Texas Iindependence

The military successes prompted Santa Anna personally to lead a force of 6,000 men against the revolt. At San Antonio in late February, he laid siege to the former Mission San Antonio de Valero, which by that point was only a makeshift fort known as the Alamo. Rather than bypass the small (approximately 200 men) isolated garrison and attack the main insurgent army under Sam Houston, Santa Anna brought his entire force to bear on the fort, which fell on the morning of March 6 with heavy casualties. The execution on Santa Anna's order of over 300 prisoners taken following the surrender of a Texan force under James Fannin at Goliad later than month stiffened resistance among the Texans.

Unbeknown to either side at the Alamo, a convention meeting on March 2 to the northeast at the village of Washington on the Brazos had declared independence. According to the delegates, Mexico had broken its compact with Texas on a number of grounds. The Mexican government had acted tyrannically in abrogating the Constitution of 1824, denying the settlers those republican institutions to which they were accustomed in their home country, and rejecting the petition for separate statehood. It had allowed army officers to act arbitrarily, subordinating civil to military authority, and incited the Indians against the settlers. The government also had failed to establish adequate systems of education and trial by jury and denied settlers liberty of conscience. Most of the charges were contrived, considering that they did not represent anything other than differences in Anglo-American and Mexican cultures or a singling out of immigrants for special treatment. To the contrary, the Mexican government had granted considerable latitude to the settlers in how they conducted their affairs.

Texas independence was won at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. Santa Anna, having outdistanced the bulk of his army, set up camp in a low-lying and exposed field near the northwestern end of Galveston Bay. His 1,400 men, some of whom had arrived just hours before, were at rest and had failed to post adequate guards when Sam Houston led his entire force of 910 men in an assault that took the Mexicans by surprise. The battle lasted just 18 minutes and, according to Houston's figures, resulted in 630 Mexicans dead and 730 captured. Santa Anna, who had fled, was captured the following day. In subsequent negotiations, Santa Anna signed two treaties, one public and one secret, at the Texas port of Velasco by which he ordered the retreat of the Mexican army, promised not to take up arms against Texas, and agreed to work toward recognition of Texas by the Mexican Congress in return for his freedom. Except for the withdrawal of Mexican forces from Texas, neither pact was honored. The Mexican Congress considered Santa Anna's negotiation of these treaties scandalous and nullified them both. Nevertheless, Texan independence was a fait accompli.