The Failure Of The Texian Army

Many Mexican officials attempted to collect taxes by force from the colonists despite the previous agreement that they would be exempt . As tensions increases, Texas created an army of 1,100 men split into two groups, regulars and volunteers in October of 1835. Houston was made the leader of the regular group of soldiers on paper . Although the commander on paper, The Texian army did not recognize Sam Houston as their commander when he finally joined them, seeing him as not having earned the right because he was not there at the initial skirmishes of Gonzales, Concepcion, the Grass fight, and the storming of Bexar . The nature of the Texian Army was not of unity but of individualism and the problem would present itself to General Houston often

For the Texas revolution the operational level of war started when General Santa Anna achieved the element of surprise in February of 1836. General Santa Anna’s army crossed the Rio Grande during the winter in February. The Texian leadership did not believe General Santa Anna would cross the Rio Grande before April to the extent that the provisional government was not active and most permeant Texians in the army were home with their family . General Santa Anna would not wait that long because he was low on capital and did not want to fight in the summer months . Impressive as this mid-winter crossing was, it did not come without its consequences. By mid-February the Mexican forces were spread out across 300 miles. Starvation, dehydration, and disease were serious issues due to the very short sighted planning and unusually severe winter and following hot spring . These problems would only be exacerbated as General Santa Anna spread his army into four different formations and stretched their supply lines further and further northeast in unfamiliar

The Texian Army planned for six different contingents in their total forces. The regular force, a regularly enlisted volunteer force, an auxiliary volunteer force, a reserve army, a militia and the Texas rangers would all have different commanders that were not subordinate to each other. The regular volunteers could leave when they wanted and would choose leadership by popular vote. The Regulars were not trained unless they served in the United States Army and for the most part not much different than the volunteers in attitudes. The auxiliary volunteer force were additional volunteer forces under their own command also. The other three contingents did not build their forces up before the war ended . At its peak the Texian Army totaled 1900 soldiers that were concentrated in six locations as well as spread out and enroute from the United States