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Memoirs for the History of the War in Texas

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Great source of information on the Texas Revolution as seen from the eyes of the Mexican Army. For a true student of Texas history Vol 2, is a must.

General Vicente Filisola was Presidente Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana's second-in-command in the failed expedition to suppress the Texas Revolution. His is a valuable historical catalogue of Mexican politics leading up to the revolutions in Texas and other parts of Mexico. He rightly heaps much of the blame for Mexico's disgrace on the head of the odd and arrogant Santa Ana, a man with weaknesses for opium, women, wealth and power. Santa Ana kept his own advice and brooked no dispute concerning his mismanagement of the intial invasion force, its composition and even purpose. He refused militia who would have almost certainly insured victory. He marched without physicians or clergy. He did march, however, with the usual and probably necessary impediment of soldaderas--women to help with cooking, food procurement and relaxation.

Despite the fact that his brother-in-law, Gen. Cos, had already been defeated in San Antonio and released on his own personal recognizance that he and his men would never again join battle against the Texans, Santa Ana--in a totally dishonorable fashion--ordered Cos into battle again and, worse, considering the fact that the Texans had dealt with their Mexican prisoners humanely, gave the "no-quarter" order. All Texans in arms would be executed. Santa Ana gave this order over the protests of his other officers and it's the order that eventually secured his ignominious defeat.

The first major Texas garrisons, from Santa Ana's point of view, fell easily. True, Alamo could have been reduced with almost no loss of Mexican life had Santa Ana only waited for his big guns to be brought up from the rear. No matter. Santa Ana planned to show the world that he was a ruthless conqueror even at the price of the lives of his men. He threw them at the undermanned fortress killing every revolutionary and taking serious casualties, himself. Despite his brave words, his losses must have hurt because he lied to the Mexican Government, underestimating his own casualties and overstating the Texas dead. He told them that over six hundred Texans were killed when the true figure was about 187.

Yet Goliad was taken easily enough. Her retreating troops surrendered under supposedly honorable terms only to be murdered by Santa Ana's orders--400 men--to the eternal inmity of Texas and Mexico.

Santa Ana with a string of easy victories and Houston's rag tag force running like rabbits, advanced as well he could although he faced the obstacles of rain swollen rivers and scorched earth. Intelligence indicated that the frightened Texans were retreating on the Trinity River so Santa Ana put together a special advance column--led by himself--to cut them off and finish them off. He was a victim of his own overconfidence. The Texans literally caught Santa Ana napping and, in one of the most dramatic reversals in American history, destroyed Santa Ana's column on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou. It turns out that the Texans, all of whom had friends and family murdered by Santa Ana, simply had enough. They turned like vipers and struck Santa Ana a lethal blow.

Of course, it didn't have to be lethal. The Mexicans still had over 4,000 troops in Texas to the revolutionaries 600-700. Although Santa Ana was in the bag, command devolved on Filisola. Filtsola claims that Santa Ana hadn't let him into his battle strategy so his remaining forces were a logistical and strategic mess. He doesn't say it but Santa Ana's defeat--with the slaughter of his soldiers--must have crushed morale. All the remaining soldiers were a long way from home and they all knew what they'd done to the Texas soldiers. Death at the point of a bayonet must have loomed large.

More important was Santa Ana and Filisola. The captured Santa Ana ordered Filisola to retreat to save Santa Ana's life. Filisola, fearing his own fate in Mexico if he didn't comply, wimped out and ordered the countermarch. Mexico lost and Texas was born. Otherwise illegal aliens would now be pouring in over the Sabine into Louisiana.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico