TEXAS INDEPENDENCE PROCLAIMED:

Today is Texas Independence Day!!!!!!!!!! This is an official holiday in Texas. It also happens to be my sister's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we were growing up in Texas I always wondered why we got to stay home from school on my sisters birthday. I always appreciated the holiday but it took several years before I realized that we were celebrating something other than a family members birthday......................LOL..................Scott


TEXAS INDEPENDENCE PROCLAIMED:
March 2, 1836

During the Texas Revolution, a convention of American Texans meets at
Washington-on-the-Brazos and declares the independence of Texas from Mexico. The
delegates chose David Burnet as provisional president and confirmed Sam Houston
as the commander in chief of all Texan forces. The Texans also adopted a
constitution that protected the free practice of slavery, which had been
prohibited by Mexican law. Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Santa Anna's siege of the
Alamo continued, and the fort's 185 or so American defenders waited for the
final Mexican assault.In 1820, Moses Austin, a U.S. citizen, asked the Spanish
government in Mexico for permission to settle in sparsely populated Texas. Land
was granted, but Austin died soon thereafter, so his son, Stephen F. Austin,
took over the project. In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain, and
Austin negotiated a contract with the new Mexican government that allowed him to
lead some 300 families to the Brazos River. Under the terms of the agreement,
the settlers were to be Catholics, but Austin mainly brought Protestants from
the southern United States. Other U.S. settlers arrived in succeeding years, and
the Americans soon outnumbered the resident Mexicans. In 1826, a conflict
between Mexican and American settlers led to the Freedonia Rebellion, and in
1830 the Mexican government took measures to stop the influx of Americans. In
1833, Austin, who sought statehood for Texas in the Mexican federation, was
imprisoned after calling on settlers to declare it without the consent of the
Mexican congress. He was released in 1835.In 1834, Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna,
a soldier and politician, became dictator of Mexico and sought to crush
rebellions in Texas and other areas. In October 1835, Anglo residents of
Gonzales, 50 miles east of San Antonio, responded to Santa Anna's demand that
they return a cannon loaned for defense against Indian attack by discharging it
against the Mexican troops sent to reclaim it. The Mexicans were routed in what
is regarded as the first battle of the Texas Revolution. The American settlers
set up a provisional state government, and a Texan army under Sam Houston won a
series of minor battles in the fall of 1835.In December, Texas volunteers
commanded by Ben Milam drove Mexican troops out of San Antonio and settled in
around the Alamo, a mission compound adapted to military purposes around 1800.
In January 1836, Santa Anna concentrated a force of several thousand men south
of the Rio Grande, and Sam Houston ordered the Alamo abandoned. Colonel James
Bowie, who arrived at the Alamo on January 19, realized that the fort's captured
cannons could not be removed before Santa Anna's arrival, so he remained
entrenched with his men. By delaying Santa Anna's forces, he also reasoned,
Houston would have more time to raise an army large enough to repulse the
Mexicans. On February 2, Bowie and his 30 or so men were joined by a small
cavalry company under Colonel William Travis, bringing the total number of Alamo
defenders to about 140. One week later, the frontiersman Davy Crockett arrived
in command of 14 Tennessee Mounted Volunteers.On February 23, Santa Anna and
some 3,000 Mexican troops besieged the Alamo, and the former mission was
bombarded with cannon and rifle fire for 12 days. On February 24, in the chaos
of the siege, Colonel Travis smuggled out a letter that read: "To the People of
Texas and All Americans in the World.... I shall never surrender or retreat....
Victory or Death!" On March 1, the last Texan reinforcements from nearby
Gonzales broke through the enemy's lines and into the Alamo, bringing the total
defenders to approximately 185. On March 2, Texas' revolutionary government
formally declared its independence from Mexico.In the early morning of March 6,
Santa Anna ordered his troops to storm the Alamo. Travis' artillery decimated
the first and then the second Mexican charge, but in just over an hour the
Texans were overwhelmed, and the Alamo was taken. Santa Anna had ordered that no
prisoners be taken, and all the Texan and American defenders were killed in
brutal hand-to-hand fighting. The only survivors of the Alamo were a handful of
civilians, mostly women and children. Several hundred of Santa Anna's men died
during the siege and storming of the Alamo.Six weeks later, a large Texan army
under Sam Houston surprised Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto. Shouting "Remember
the Alamo!" the Texans defeated the Mexicans and captured Santa Anna. The
Mexican dictator was forced to recognize Texas' independence and withdrew his
forces south of the Rýo Grande.Texas sought annexation by the United States, but
both Mexico and antislavery forces in the United States opposed its admission
into the Union. For nearly a decade, Texas existed as an independent republic,
and Houston was Texas' first elected president. In 1845, Texas joined the Union
as the 28th state, leading to the outbreak of the Mexican-American War.