As the ashes of the Alamo continued to smolder, Sam Houston feared another disaster could befall his Texas Army. Mexican forces under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna continued to sweep across Texas toward Fort Defiance, the presidio in Goliad that had been seized by the rebels in October 1835 at the onset of the war for independence. Houston ordered Colonel James W. Fannin to evacuate his 400-man force from Goliad and retreat to Victoria, a town 30 miles to the east behind the natural defense of the Guadalupe River. “The immediate advance of the enemy may be confidently expected,” Houston warned Fannin. “Prompt movements are therefore highly important.”
Corrupt politicians were the order of the day in 19th century political machines; these politicians, through the bosses, would give and jobs and contracts to those who supported them.
