Because Franz had seized the initiative, international opinion had now swung overwhelmingly in Mexico's favor.
At the same time, Britain and France, acting in their own interests, decided to support Mexico and denounced the Texas uprising as a rebellion that threatened the established order.
Andrew Jackson, the president of the United States, badly wanted to send troops into Texas. After all, fighting wars was what he did best; battling capitalists and politicians day in and day out was exhausting.
But Congress was opposed. First, international pressure was now too great. Second, this was a Mexican civil war, and the United States had no right to interfere.
So Andrew Jackson had no choice but to adopt a policy of "neutrality" and announce that the United States would not send troops to aid Texas.
However, he allowed local officials to openly support Texas, while the border checkpoints between the United States and Mexico were little more than a formality. Volunteers from all over the United States poured across the border.
He also allowed the Texans to trade cotton for necessities such as food, weapons, and uniforms. Meanwhile, officers and soldiers could retire early and join the volunteer forces aiding Texas in a personal capacity.
The Second Bank of the United States secretly approved a loan of two million dollars.
By contrast, Mexico's vice president, Rouvel, was already at his wit's end. Although Mexico had received a shipment of weapons from Austria, Santa Anna needed more soldiers and more supplies, piling new burdens onto Mexico's already insolvent treasury.
Though the bill imposing special taxes had passed, Rouvel knew full well that without the church's wholehearted support, Mexico would likely have fallen apart by now.
After Mexico gained independence, it inherited the mess Spain had left behind. The federalists had severely weakened the Mexican government's authority, while local powers had grown too strong, leaving the central government utterly feeble.
Following the instructions in that letter, Rouvel had sought loans from European banks. Only the French had responded.
The French had deep pockets, but they demanded a staggering return.
If Mexico could not repay its debts quickly, the country would likely face bankruptcy.
Rouvel could not bring himself to decide, so he scraped together whatever money he could. Even without recruiting any new soldiers, it would last only three months.
Goliad, Old John's Tavern.
David Crockett brought bad news: the Comanche had reached an agreement with Santa Anna. They had received weapons and would fight for him.
In truth, the Comanche raided merchant caravans not for Santa Anna, but simply to take revenge on American settlers and improve their own lot.
After studying the situation, however, Travis and Bowie agreed that their forces were too small. They should abandon Goliad and retreat to the Alamo.
And so the Alamo, an obscure mission station, became the center of the storm.
While the defenders at the Alamo hurried to reinforce their fortifications, Santa Anna was still in his pleasure quarters.
Santa Anna was a man who knew how to enjoy himself, and even on campaign he brought his mistress along.
His mistress, Jenny, was a native-born white girl, just sixteen, with a wild, natural beauty.
The two military observers Austria had sent this time were no ordinary group of officials on a taxpayer-funded sightseeing trip.
Count Latour had carefully selected two genuine generals. They were young, of course, and certainly looked like military academy graduates.
Before long, though, the Mexican generals were treating the two with the utmost reverence. In a Mexico where military science lagged far behind, the observers had become teachers to the Mexican generals.
Every small skirmish was a military exercise.
The Mexican generals' understanding of Austrian military tactics now boiled down to this: cannons go boom, boom, boom; the enemy runs; cavalry charges, charges, charges.
In an earlier battle, dozens of American settlers had holed up in their houses and refused to surrender.
Then the two military observers ordered the artillery to bombard them for half an hour. At last, the settlers had no choice but to flee their ruined houses, only to have their heads cut off by cavalrymen who had been waiting for them.
The Mexican generals were quite pleased with this way of fighting without risking a single soldier.
Desertion had always been a major problem in the Mexican army.
Nearly thirty percent of the troops deserted on every campaign, especially after they had been paid.
Fortunately, Santa Anna was leading the army himself this time. Along the way, he had also seized the property of many American settlers who refused to submit to Mexico. Otherwise, by the time the army reached here from Mexico City, fewer than six thousand men might have remained.
Historically, Santa Anna had left Mexico City with eight thousand men, but by the time he reached the Alamo, fewer than six thousand remained.
It turned out that for an army with no faith, material rewards were the best way to build cohesion.
February 28, 1836.
Santa Anna's army had besieged the Alamo for five days, but he was in no hurry to attack.
Santa Anna had not expected the war to go so smoothly, and he had fallen in love with giving speeches. He gathered the citizens of San Antonio and continued to address them.
His men's ears were practically stuffed with wax from hearing him speak so much, but the freed slaves and Native American laborers were still deeply moved, and the American settler groups began to split apart.
Next came the main event: the American settlers could either join Mexico or leave the country with their property.
Those who joined Mexico had to pay their back taxes, free their slaves, and hire Mexicans, among other things. But those who chose to leave could not take their weapons with them. They would be attacked along the way by Native Americans or bandits, and their property would ultimately fall into Santa Anna's hands.
March 5, 1836.
At last, Santa Anna remembered the two hundred armed American settlers inside the Alamo. He decided to give the two Austrian military observers a demonstration of his command skills.
Of course, Santa Anna himself was also quite convinced by Austrian artillery tactics.
So he found a hill beyond the range of the Alamo's guns and invited the two Austrian army observers to afternoon tea.
In those days, it was standard practice for soldiers to risk their lives in battle while their commanders drank tea.
Santa Anna even introduced his mistress, Jenny, to the two army observers.
On one side were black tea and Mexican tortillas; on the other, cannon fire thundered without pause.
But after an afternoon of artillery fire, the result was utterly astonishing.
The Mexican army had more than thirty cannons, while the Alamo's defenders had three. The two sides exchanged fire all afternoon, firing hundreds of cannonballs. The Mexican side suffered twenty-five dead, while the Alamo defenders had no fatalities at all, only a dozen or so lightly wounded.
Santa Anna was furious when he heard the news.
"Are your cannonballs made of mud? Why haven't they even brought down the walls? Why?"
In fact, the defenders had reinforced the Alamo's walls long ago and hung wooden boards over them to absorb the impact of the cannonballs.
But the main problem was that the Mexican cannons were too weak and too inaccurate.
Most of the Mexican artillerymen had received no professional training, and they were using old relics left over from the Spanish colonial period.
As a result, the cannons' range was woefully inadequate, and the men did not dare move closer to fire the way they had when bombarding houses.
So fewer than a third of the hundreds of cannonballs actually struck the walls. The three-pounders were far too weak to do much damage, which was why the Alamo's walls still stood firm.
Santa Anna had one sixteen-pound siege gun, but its sheer weight meant it could not keep up with the main force in the short term.
I'm sorry I sent out the draft just now. Something went wrong with the version saved by the system. My apologies, my apologies.
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