in february 1836, a vengeful antonio lopez santana splashed across the rio grande at the head of an army numbering some 7,000. on february 23rd, he arrived and laid siege inside the alamo. on march 1st, texan delegates arrived to attend a convention held in the town of washington. wasting no time, they declared independence the following day. on that exact day, sam houston issued a proclamation that made its way through the anglo settlements. at first, this appears innocuous enough but close inspection reveals some odd inconsistencies. since delegates did not confirm houston as commander in chief of the army until march 4th, this march 2nd proclamation appeared more than a little presumptuous or at least peremptory. still, it was typical of houston's large and in charge style. if one reads the body of the document, houston's intent seems clear. and let's do that. war is raging on the frontier bears the siege by 2,000 under the command of general sesma. reinforcements are on the march to join with the besieging army. by the last report, our force was only 150 men. the citizens of texas mu

a young lieutenant that was on that expedition from mexico is antonio lopez de santana. it's his first taste of texas. in the days after this expedition, there are others that will see texas as a fertile ground just waiting to be taken. you may know of the famed privateer jean lafitte. jean and his brother pierre will join with a french privateer. louis arie. in 1817, they create a settlement at galveston. and they're having a wonderful time plundering mexican and spanish and american ships, until 1819, the american government says that's enough -- enough's enough. and they send a navy expedition over. they hang about nine pirates. it's amazing. you hang a few pirates and that stopped it. literally all at once. well, at the same time lafitte is there at galveston, there's also a group of french napoleanic officers. they create a settlement and what they envisioned is that they would liberate napoleon from st. helena, and he would have this empire along the gulf coast. well, napoleon dies at st. helena, and the empire, well, there's that here, and if you ever go out east