A Troubled Time for Texans

Chapter 7, section 4

After the Alamo-Houston arrived in

Gonzales March 11th

-Planned to take charge of volunteers and assist Travis at the Alamo

-Rumor the Alamo had fallen and defenders dead

-Sent Erastus “Deaf” Smith to scout

-Smith returned with Susana Dickinson. She warned Santa Anna’s troops were on their way to Gonzales and

confirmed the falling at the Alamo.

-Houston had fewer than 400 volunteers

*lacked training & discipline

* some had no guns/ammunition

-Ordered a tactical retreat: an organized pullback of troops from an enemy in order to gain an advantage

*He sent a message to Colonel James Fannin at Goliad to destroy Presidio La Bahia and join him.

-Fannin had 500 men

Houston’s Retreat-Gonzales located on the northern edge of Texas’s

Tejano region – wanted to fight Santa Anna in the Anglo part of TX – hoped for volunteers to join

-Trained basic skills to his men for 9 days along the Colorado R. and 10 more in San Felipe.

-Texans shocked by fall of the Alamo and wanted to join Houston’s army

-New volunteers > his army by 1,400

*Houston received news:

1. Mexican forces were moving east into Anglo TX

2. Fannin and his troops would NOT come to help!!

The Goliad Massacre*Many Tejano settlers

of South TX saw these volunteers as foreign invaders. -supplied General Urrea with info. about the volunteers’ every move!

*Urrea’s troops attacked Fannin and his men between Goliad and Victoria – Battle of Coleto Creek

-Fannin offered surrender – asked that his men be expelled from TX instead of imprisoned

The Massacre-Fannin & his men jailed

in Goliad for few days

-March 27, 1836: Men marched

Toward Victoria (thinking

they would board

a ship for the U.S.)

-Less than a mile from Goliad, Mexican escorts opened fire on unarmed volunteers (in Urrea’s absence under the orders of Santa Anna)

*More than 340 men died and about 30 escaped in the chaos.

*The IMPACT of the

MASSACRE:

-Executions were

seen as an atrocity: a cruel and brutal act.

-People now saw

Santa Anna as a cruel person

-U.S. people furious with brutal treatment of prisoners.

*The support of these Americans helped the TX Rev. succeed!

The Runaway Scrape-Alamo’s fall frightened Texans

-People fled when the Mexican army approached-Fear spread….leaving whole towns empty!!-Nickname Texans gave this mass movement “Runaway Scrape”-News of Houston’s retreat & Goliad Massacre

sent Texans into a panic!

-Most TX men joined Houston’s army

-Women had to gather their families and escape Santa Anna’s army

“Runaway Scrape” continued until late April 1836.

-Houston’s troops and the Mexican Army will soon meet at San Jacinto.