Friday, April 22, 2011

Santa Anna in hand.

Texas troops scouring the countryside for escaped Soldatos and Santa Anna find him, dressed in a private's uniform. He's worth much more alive than dead as he -under some duress, issues orders for General Filisola, his immediate second in command, to retreat to San Antonio. Couriers go out to the Mexican forces with the message.

Houston and Santa Anna are both Masons. Almonte does the translating.

Houston having quite a bit of difficulty with his ankle. It will trouble him the rest of his life.

Sam ran the war with 200.00 in his saddlebags. His horse Saracen is dead. He spent the 200.00. The Texans find 12,000.00 silver in Santa Anna's tent.

Secretary of War Rusk had a letter in his pocket relieving Houston of command the whole time since Gonzalez. Never used it.

The Texas Government steams to the battle site from Galveston on the good ship Yellowstone, stacks patched from the dash past the Mexican camp on the Brazos with the 1836 equivalent of duct tape.

No word of the fate of Emily D. West, though Col. Morgan, her owner is on the field. She deserves Texas highest honor for helping catch the Generalissimo with his pants around his ankles. God bless the Yellow Rose of Texas.

Given the provocation, previous Mexican depredations and death toll, 650 Mexican dead 230 wounded out of 1300 seems light.

Col. Adrian Woll, English mercenary, rides in under a flag of truce, to find out the terms of surrender but also to calculate Texan strength. He is detained and sent home through Velasco and Goliad. He returns to Mexico with Filisola's troops.

The word slowly gets out. Still substantial Mexican armies in the field stretched from New Washington to the Rio Grande. Nobody going home for a bit. Refugees scattered to the East all the way into Louisiana. Slow turn-around.

3 comments:

Old NFO said...

And he tried to escape as a Private, rather than own up to who he was...

Robert Langham said...

I think he started off in his silk undermawears....might have gotten whatever he could get. I'm sure he was stripped down when the shooting started.

Paul said...

What? Col. Woll not shot?

He most richly deserved it being a Brit with those killers.

Dang so many of the ones who really needed stringing up got away.