From the Annals of the Revolution –  In 1836, after the disastrous defeat of Texian forces at the Alamo, the newly commissioned Texan General Sam Houston began a retreat across the coastal plan in an effort to buy time to train his makeshift army. Houston had been chosen on March 6 to be the commander-in-chief of the revolutionary army by the delegates at Washington-on-the-Brazos. Houston immediately departed for Gonzales to join the main force of the revolutionary army.  The Texan Army, such as it was, consisted of about 400 poorly dressed and ill-equipped men. Almost none of them had military experience, some had no weapons and little in the way of provisions.

Houston quickly learned that forces under Col. William B. Travis and volunteers led by Jim Bowie were under siege by the main force of the Mexican Army at the Alamo in San Antonio.  Historians debate whether Houston ever considered attempting to relieve the siege, but it was too late because the Alamo had already fallen when he took command. Scouts reported that Santa Anna’s division was heading east toward Gonzales. Houston had little choice but to retreat and hope for that a situation might present itself where he could press a strategic advantage. The retreat started what became known as the Runaway Scrape in which Anglo settlers followed Houston’s Army across Texas ostensibly seeking refuge in Louisiana.