevo Santander to raise troops and bring them to Presidio de Rio Grande, where the forces of the four northeastern provinces were to be assembled before joining the army in Saltillo. 10 As soon as the plotters adjourned, messengers were sent to all the settlements along the northern frontier to acquaint them with the appoint- ment of Rayon and Aranda as commander in chief and assistant, respec- 'Lucas Alamin, Historia de Me:&ico, II, 167-169. 10 Gutlemz de Lara to the Mexican Congress, Lamar Paters, I, 6-7 ; Garza, Dos H1rma1101 H1ro11, 17-18.
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