Post by stuart on Aug 27, 2010 15:35:03 GMT -5
I've been giving some thought to this one in connection with something else and would like to offer a scenario which might make some sense of all this.
On February 23 Santa Anna achieved his initial objective of recovering Bexar from the rebels. The fact that some of them were still forted up in the Alamo outside of town was an irrelevance as they posed no threat either to the Mexican Army's possession of the town or its intended eastward advance. It was sufficient to "contain" them while the rest of the army slowly closed up.
Then after 10 days the situation changed. In the first place three more battalions arrived together with a couple of cannon, and the same day word came from General Urrea announcing that he had defeated the rebels at San Patricio and was in pursuit of Grant. This, as I've argued before was important for with Grant out of the way there was no longer any fear of a Federalist uprising in his rear. Its possible to take this further however for Urrea was far from trustworthy. He had fought for the Federalistas before and would do so again. One of the lingering mysteries of this campaign is why he took so long to track down Grant's men and there has to be a very strong suspicion that like Vital Fernandez in Matamoros he was treading very carefully until he could see where the wind was blowing. Only when it became obvious that the plan of "general revolutionising" wasn't happening did he finally throw in his lot with Santa Anna and turn on the Federalists. Santa Anna, being no fool was well aware of this but there was another factor as well. Urrea was trumpeting a great victory for Mexican arms, and promising more to come. Santa Anna on the other hand had retaken Bexar but it was hardly glorious. He needed a Centralist victory to balance against Urrea and Fernandez' triumph, hence the decision next day to assault the Alamo.
This is where we come to the line in the sand. We know there was some kind of informal communication going on between the Alamo and the town, whether through messengers, spies or just plain gossiping between sentries. Word of the decision and resulting preparations for the assault are just as likely to have gotten into the Alamo as any news of what was happening inside got out.
Travis thus far has maintained a creditable defence, but other than the small reinforcement from Gonzales no help has reached him and now the Mexicans are preparing an assault. Now is the time to ask for terms - and to ask his men to stay put in order to secure those terms rather than bugging out and putting everybody at risk. In the expectation of a cease-fire and discussions they relax and instead Santa Anna, who is under political pressure for a glorious victory rather than another tame surrender, attacks just before dawn.
On February 23 Santa Anna achieved his initial objective of recovering Bexar from the rebels. The fact that some of them were still forted up in the Alamo outside of town was an irrelevance as they posed no threat either to the Mexican Army's possession of the town or its intended eastward advance. It was sufficient to "contain" them while the rest of the army slowly closed up.
Then after 10 days the situation changed. In the first place three more battalions arrived together with a couple of cannon, and the same day word came from General Urrea announcing that he had defeated the rebels at San Patricio and was in pursuit of Grant. This, as I've argued before was important for with Grant out of the way there was no longer any fear of a Federalist uprising in his rear. Its possible to take this further however for Urrea was far from trustworthy. He had fought for the Federalistas before and would do so again. One of the lingering mysteries of this campaign is why he took so long to track down Grant's men and there has to be a very strong suspicion that like Vital Fernandez in Matamoros he was treading very carefully until he could see where the wind was blowing. Only when it became obvious that the plan of "general revolutionising" wasn't happening did he finally throw in his lot with Santa Anna and turn on the Federalists. Santa Anna, being no fool was well aware of this but there was another factor as well. Urrea was trumpeting a great victory for Mexican arms, and promising more to come. Santa Anna on the other hand had retaken Bexar but it was hardly glorious. He needed a Centralist victory to balance against Urrea and Fernandez' triumph, hence the decision next day to assault the Alamo.
This is where we come to the line in the sand. We know there was some kind of informal communication going on between the Alamo and the town, whether through messengers, spies or just plain gossiping between sentries. Word of the decision and resulting preparations for the assault are just as likely to have gotten into the Alamo as any news of what was happening inside got out.
Travis thus far has maintained a creditable defence, but other than the small reinforcement from Gonzales no help has reached him and now the Mexicans are preparing an assault. Now is the time to ask for terms - and to ask his men to stay put in order to secure those terms rather than bugging out and putting everybody at risk. In the expectation of a cease-fire and discussions they relax and instead Santa Anna, who is under political pressure for a glorious victory rather than another tame surrender, attacks just before dawn.