March 2:

1836 : TEXAS INDEPENDENCE PROCLAIMED:

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, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de 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, 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.

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