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rived in time were a group of about 30 men from Gonzales, Texas, bringing the total num-
ber of Alamo defenders up to 189 - at least according to literature from the Daughters of
the Republic of Texas (DRT), which lists the names of all but one, an unidentified African
American man.
Santa Anna's troops pounded the Alamo for 13 days before retaking it. Mexican losses
were devastating; estimates run as low as 1000 and as high as 2000. When the Alamo was
finally recaptured, the advancing troops executed almost all of the surviving defenders.
The few who were spared, mostly women, children and slaves, were interrogated and re-
leased.
Remember Goliad!
Colonel James Fannin and more than 400 volunteers who had set out too late to assist at
the Alamo encountered Mexican troops north of Goliad. After a daylong battle, the Texi-
ans surrendered and were taken to the presidio , which was occupied by the Mexican army.
On March 27, Palm Sunday, Santa Anna ordered between 300 and 350 prisoners shot - a
death toll about twice the number lost at the Alamo. The two events, instantly labeled
'massacres' by Texians, galvanized the troops, who continued fighting under the rallying
cry of 'Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!'
Perhaps as a result of losses suffered and supplies spent at the battles of the Alamo and
Goliad, Santa Anna's troops simply were not prepared when, on April 21, they ran into
troops commanded by Samuel Houston. The Texian general was a former major general in
Tennessee's militia and an 'Indian fighter' under US general Andrew Jackson. At the
Battle of San Jacinto, outside modern-day Houston, Santa Anna's forces were finally and
completely routed. Texas' war for independence was won.
The Lone Star Republic
The 54 delegates who gathered at Washington-on the-Brazos on March 1, 1836, literally
wrote the Texas Declaration of Independence overnight - while the Alamo was under
siege. Though Texas declared itself a 'a free and independent republic,' neither the USA
nor Mexico recognized it as such. In its early years the new republic's main business was
forging trade and political ties and trying hard to establish a government and a capital city.
In 1839, the central Texas village of Waterloo was renamed Austin, in honor of Stephen
F, and the capital was established there. That same year, the Republic of Texas' policy to-
ward the Native Americans who lived within its borders changed drastically, and a ruth-
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