The Alamo mission at San Antonio was in its 7th day of being assaulted by thousands of Santa Anna's troops.
By the 13th day, Santa
Anna's "take-no-prisoner" policy had all the defenders, numbering
between 182-257, killed, including Jim Bowie and former U.S.
Congressman Davy Crockett, and the few that surrendered were executed.
The only Texas army left in the field was Col. James Fannin's.
It departed Goliad to rescue the Alamo but was surrounded in open ground and captured.
Santa Anna ordered all 350 prisoners executed.
When the Mexican officer hesitated obeying the execution order, Santa Anna sent another officer who carried it out.
Had Fannin's troops been left in prison, Texas would have been
disheartened, but instead, Santa Anna's cruelty aroused world outrage.
The Texas Declaration of Independence, signed MARCH 2, 1836, stated:
"General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna...demanded us to deliver up our arms,
which are essential to our defense-the rightful property of
freemen-and formidable only to tyrannical governments...
has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the
tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our
defenseless frontiers...
We fearlessly...commit the issue to the...Supreme Arbiter of the destinies of nations."
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