People came to Texas
from all over the United States, and all over The Earth. When they carved “GTT” on the door of their
homes and were Gone To Texas, they brought their guns along with them.
Why were they GTT? Many of them had nowhere else to go. The
fact of the matter is that our greatest Texas heroes were ejected from their
previous lives for various reasons. The newly opened colonization of
Texas was a great place to commence anew.
They brought along their firearms, because the country was wild and
unknown. The opportunity to disappear
and start over was not without mystery of what was waiting for them here.
Texas was part of the Mexican
state Coahuila y Texas. The government
of México operated under The Mexican Constitution of 1830, which actually was not
that bad. Mexican El Presidente and Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna did not like the constitution, though, so he tossed it out. This did
not set well with so many of the Texas settlers who had come through the US;
The Constitution of the United States was not too much different
in 1835 than it is today. When the Mexican army came to recover the
now-famous Twin Sisters cannons protecting the people of Gonzales on 2 October
1835, the settlers finally had to fight for their rights.
The Alamo was actually
defended twice during The Texas Revolution. The record for the defenders was
1-1. The famous 13 Days to Glory in 1836 was actually what you would call
a Pyrrhic victory for Santa Anna though. During that time, Sam
Houston was allowed to stage a battle that he favored on the San Jacinto river
near the city that now bears his name. The result was that Texas gained
independence. In exchange for his life, Santa Anna returned to Mexico in
shame, with Texas surrendered after the battle on 21 April 1836. Santa Anna vowed to take up arms against
Texas again if the new Republic ever joined the United States [and he was
allowed to return to power]. He returned
to Mexico City in shame that day.
Over the next 20
years, Santa Anna returned to power off and on several times in Mexico. Amazingly enough, he was once again in power when
Texas became the 28th of these United States. The result was The Mexican
War, which was won almost entirely as a result of the efforts of The Texas Rangers. I
gave greater detail to this part of the story in a previous article.
Texas became part of
the United States on 29 December 1845, as a result of The Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo. After The Mexican War, there was also something called the
Gadsden Purchase, in which America bought a little bit more land from Mexico to
settle up. Of the 50 states, Texas is the only one annexed by treaty.
Quoting my own masters
thesis Baptist Influence During the
Republic of Texas, "According to the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, the American government purchased nearly one million square miles of
territory ceded by Mexico for the astonishingly low sum of
$15,000,000. This land would become the states and territories eventually
comprising all the future land area of the states of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona,
California, and Nevada. In addition, parts of modern states
Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming were also acquired as a result of the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase."
German Jack Fordern is
Texas historian and novelist Johnny Baker Jr. of Dallas, TX. His historical novel, Burnt Alive in Gumption Junction, is available in paperback and
Kindle from Amazon. The book is also for
sale at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum at Ft. Fisher in Waco, TX.
No comments:
Post a Comment