Colonel William Preston Johnston, The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston : His Service in the Armies of the United States, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States.

[63] for an army and navy, and for all the functions of civil government, and inducements were offered to volunteers to join their standard. In January, 1836, Austin wrote, advising a declaration of independence; and, on the 1st of February, delegates in favor of that measure were elected to a national convention, which, on the 2d day of March, 1836, declared Texts: a free, sovereign, and independent republic. On the 17th of March a constitution was adopted, and an executive government, ad interim, appointed — of which David G. Burnet was President; Lorenzo de Zavala, Vice-President; Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War; and other distinguished Texans chiefs of the usual bureaux. The President was a man of noble character-temperate but firm in opinion, tenacious of principles, diligent in business, pure, patriotic, and enlightened. He was a native of New Jersey, the son of a Revolutionary patriot, and had long been a resident of Texas. Yet, such was his sensibility that he felt a slight as if it were a stain, and this rendered him, even when most useful, most unhappy. His colleagues were men of like patriotism and fine abilities.

In the mean time events had moved rapidly. Santa Anna had set out on the 1st of February from Saltillo, with his grand army of invasion, computed at 7,500 men. On the 16th he crossed the Rio Grande, and on the 23d appeared before San Antonio. Instead of finding this stronghold of the west fortified, garrisoned, and provisioned against his advance, it was occupied by a small detachment, which, at his approach, retired to the Alamo, a mission which had been turned into a barrack. Two months and a half had completely changed the condition of affairs in Texas. The colonists, present at the fall of San Antonio, had retired to their homes immediately after that event; and the volunteers, who remained, weary of inaction, eagerly entered upon an expedition, projected against Matamoras, and said to have been approved by the Government and General Houston. Some 400 started, leaving only about sixty men as a garrison.

The civil Government had split into two hostile factions; the Council on one side, and Governor Smith and General Houston on the other: and the defenders of the frontier were perplexed, and eventually sacrificed, by the contradictory orders and neglect of preparation of these opposing heads. Clothing and munitions came in from friends in the United States, and a considerable number of volunteers also arrived; but, directed by no competent common authority, the energies of these valiant and enthusiastic men were wasted for the purposes of defense, and their blood served only to immortalize their own heroism, and to consecrate the cause to which it was devoted.

Thus, while Santa Anna was assembling his army, and making his preparations for invasion, the hardy but undisciplined militia remained at home. If a man with the true instincts of leadership had been at