Hawk Banks - Founding Texas Read online

Historical Timeline

  1812-15

  War of 1812, Sam Houston serves under Andrew Jackson

  1810-22

  Santa Anna serves in the Mexican military

  1821

  Santa Anna leads Mexican forces at the Battle of Veracruz

  Moses Austin receives imperial grant from Spain for Texas colony

  Mexico defeats Spain and declares independence

  1822

  Stephen Austin arrives in Texas with the first of the “old three hundred” and begins the Austin colony

  1824

  The Republic of Mexico completes its first Constitution

  1829

  Santa Anna leads Mexican forces to victory against Spain at the battle of Tampico, becoming “The Napoleon of the West”

  1832

  December – Sam Houston departs the Oklahoma territory for Texas

  1833

  April 1 - Santa Anna elected president of Mexico

  July 18 – Stephen Austin departs for Mexico in a vain attempt to help restore order. He is eventually imprisoned there.

  1834

  Santa Anna rescinds the constitution of 1824 and sets up a military dictatorship

  1835

  January-June – worried Texans begin forming committees of correspondence, especially at San Felipe de Austin

  May 12 – Santa Anna defeats the Zacatecan militia

  June 30 – William B. Travis commands a small force of Texians who demand and receive the surrender of the Mexican garrison under Captain Tenorio at Fort Anahuac

  July 13 – Stephen Austin is released from captivity in Mexico

  July-September – Santa Anna sends reinforcements to La Bahia (Goliad) under Colonel Condelle, Bexar (San Antonio) under General Cos, and Gonzales under Colonel Ugartechea

  September 16 – General Cos occupies San Antonio with a force of 800 soldiers

  September 19 - Austin sends out a call to arms to Texians to rally in Gonzales

  October – the Permanent Council meets at San Felipe and elects Richard Royall of Matagorda president

  October 2 – The first battle of the revolution, fought at Gonzales; A small force of Texians under the command of Colonel John Moore attacks the Mexican Army, under Captain Francisco Castaneda; after a brief skirmish, the Mexican force withdraws to San Antonio

  October 10 – Texians attack and take the presidio at La Bahia, unaware that General Cos has departed for Bexar

  October 11 – Stephen Austin is elected Commanding General of the Volunteer Army of Texas

  October 13 – Austin leads the Volunteer Army of Texas overland to Bexar

  October 20 -December 9 – siege of Bexar

  October 28 - The Battle of Concepcion pits Colonel Ugartechea against Colonels Bowie and Fannin in the first major battle of the war

  November 3 – Under the command of Captain Phillip Dimmitt, Texian forces take Fort Lipantitlan

  November 2-14 – Texians dissolve the Permanent Council and begin a new government at San Felipe; Henry Smith is elected governor, Sam Houston is elected commander-in-chief of the regular army of Texas, and Austin, Branch Archer and William Wharton are appointed commissioners to the United States

  November 24 -Austin resigns as commander of the Army and the Texians at Bexar elect Edward Burleson as commander of the Army at Bexar

  November 28 – Texians under the command of James Bowie win The Grass Fight

  December 5 – Ben Milam leads troops into San Antonio, he is killed on December 7

  December 9 - General Cos vacates San Antonio de Bexar and occupies the Alamo

  December 11 – Cos surrenders, his troops are allowed to march to Mexico

  December 15- General Burleson, thinking the war is over, resigns his commission and returns home; many Texians follow

  1836

  January 3 – Dr. James Grant and Colonel James Fannin lead a force south from Bexar with the intent of capturing Matamoros; the Texian force at San Antonio is thus decimated

  January 17 – Governor Smith sends Colonel James Bowie from Goliad to support the garrison at San Antonio

  January 24 – Governor Smith orders Colonel William Travis to San Antonio to support Colonel Neill

  January 30 – General Houston places himself on furlough until March 1, stating to Governor Smith that he cannot lead an army that is so poorly conceived

  February 1 – Davy Crockett arrives at the Alamo with a small band of Tennesseans

  February 23 – General Santa Anna arrives with his army at San Antonio, the siege of the Alamo begins

  February 24 - Bowie collapses, most likely from pneumonia, typhoid or diphtheria, passing command to Travis

  February 27 – General Jose Urrea, leading a Mexican army northward along the coastal route, surprises and defeats Colonel Frank Johnson and his troops at the Battle of San Patricio

  March 1 – a new convention meets at Washington-on-the-Brazos; thirty-two settlers under George Kimball fight their way into the Alamo

  March 2 – Texas declares independence from Mexico at Washington-on-the-Brazos

  March 3 – Sam Houston is appointed Commander-in-chief of the Army of the Republic of Texas; he immediately marches west to Gonzales

  March 6 – The Mexican Army defeats the Texians at the Battle of the Alamo, Santa Anna now mistakenly believes that the war is largely over

  March 11 – Sam Houston receives word at Gonzales that the Alamo has fallen; he orders a general retreat of the Army of Texas

  March 12-15 – General Urrea defeats a Texian force and takes Refugio

  March 16 – Texians adopt a constitution at Washington-on-the-Brazos; David G. Burnet is elected interim president of the Republic of Texas

  March 19 – Colonel Fannin sets out with his army from Goliad; Colonel Fannin’s army is surrounded by General Urrea’s superior force in the afternoon sun, and engages in battle at Coleto Creek

  March 20 –Colonel Fannin surrenders to General Urrea; his forces are taken prisoner at Coleto Creek and returned to La Bahia at Goliad

  March 27 – Colonel Fannin’s forces are massacred at Goliad

  March-April – Santa Anna divides his forces into five divisions and chases eastward across Texas in what comes to be called The Runaway Scrape

  April 20 – Santa Anna corners Houston at San Jacinto

  April 21 – Battle of San Jacinto

  April 22 – Santa Anna captured

  September 5 – Sam Houston elected president of the Republic of Texas