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TO-NIGHT PASSES INTO TO-MORROW, WHICH MEANS THAT WE CELEBRATE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS IN THE FACE OF ALL ODDS, AND AGAINST THE PRESENCE OF ONE OF THE BEST (and worst) ARMIES ON THE PLANET AT THE TIME.
There were seven general officers, six of whom were either high mediocre to extremely competent leading the Expeditionary Force. There were 13,000 troops, either front-line or close support and reserve, of whom, probably 9,000 were high-mediocre to excellent in terms of combat efficiency. The Texians could not comprehend the rapidity of movement and placement that the Mexican Centralist forces covered in the length of time that they used.
The Texians could muster, at best, no more than 3,000 actives, very few of whom had ever served in anything beyond a militia. Among the Latin elements, there were several hundred who had had experience in drill, tactics, supply, strategy formation and the like. But the Anglo element was good with a rifle, but not easily trained. There were a few officer level and command Sergeant level who could serve as a brain and nervous system for any Army, but the heart, muscle, soul, and will of the Army would have to come from yeomen. Geographic understanding, cavalry, forage, and infantry would be provided by the Latins who knew the territory from about 70 - 100 years of occupation of the land under dispute by the 1824 Tricolour people who were opposing the Centralists under Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
Then as now, the Texians made some foolish mistakes. They thought that because they had removed a fairly strong force of Centralists under the command of Lopez de Santa Anna's brother-in-law, Gen. Perfecto de Cos, that they could handle anything coming out of Mexico City in future. Interestingly, he was foisted finally, from the grounds of the Mission San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo) during a spirited several day battle in December, 1835. Then when confronted with an invasion, they foolishly determined to defend a place that strategically, was neither worth defending nor offending. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, luckily for Texas, was foolish and egotistical enough to waste the flower of his particular element of the overall Army in the taking of the Alamo, which will fall four mornings ahead of now. The Texians lost perhaps the best combination of irregular integrated infantry in the world at that time....178 - 208 men.
Why the number difference? Bodies were burned, save for one. And the Latin roster that was recovered revealed the names of 19 persons, although various other accounts from surviving dependents who were inside the Alamo, Latin and Anglo said that other Latins had been present in the defence, who had come from the Yorktown area and entered three or four nights before the battle. Others had come in from Castroville without registering with the Fort's Comandancia, either Bowie or Travis. That is why people see different levels of numbers of defenders.
It is known that Lopez de Santa Anna lost at least 600 dead from the 13 days of siege and repeated assaults. It was a foolish blunder by a man who styled himself as "The Napoleon of the West".
Once again, it is to be repeated that the fellows inside the walls of The Alamo never knew that Texas had "gone Independent". Tomorrow marks the Day of the Declaration, written in large part by Lorenzo de Zavala, the first Vice-President of the Republic....the Alamo would fall four days later.
The new Enemy of Texas comes from the East and not the South so much. It would have been so much better to never have joined their union and just decided to stay close, be friends, and be forever independent from things such as what are going on in Washington D.C. in these times.
Independencia y Libertad
El Gringo Viejo
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This up-date, penned 1 March 2014. We have completed the third reading of The Blood of Heroes by James Donovan. This will constitute the 20th complete book-length work that has been read concerning The Alamo, the Revolution against the Mexican Centralists, and the First Texian Republican Period 1836 - 1845, by El Gringo Viejo. It is a recommended work, although diverges on ten or twelve points of common understanding held by both sides in this Epic Battle and Noble Episode in history. The several hundred thousand other points and statements of knowledge and worthy facts put forth by Donovan are worthy of OROGs' attentions. It ranges from Very Good, to Excellent to Profound in our estimation.
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