The Alamo mission at San Antonio was assaulted by 6,000 troops.
By
the 13th day, Santa Anna's "take-no-prisoner" policy had all the
defenders killed, including Jim Bowie and former U.S. Congressman Davy
Crockett.
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, Santa Anna sent another officer who executed nearly all of them.
Bodies were stripped, piled, burned and left exposed to vultures and coyotes.
A
few dozen of the Texans were spared execution through the courageous
intervention of Francita Alavez, the "Angel of Goliad," and Mexican
Colonel Francisco Garay.
Had
Fannin's troops been left in prison, Texas would have been
disheartened, but instead, Santa Anna's Goliad Massacre aroused world
outrage.
A month later, Sam Houston defeated Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto.
Santa
Ana had ignored Mexico's Constitution, declared himself a dictator,
demanded citizens surrender their guns and incited killings.
Get the book, American Minute-Notable Events of American Significance Remembered on the Date They Occurred
The Texas Declaration of Independence, signed MARCH 2, 1836, stated:
"When
a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty, and property of
the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived...
and so
far from being a guarantee for their inestimable and inalienable
rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their
oppression....
In such a crisis...the inherent and inalienable
right of the people to... take their political affairs into their own
hands... enjoins it as.... a sacred obligation to their posterity to
abolish such government,
and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their welfare and happiness....
The
late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country...
denies us the right of worshiping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience...
It
has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our
defense, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to
tyrannical governments...
It
has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the
tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our
defenseless frontiers.
It hath...exhibited every characteristic of a...corrupt, and tyrannical government...
We fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme Arbiter of the destinies of nations."
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