Sam Houston on Texas....
"All new states are invested, more or less, by a class of noisy, second-rate men who are always in favor of rash and extreme measures, but Texas was absolutely overrun by such men."
Things are so chaotic leading up to the Alamo its hard to know where to begin.
1834, Presidente Santa Anna and his cronies dismiss the Mexican Constitution of 1824, instead appointing representatives on behalf of the Mexican States. Unrest breaks out all over Mexico, actual revolts in Oaxaca, Zazatecas and Tejas. If you were for the Central Government and Santa Ann you were a Centralista. If you are for the Constitution of 1824 you were a Federalista, and the Federalist flag was a Mexican flag with "1824" printed on it.
1835, Santa Anna sends his own brother-in-law, one General Martin Perfecto de Cos, to distant San Antonio with a force to affirm Centralist control of Texas.
1835 too, Americans in Texas, more than 35,000 by that date, elect 98 representatives to the Consultation of 1835 to be held in San Felipe (now just a wide spot on the highway on the Brazos River west of Houston just east of present-day Sealy TX).
Events get in the way, in October 1835 100 lancers are sent from San Antonio to recover a cannon belonging to the Mexican government from the hands of the people of Gonzales, who are almost to a man Federalists, or actual revolutionaries. Some blood is shed, this action giving rise to the now-iconic "COME AND TAKE IT" flag, the lancers are driven off, now its a shooting war.
The Texian Army, a volunteer outfit, spontaneously forms in Gonzales and elects as its leaders two capable men; Ed Burleson and John Henry Moore, the character of these two men is best summed up by the fact that, while avoiding politics, they both would later take a prominent role in the defense of the Texas Republic as Ranger Captains. The Texian Army goes on to occupy La Bahia Mission at Goliad, and elects the idealistic and dedicated Stephen F. Austin as its Commander in Chief.
They then march on San Antonio to begin the Siege of Bexar, prominent in this force are Jim Bowie, James Fannin and William Barret Travis, this is four months before the Siege of the Alamo.
At this point the war is about restoring the Constitution of 1824. The Texian Army is marching against Cos under the 1824 flag. Americans start pouring in to join the fight, promised grants of land in return by the Consultation. OF COURSE people are talking independence. Enter Sam Houston. Back in San Felipe, Houston is prominent among those not wanting a Declaration of Independence just yet, fearing such would alienate all those prominent Texians who had already accepted Mexican Citizenship. The Consultation then KICKS OUT those members outspoken for Independence.
Houston travels to Bexar to visit the troops besieging Cos in San Antonio to try and get the elected delegates, including Travis, Fannin and Bowie, to return with him to San Felipe and the Consultation, only Bowie does. Bowie had led the initial skirmish against Cos at Mission Concepcion, just south of San Antonio, but misses the five-day, hard-fought Battle of Bexar wherein Cos is bottled up inside the Alamo.
Dang, I was trying to keep this simple.....
