Following Sam Houston to San Jacinto

        Join Sam Houston as he leads his rag-tag army of Texian volunteers to San Jacinto!  The story of Houston’s flight from Gonzales after learning of the fall of the Alamo is legendary.  Called the Runaway Scrape, both volunteer soldiers and civilians alike moved east as fast as they could to avoid the pursuing Mexican army.  By the end of March, virtually every civilian resident from the Colorado River westward had fled to or beyond the Brazos.  The purpose of this article is to describe the route of the Teixan army, with particular attention given to the roads used and the likely camp sites employed each night along the way. 

This exercise is not new; several authors have covered it well, especially Stephen Moore in his book Eighteen Minutes.   In this article I follow the outline other historians have developed and fill in blanks along the way, specifically with respect to details of the road followed, the stream crossings, and campsites each night of the campaign.  I also include excerpts from other sources that add detail or special interest to the route.  

Click on the following link to begin this classic journey in Texas history.

Following Sam Houston to San Jacinto

The Goliad Cannons

Cannons have been an integral part of Goliad since the early days of the La Bahia presidio.  When this fort and its companion, Mission Espiritu Santo, were moved from the Guadalupe River to a new location on the San Antonio River in 1749, six iron 8-pounders made the move and were mounted in the newly-built presidio.  Others followed, in and out, in the ensuing years.  A battle was fought at Goliad in 1812 between Spanish Royalist forces and the Republican Army of the North under Augustus Magee; as many as 14 cannons were used in this siege and attack.  

       When the Texian rebels captured Goliad in October of 1835, they found three cannons in the fort.  Over the next five months, 13 more were brought in.  James Fannin had 10 cannons with him at the Battle of Coleto, all of which were taken by the victorious Mexican army.   Fannin left 6 behind in the fort, which, with two more Spanish guns buried in 1829, are today on display in Goliad.  

Clink on the link below to read a chapter from the book Cannons of the Texas Revolution which describes in detail the cannons employed at Goliad.

The Goliad Cannons 

West Texas in 1853

     Gold! Indians! Wagon Trains! Grizzly Bears!  The old west comes alive again through the words in a diary written by a participant in a wagon train from central Texas seeking gold and silver in the Guadalupe Mountains.  The year was 1853 and the Texas frontier was rapidly expanding northward and westward.  Two roads had been blazed through the previously unknown territory between El Paso and the settled eastern part of Texas only four years earlier, just in time to provide hoards of gold-seekers a shorter, safer route to travel to California after the discovery at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.   The Guadalupe Mountains in far west Texas and southern New Mexico, then still the stronghold of the Mescalero Apaches, had for years been rumored to hold rich gold and silver mines dating back to Spanish times.  Travel was difficult and dangerous.  Apaches frequented the area west of the Pecos River.  East of the Pecos the dreaded Comanches raided nearly at will.  Although they did not find the fortunes they sought, the participants in this expedition saw the untamed wilderness first-hand, and this diary allows us to share their experience. 

Click on the following link to read the diary of this wagon train, complete with a historical background and several maps.

West Texas in 1853 

Houston's Camp West of Brazos

       Sam Houston and his Texian volunteers camped on the Brazos River opposite Jared Groce’s Bernardo plantation from March 30th to April 13th, 1836.  Here Houston organized and trained his army and made preparations for what a week later would be the Battle of San Jacinto.  Called the Camp West of Brazos, the site was a muddy, filthy mess, but served its purpose.  The steamboat Yellow Stone was held at Groce’s Landing until the General was ready to use it to move his men across the river to destiny.  

Over nearly a century a large collection of artifacts from this site has been assembled, first by surface collection and, since 1989, by the use of metal detectors. Most of the known artifacts from this site are lead bullets and fragments from the bullet molding process. Also present are other items believed related to the Texian army, including gunflints, uniform buttons, an 1829 penny, and ceramic sherds. This site is unique in that these artifacts are solely related to the Texian army of 1836. Other sites such as the Alamo and San Jacinto also contain Texian artifacts mixed with those of the Mexican army. The wide variety of sizes of bullets found here confirms historical accounts that indicated that numerous types of firearms were used by this largely volunteer army.

        This story is told as a part of a broader account of the Bernardo plantation, published by James Woodrick on Amazon.com.   

       Click on the following link to read all about the fascinating history of this period in the San Jacinto Campaign, and to see descriptions and images of the artifacts found in the archaeological investigations.

