Published: March 01, 2009 10:45 pm      

Some offices closing for Texas Independence Day

Staff reports

Texas Independence Day is Monday, March 2, and several local entities will close to observe the state holiday.

Federal offices and most banks will be open. The U.S. Postal Service will observe regular hours on Monday.

The holiday is a partial staffing day for state offices. All state offices are scheduled to be open on partial staffing holidays and optional holidays. Please call ahead to confirm hours.

All area schools will hold class on Monday as well.

Cherokee County offices, including the courthouse and administrative offices of the Sheriff’s Department will be closed for Texas Independence Day.

The municipal offices of the cities of Jacksonville, Rusk, Bullard and New Summerfield will all be open Monday.

According to the Web site, www.history.com, during the Texas Revolution, a convention of American Texans met at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and declared Texas independent from Mexico.

“The delegates chose David Burnet as provisional president and confirmed Sam Houston as the commander in chief of all Texan forces,” the site states. “The Texans also adopted a constitution that protected the free practice of slavery, which had been prohibited by Mexican law. Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna’s siege of the Alamo continued, and the fort’s 185 or so American defenders waited for the final Mexican assault.”

Santa Anna, a soldier and politician, had become dictator of Mexico in 1834 and sought to crush rebellions in Texas and other areas.

The revolution continued to expand and finally reached the breaking point in October 1835, when Anglo residents of Gonzales — 50 miles east of San Antonio — responded to Santa Anna’s demand they return a cannon loaned for defense against Indian attack by discharging it against the Mexican troops sent to reclaim it. The Mexicans were routed in what is regarded as the first battle of the Texas Revolution, the site states, and following that incident the American settlers set up a provisional state government, and a Texan army under Sam Houston won a series of minor battles in the fall of 1835.

In January 1836, Santa Anna concentrated an army of several thousand men south of the Rio Grande to retake the Alamo, which Texans had taken a few months before. Sam Houston ordered the fort abandoned. Colonel James Bowie, who arrived at the Alamo on Jan. 19, realized the fort’s captured cannons could not be removed, so he remained entrenched with his men to delay Mexico’s forces and give Houston more time to raise an army large enough to repulse the Mexicans. On Feb. 2, Bowie and his 30 or so men were joined by a small cavalry company under Colonel William Travis, bringing the total number of Alamo defenders to about 140. One week later, the frontiersman Davy Crockett arrived in command of 14 Tennessee Mounted Volunteers.

On Feb. 23, Santa Anna and some 3,000 Mexican troops besieged the Alamo, and the former mission was bombarded with cannon and rifle fire for 12 days. On Feb. 24, in the chaos of the siege, Colonel Travis smuggled out a letter that read: “To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World.... I shall never surrender or retreat.... Victory or Death!”

On March 1, the last Texan reinforcements from nearby Gonzales broke through the enemy’s lines and into the Alamo, bringing the total defenders to approximately 185. On March 2, Texas’ revolutionary government formally declared its independence from Mexico.

In the early morning of March 6, Santa Anna ordered his troops to storm the Alamo. In just over an hour the Texans were overwhelmed, and the Alamo was taken. Santa Anna ordered no prisoners be taken, and all the Texan and American defenders were killed in brutal hand-to-hand fighting. The only survivors of the Alamo were a handful of civilians, mostly women and children.

Six weeks later, a large Texan army under Sam Houston surprised Santa Anna’s army at San Jacinto. Shouting “Remember the Alamo!” the Texans defeated the Mexicans and captured Santa Anna. The Mexican dictator was forced to recognize Texas’ independence and withdrew his forces south of the Rio Grande.

For nearly a decade, Texas existed as an independent republic, and Houston was Texas’ first elected president. In 1845, Texas joined the Union as the 28th state, leading to the outbreak of the Mexican-American War.

An annual Texas Independence Day Celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday, March 7, at the Heritage Place Amphitheatre in Conroe.