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

At the Alamo there was perhaps 200 defenders spread out around a three acre compound. At Refugio there were 100 defenders inside just one stone church. Unfortunately this structure is gone now, and much of its original footprint covered is by a more modern Catholic church.

What it appears to have been is a medieval-looking stone edifice, two stories tall and 100 feet long on the long axis. The long hall pictured in the diagram may or may not have been intact in 1836, but there was a substantial structure just fifteen yards from the church building, substantial enough to offer some cover to the attackers, but not enough apparently to serve as a rallying point...



Taken completely by surprise that morning, Ward did succeed in burning some of the surrounding wooden structures to clear a field of fire, and at one point at least, had a body of men outside the church firing volleys from cover at the opposing Mexicans, this squad of men being backed by men firing from inside the church.

At the opening of the fight, the Texians had been attempting to haul a wagon or cart bearing two large barrels of water from the adjacent river into the church, so critical was this water that at least than half the men present were deployed in its defense. They did succeed in bringing the barrels into the church though most of the water was lost due to the barrels being perforated by flying bullets.

During the fight, King's 30 men returned from downriver, hurrying towards the sound of gunfire, not suspecting that there would be 1,500 Mexicans present. They were seen and engaged, but likewise held their own, forted up in the dense riparian woodlands along the river channel.

Though the physical premises upon which the battle was fought are gone, we are left with pretty good descriptions of the fight, from both sides.

From Colonel Francisco Garay....

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

That day we pitched camp on the Arroyo Aransas from which at two o'clock in the morning (on the fourteenth) the general undertook the march against the mission with two hundred foot soldiers, the cannon and two hundred horses. The rest of the division with the supplies and equipment set out at seven o'clock.

The enemy in the number of one hundred men were occupying the church, the only defensible point in that poverty stricken town. On their left, and at a distance of an eighth of a league, we had another fifty men in ambush.

The other 'fifty men' being King's force, the assumption being that their presence outside the mission compound was deliberate.

And from Urrea, note the language difficulties when communicating wit the Indians from the Yucatan...

I arrived at the said mission at daybreak where I found Capt. Pretalia holding the enemy in the church where they had taken refuge. The moment they saw me they set the houses in their immediate vicinity on fire.

I reconnoitered their position to my satisfaction; and, convinced that it afforded means for a good defense, I realized that in order to take it I would be obliged to suffer heavy losses. I at once decided to lay siege to it and to fatigue the enemy all that day and night in order to surprise them at dawn the following day. But the pitiful stories which the civilians of the place related about the thefts and abuses they had suffered at the hands of the enemy, excited the indignation of the officers and troops of my division, and decided me to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the coming out of a party of eighty men to get water at a creek situated about a gunshot from their fortification to order a group of infantry and another of cavalry to start a skirmish, hoping to draw out the rest of the enemy from their entrenchment.

The eighty men retreated immediately to the fort. The officers and troops manifested a great desire to attack the enemy; and, wishing to take advantage of their enthusiasm, I immediately ordered a column of infantry to make the charge, protected by the fire of our cannon which had been moved forward sufficiently to destroy the door of the church. With our cavalry covering our flanks, our advance was so successful that the infantry arrived within ten paces of the cemetery without a single man being wounded.

The enemy, coming out of its lethargy, opened up a lively fire upon our men.

Translation: Ward, by accounts an excellent marksman as well, reacted swiftly and decisively when surprised that morning. First thing is, he attempted to obtain water, anticipating a long siege. Secondly, he apparently had his men withhold their fire during that first assault, opening up from point-blank range. This tactic resulted in the Mexican field piece being left close to the walls and unavailable to the Mexicans until later in the day.

We know from the American accounts (next post) that as the day progressed and their ammunition dwindled that Ward instructed his men to reserve their fire unless they were sure of their targets.

Ward's 120 had left Goliad with a reported 36 rounds per man. So 3,600 rounds expended that day give or take, in return for high Texian estimates of 200 casualties on the Mexican side, some of those casualties inflicted by King's men from the woods along the river.

Urrea himself said the Mexicans sustained 48 casualties that day, Garay said close to 70. Even if the high Texian estimates were correct, that ballbarks to less than one hit per fifteen rounds, seems likely that much of the day the actionconsisted of guys sniping at each other from behind cover between the four separate assaults.

Throughout this war of independence Texian rifles got the Mexicans' attention and are mentioned in accounts, but it is unknown how many of the Texians at Refugio were armed with smoothbores; either Fannin's 625 muskets or civilian weapons.

Point of interest, note the language difficulty on the Mexican side..

The troops, being mostly recruits from Yucatán, stopped spellbound the moment their first impetus was spent, and all efforts to force them to advance were unavailing, for the greater part of their native officers who a moment before had been so eager disappeared at the critical moment. These men were, as a rule, unable to understand Spanish, except in a few cases, and the other officers, not being able to speak their language, were handicapped in giving the commands.

...as the day progressed...

The infantry took refuge in a house and corral situated about fifteen paces from. the church. I ordered a part of the cavalry to dismount in order to encourage the former by their example. Not succeeding in making them advance, and the dismounted cavalry being insufficient to take the position of the enemy, the moments were becoming precious, for at that very moment another party, coming from Cópano, was threatening my rear guard....

I ordered Col. Gabriel Núñez, with a part of the cavalry in our reserve, to go out to meet the enemy that was approaching in our rear. The enemy had taken refuge in a woods which a large creek made inaccessible. I ordered sixty infantry, commanded by Col. Garay, to dislodge them. They killed eleven and took seven prisoners, but the thickness of the woods did not permit a more decisive victory before darkness enabled the enemy to escape.

That would be King's men.

I, therefore, ordered a retreat. This operation was not carried out with the order that might have been expected from better disciplined troops. In the meantime our cannon had been moved forward to within twenty paces of the cemetery, but my brave dragoons removed it in order to continue harassing the enemy from a distance, where the enemy fire could cause us no damage.

Translation: "We got whupped."

If you have ever spend much time dressed in period clothing, handled black powder in the rain, or walked any distance in all-leather footwear through water you can appreciate the hardships endured here by the men on both sides.

The weather during this interval was cold, wet, and miserable. Ward's march on Refugio had been delayed by heavy rain, and an account mentions them walking through long stretches of ankle-deep water during that 27-mile, 12 hour forced march to Refugio.

No small feat for King's men either to launch that morning foray against the Tejano camp under those conditions, and it explains how they were able to surprise nine men around a fire.

On the Mexican side, the Indians from the Yucatan, presumbably often barefoot and/or in sandals, are noted to have particularly suffered.

According to all the information I secured, the number of the enemy that had shut themselves in the church was 200 and they lacked water and supplies. This would make it imperative, unless they succeeded in escaping during the night, for them either to come out and fight us the following day or surrender.

In order to prevent their escape, I placed several lookouts at the points through which they might effect it, but the necessary vigilance was not exercised by all of them and the enemy escaped, favored by the darkness of the night which a strong norther and the rain made more impenetrable and unbearable. On the other hand, our troops were very much fatigued as a result of having marched all the day and the night before and of having spent the 14th in constant fighting without taking food.

Birdwatcher