Houston's Camp West of Brazos  

The Gotier Trace

     This was the first road laid out in Austin's Colony connecting the colonial capital at San Felipe with the settlers on the upper Colorado River at Bastrop.  The trace was authorized by the ayuntiamiento of San Felipe in November, 1831, and blazed by Bastrop settler James Gotier.  It passed east from Bastrop through unpopulated wilderness until finally reaching Friedrich Ernst's cabin at today's town of Industry.
     Gotier built a second cabin near today's Giddings, and laid out a road to it from Bastrop in 1835.  It connected with the then-nascent town of Washington on the Brazos, and later a branch was made from this road to Industry through Shelby.  Both of these roads are called the Gotier Trace, leading to much confusion as to which was the original one from 1831.
     In 1837 Gotier, his wife and two sons were massacred in an Indian raid; two of this other sons, his daughter and her daughter were taken into captivity by the Indians, and ransomed at Coffee's trading post on the Red River a year later.
     Click on the link below to read all about this pioneer road in Texas, and the fascinating events that took place along its path.  And also learn of the solution to the mystery of which was the REAL Gotier Trace  --  the answer is, both of them!

The Gotier Trace

The Gonzales Cannons

     Cannons define Gonzales, yesterday and today. Six of them, in fact. One is the famous “Come and Take It” cannon, a bronze 6-pounder that was the reason for the first battle of the Texas Revolution. It was used in the Siege of Bexar in 1835, the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, and today, in its recast form, hangs in a bell tower in a church in San Antonio.   There were also two small iron cannons of less than 1- pound caliber, one of which fired the first shot in the Battle of Gonzales; both of which had been used in the Battle of Velasco in 1832. Three more guns, two bronze 4-pounders and an iron 9-pounder, were at Gonzales in March of 1836 and abandoned in the Runaway Scrape.  These three cannons are apparently still in the river and a slough near Gonzales today, waiting for some intrepid adventurer to mount a search to find them.  
     Read the full story of the battle in my book The Battle of Gonzales and its Two Cannons, or click on the link below for a summary of the six Gonzales cannons.

The Gonzales Cannons

      

The Zavala: a Republic of Texas Warship

     The Navy of the Republic of Texas consisted of several vessels, one of which was the first steamboat fitted out as a warship in North America.   A used merchant steamboat was purchased in Charleston in 1838, fitted out in New York with six cannons, and sent to Texas.  Powder for the cannons was obtained from the DuPont Company in Delaware.  The ship was renamed the Zavala after Tejano patriot and first Vice President of Texas, Lorenzo de Zavala.  Lack of money kept the ship and its crew in a constant state of turmoil; on one journey across the Gulf, floorboards and furniture had to be burned in the boilers because the coal supply ran out and no more could be afforded.   The ship was used for a while to tow sailboats to Galveston docks, then went to assist the rebel state of Yucatan in its bid for independence from Mexico.  It never fired a shot in any military engagement.
     The ship was tied up to a dock in Galveston in 1843, stripped of anything that could be sold, and left to rot and sink into the mud.  Its remains were discovered in 1987.  Click on the following link to read the fascinating story of the Zavala.

The Zavala

Santa Rosa del Alcazar and Orcoquisac

     Texas in the 1740's was claimed by Spain but was virtually, to them, an uncharted wilderness containing only a small civil and military complex at San Antonio and a fort called La Bahia on the lower Guadalupe River.   French traders appeared along the upper coast and Spain reacted, fearful for its lands and possessive about its trading rights with the Indians.  Expeditions were sent in the 1740's to reconnoiter the unknown lands and to drive away any intruders.  A decade later, reports arrived of renewed French trading activities, and this time Spain decided to occupy the region.  A presidio and a mission called Orcoquisac were founded on the lower Trinity River.  Plans were approved to found a civil settlement of 50 families at a location named Santa Rosa del Alcazar, and to move the presidio and mission to this new site.  It was to become a 'second San Antonio' in Southeast Texas.
     Plans for Santa Rosa were abandoned in 1763 when Spain acquired Louisiana from France, thus eliminating the immediate threat of a foreign power usurping Spanish rights in Texas.  The Orcoquisac presidio and mission were closed in 1771 in a cost-cutting move; they were no longer needed to protect the frontier.  Had Santa Rosa been built, it would have created a lasting Spanish presence in the region.  Spain would have probably been unlikely to offer vacant lands in this part of Texas to American colonists.  Build Santa Rosa, and Austin's Colony may never have became a reality!   
     New research has revealed the location of the planned site of Santa Rosa, and the roads that connected Orcoquisac with San Antonio.  Click on the following link to learn about this fascinating chapter in Texas history!


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