ere he
had been used to wear his sword.

The first step of the American-Texans was to set a civil government in
motion. Declarations and manifestoes had to be made, and loans raised
in order to maintain an army in the field. There were many fine
fighters, but Houston was the only statesman; and to him the arduous
duty naturally fell. In the meantime Lamar and Burleson with 200
picked men attacked the Alamo Fortress. It was defended by General Cos
with 1,000 men and forty-eight cannon; but on the afternoon of the
third day's fighting surrendered to the Americans. This was but the
first act in the drama, for as soon as the news reached Mexico, Santa
Anna with a large "army of subjugation" was on the road to Texas.

The Alamo was taken by the Americans during the first day of December,
1835; on March 2, 1836, Texas was declared by the Convention assembled
at the settlement of Washington, to be an independent republic, and 55
out of 56 votes elected Houston commander in chief. Houston
immediately set out for the Alamo, but when he reached Gonzales he
heard that every man in it had died fighting, and that Santa Anna had
made a huge hecatomb of their bodies and burned them to ashes. Houston
immediately sent an express to Fannin, who was defending Goliad, to
blow up the fortress of Goliad, and unite with him on the Guadalupe.
Fannin did not obey orders. He wrote to Houston that "he had named the
place _Fort Defiance_, and was resolved to defend it." This decision
distressed Houston, for Fannin's men were of the finest
material--young men from Georgia and Alabama, fired with the idea of
freedom and the spread of Americanism, or perhaps with the fanaticism
of religious liberty of conscience. After reading Fannin's letter,
Houston turned to Major Hockley, and said, as he pointed to the little
band of men around him, "Those men are the last hope of Texas; with
them we must achieve our independence, or perish in the attempt."

He immediately sent wagons into all the surrounding country to gather
the women and the children, for he anticipated the atrocities which
would mark every mile of Santa Anna's progress through the country;
and he was determined that these helpless non-combatants should be
placed in comparative safety in the eastern settlements. Then
commenced one of the grandest and most pathetic "retreats" history has
any record of. Encumbered by hundreds of women and children in every
condition of helplessness, the brave