Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire After the Fall of the Alamo

You are welcome Sir, and writing this helps me get this convoluted series of events somewhat in context. One thing becomes apparent; we all remember the Alamo, for good reason, but perhaps most of the attention back then leading up to that siege was focused upon the fortified mission at Goliad, where most of the Texian army, such as it was, was quartered.

If San Antonio was, geographically speaking, way out in left field, Goliad at least sat on the road between the important harbor of Copano Bay and the interior and the intersecting shortest overland route between Mexico and the East Texas settlements. Indeed, from survivors' accounts, it was those very strategic considerations which influenced the men at Goliad to fatally delay as long as they did.

Things moved fast in this Second Texas War of Independence, such that while at the end of 1835 the Federalists, those who wanted to remain part of Mexico, dominated the political discussion and ran the provisional government at San Felipe, by February of '36 that provisional government had collapsed and the war had become a war of independence.

Phillip Dimmit was a Texian military commander who played a major role in these months around Goliad, and is gonna be the topic of my next post. As an long-time resident of Texas who had married into the Tejano community, Dimmit began as a staunch Federalist, even being credited with designing the 1824 Mexican Flag that was the first official flag of the rebellion.

By December of 1835 however, he had become committed to independence to a degree that he was one of the principal movers if not THE prime mover behind the mostly forgotten Goliad Declaration of Independence, December 20th, 1835.

Reading it, one is impressed by how well-informed and erudite the authors were about the then-current events (almost like they read the same books we do today ), also the wording gives clear insight into their motives and mindset.

A few excerpts

http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/consultations5.htm

Solemnly impressed with a sense of the danger of the crisis to which recent and remote events have conducted the public affairs of their country, the undersigned prefer this method of laying before their fellow-citizens, a brief retrospect of the light in which they regard both the present and the past, and of frankly declaring for themselves, the policy and the uncompromising course which they have resolved to pursue for the future.....

They have seen their camp thronged, but too frequently, with those who were more anxious to be served by, than to serve their country--with men more desirous of being honored with command that capable of commanding.

They have seen the busy aspirants for office running from the field to the council ball, and from this back to the camp, seeking emolument and not service, and swarming like hungry flies around the body politic.....

The North and East of Mexico will now become the stronghold of centralism. Thence it can sally in whatever direction its arch deviser may prefer to employ its weapons. The counter-revolution in the interior once smothered, the whole fury of the contest will be poured on Texas. She is principally populated with North-Americans. To expel these from its territory, and parcel it out among the instruments of its wrath, will combine the motive and the means for consummating the scheme of the President Dictator.

Already, we are denounced, proscribed, outlawed, and exiled from the country. Our lands, peaceably and lawfully acquired, are solemnly pronounced the proper subject of indiscriminate forfeiture, and our estates of confiscation. The laws and guarantees under which we entered the country as colonists, tempted the unbroken silence, sought the dangers of the wilderness, braved the prowling Indian, erected our numerous improvements, and opened and subdued the earth to cultivation, are either abrogated or repealed, and now trampled under the hoofs of the usurper's cavalry.

And with regard to the Tejanos...

We have indulged sympathy, too, for the condition of many whom, we vainly flattered ourselves, were opposed, in common with their adopted brethren, to the extension of military domination over the domain of Texas. But the siege of Bexar has dissolved the illusion. Nearly all their physical force was in the line of the enemy and armed with rifles. Seventy days occupation of the fortress of Goliad has also abundantly demonstrated the general diffusion among the Creole population of a like attachment to the institutions of their ancient tyrants.

Intellectually enthralled, and strangers to the blessings of regulated liberty, the only philanthropic service which we can ever force on their acceptance, is that of example. In doing this, we need not expect or even hope for their co-operation.

It belongs to the North-Americans of Texas to set this bright, this cheering, this all-subduing example.

Although I will observe this overlooks how completely catastrophic the First Texas Revolution, likewise American-dominated, had proven for the Tejanos in 1813, in which fight most had come out for independence. Also apparent by 1835 was the fact that, from a Tejano perspective, Americans were swamping Texas. Already by 1835 Anglos (settled mostly in east Texas) outnumbered Tejanos nearly five to one. A great many Tejanos and even General Urrea were by sympathy Federalist, but could read the writing on the wall.


On a different note, it is interesting to see reference made to Tejanos armed with rifles.

And, further along, it turns out politics ain't changed much....

The foregoing, we are fully aware, is a blunt, and in some respects, a humiliating, but a faithful picture. However much we may wish, or however much we may be interested, or feel disposed to deceive our enemy, let us carefully guard against deceiving ourselves.

We are in more danger from this---from his insinuating, secret, silent, and unseen influence in our councils, both in the field and in the cabinet, and from the use of his silver and gold, than from his numbers, his organization, or the concentration of his power in a single arm.

The gold of Philip purchased what his arms could not subdue---the liberties of Greece. Our enemy, too, holds this weapon. Look well to this, people of Texas, in the exercise of suffrage. Look to it, Counselors, your appointments to office. Integrity is a precious jewel.

Dimmit was essentially maneuvered out of command for his trouble, and why this first declaration was set aside for a second two months later probably had at least a little to do with those busy aspirants for office running from the field to the council ball, and from this back to the camp, seeking emolument and not service, and swarming like hungry flies around the body politic.

Birdwatcher