Forget the Alamo

[skepticalbip]

... snip ...

Whether the Battle of the Alamo was critical to the defeat of Santa Ana, or not, is difficult to gauge. Beside the fact that Santa Ana greatly underestimated his opponents, it was the slow pace of his army and poor choice of ground, which led to the Texan victory.

It also helped the Texans that the Mexican army was spread across Mexico putting down rebellions from Yucatan to Alta California and quite a few states in between. If the full Mexican army had been available to put down the rebellion in Texas then it would have been a very different story. Santa Anna's army in Texas has been estimated to be somewhere from 1,500 to 6,000 but if all the other states rebelling hadn't required attention then he could have had an army of many tens of thousands to put down the Texas rebellion.

 

[Angry Floof]

the common narrative of the Texas revolt overlooks the fact that it was waged in part to ensure slavery would be preserved.

Ya don't say.

 

[Bronzeage]

... snip ...

Whether the Battle of the Alamo was critical to the defeat of Santa Ana, or not, is difficult to gauge. Beside the fact that Santa Ana greatly underestimated his opponents, it was the slow pace of his army and poor choice of ground, which led to the Texan victory.

It also helped the Texans that the Mexican army was spread across Mexico putting down rebellions from Yucatan to Alta California and quite a few states in between. If the full Mexican army had been available to put down the rebellion in Texas then it would have been a very different story. Santa Anna's army in Texas has been estimated to be somewhere from 1,500 to 6,000 but if all the other states rebelling hadn't required attention then he could have had an army of many tens of thousands to put down the Texas rebellion.

I doubt he would have brought tens of thousands, even if they had been available. As the US Army discovered in the Mexican War, it's a long walk from Mexico City to the Rio Grande river. A lot of it was desolate and sparsely populated. The logistics of marching and feeding that many soldiers over such a long distance would have been prohibitive. I think the Battle of the Alamo gave Santa Ana the impression he was fighting a band of amateurs and that was the chief reason for his complacency as he got farther into Texas.