Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/254

218 were formed in various parts of the United States for the purchase of these lands. Mr. Huntsman mentions some of the companies formed in Tennessee, and gives the names of their managers or representatives: Colonel Andrew Erwin, Doctor Douglas, Colonel John D. Martin, all men of standing and influence. These Texas settlers took part in the internal struggles of Mexico during the rapid succession of revolutions which placed at the head of Mexican affairs Iturbide, Victoria, Pedrazza, Guerrero, Bustamente and Santa Anna. During all this time the American settlers displayed the same heroic characteristics which had distinguished their fathers as the pioneers of the West. They were the bulwark against despotic government. Thoroughly identified with their new home, they resisted the tyrannical measures of Sana Anna. The Mexican government determined to subdue them, and made war upon Texas and Coahuila. Being for the time compelled to submit, the Texans soon revolted. In this revolt they were aided by the sympathy of the United States and by many volunteers from the South. Among these volunteers were two famous men from Tennessee: David Crockett, whose tragic death at the Alamo has been made the theme of song and story, and Sam Houston, who having resigned his office as governor of Tennessee, and spent a short time with the Indians, suddenly reappeared as a Texas volunteer.

General Cos, with a large Mexican army, moved under the orders of Santa Anna into Texas to subdue all resistance and to enforce the edict forbidding further immigration from the United States. On the 28th of September, 1935, the Texans defeated a body of Mexican troops at Gonzales, and the war for independence began. Being defeated in a number of battles, at Goliad, Conception, Sepanticlan and San Antonio, General Cos was forced to surrender.