Runaway Scrape

Runaway Scrape

The Runaway Scrape events took place mainly between September 1835 and April 1836 and were the evacuations by Texas residents fleeing the Mexican Army of Operations. The conflict arose after Antonio López de Santa Anna abrogated the 1824 Constitution of Mexico and established martial law in Coahuila y Tejas. It was Sam Houston’s responsibility, as the appointed commander-in-chief of the Provisional Army of Texas, to recruit and train a military force to defend the population.

About Runaway Scrape in brief

Summary Runaway ScrapeThe Runaway Scrape events took place mainly between September 1835 and April 1836 and were the evacuations by Texas residents fleeing the Mexican Army of Operations. The conflict arose after Antonio López de Santa Anna abrogated the 1824 Constitution of Mexico and established martial law in Coahuila y Tejas. It was Sam Houston’s responsibility, as the appointed commander-in-chief of the Provisional Army of Texas, to recruit and train a military force to defend the population against troops led by Santa Anna. Houston’s actions were viewed as cowardice by the ad interim government, as well as by some of his own troops. The subsequent Battle of San Jacinto resulted in the surrender of Santa Anna and the signing of the Treaties of Velasco. The towns of Gonzales and San Felipe de Austin were burned to keep them out of the hands of the Mexican army. The government officials eventually escaped to Galveston Island, and Santa Anna burned the towns of Harrisburgh and New Washington when he failed to find them. Approximately 5,000 terrified residents of New Washington fled from the MexicanArmy. The volunteer army under Edward Burleson was disbanded on December 20. Most wanted to remain part of a deeply divided Mexico, and the General Council of Mexico designated Harrisburgh as the seat of the provisional government on December 30, 1835. Most paid troops of the Council of Texas, a paid force of 2,500, refused to remain in the region. The General Council called elections to choose delegates to determine the fate of the region on December 10, 1836.

Henry Smith was elected as the representative in Nacogdoches, Texas, who also served as the commander of the volunteer army on December 1, 1837. The Consultation of 1835 convened in San Felipes de Austin on November 3 of that year. Their creation of a provisional government based on the 18 24 constitution established the General council as a legislative body with each municipality allotted one representative without any clearly defined powers of the position. After a little over a month of training the troops, Houston reached a crossroads where he ordered some of them to escort the fleeing refugees farther east while he took the main army southeast to engage the Mexican forces. The news of the Battle of the Alamo and the Goliad massacre instilled fear in the population and resulted in a mass exodus of the civilian population of Gonzale, where the opening battle of the Texian revolution had begun and where they had sent a militia to reinforce the defenders at the mission. The refugees from Gonzales escaped first to the Colorado River and then to the Brazos, as evacuees from other areas trickled in and new militia groups arrived to join with Houston’s force. The refugee refugees were accompanied by the newly forming provisional army, as Houston bought time to train soldiers and create a military structure that could oppose Santa Anna’s greater forces. He began amassing his army on November 28,1835, soon followed by General Joaquín Ramírez y Sesma leading the Vanguard of the Advance across the Rio Grande in December.