Alamo Traces by Thomas Ricks Lindley Page B

of the General Council, that he was going to locate a “field officer in command of San Antonio de Bexar with a sufficient number of troops for the defense of the station, I also design, the employment of an Engineer, and [to] have the fortifications and defenses of the place improved.” On December 21 Houston wrote Neill, “On receipt of this you will take command of the Post of Bexar and make such disposition of the troops there as you may deem proper for the security & protection of the place.”
    For those historians who believe that Henry Smith and Sam Houston did not support an attack on Matamoros, read this. Smith wrote William Ward: “. . . Every man that is not in favor of Texas becoming independent and free, distrust him! Every one that wishes to supercede the commander-in-chief, or not recognize him in his proper place, distrust him! I have anticipated them and ordered the commander-in-chief forthwith to proceed to the frontier, take charge of the army, establish his headquarters at the most eligible point, and to immediately concentrate his troops, at the different points, so as to be in readiness for active operations, at the earliest possible date. Adescent will be made on Matamoros, as soon as it can possibly be fitted out. . . . Some men of whom I have cautioned you are making bold moves to become commander-in-chief of expeditions. I will rob them of the army and they will be flat.”
    22 James C. Neill to Governor [Smith] and Council, January 14, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 15-16.
    23 Houston to Smith, January 17, 1836.
    24 Ibid.
    25 F. W. Johnson to General Council, January 3, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, III: 412-413. Johnson, speaking to Bexar’s defense, wrote: “I have ordered all the guns from the town into the Alamo and the fortifications in the town to be destroyed.” Johnson was probably talking about the street barricades from the siege and storming of Bexar in 1835.
    26 Houston to Smith, January 17, 1836.
    27 Houston to Collinsworth, March 13, 1836.
    28 Williams and Barker, eds.,
Writings
, VII: 306-336.
    29 D. C. Barrett, J. D. Clements, Alexander Thomson, and G. A. Pattillo to James W. Robinson, January 31, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 206; Henry Smith to William Bryan, February 5, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 268.
    See Chapter Four for the data and sources on the three political movements that attempted to turn a defensive struggle into an offensive war by organizing an attack on the port of Matamoros, an act that split the Texas government into two factions. Governor Smith, Houston, James Bowie, and the Alamo garrison were in support of total independence from Mexico so that the region could be joined to the United States. Lt. Governor Robinson, James W. Fannin Jr., and the Council, with the support and influence of Stephen F. Austin, wished to continue the fight in the name of federalism and maintain Texas as a state in the Mexican nation.
    30 William B. Travis to W. G. Hill, January 21, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 109; Smith to Bryan, February 5, 1836; William B. Travis to Henry Smith, January 28, 1836, Burnam’s Crossing on the Colorado River, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 176-177.
    Travis wrote Smith: “In obedience to my orders, I have done everything in my power to get ready to march to the relief of Bexar, but owing to the difficulty of getting horses and provisions, and owing to desertions, I shall march today with only about thirty men, all regulars except one.”
    William B. Travis to Henry Smith, January 29, 1836, Burnam’s Crossing, Army Papers, TSL; hereafter cited as AP-TSL. Travis wrote: “I must beg that your Excellency will recall the order for me to go on to Bexar in command of so few men. . . . Therefore I hope Your Excellency will take my situation into consideration, & relieve me from the orders to command in person the