The siege of Bexar was a historical event which happened from October 12- December 11, 1835. Even though Texas was losing but managed to pull through and beat Mexico, I believe if Santa Anna had invested money into his army, he could have won the siege of Bexar as well as the battle of the Alamo.
One thing Santa Anna could have done differently was take care of his Army. He had a huge army more than twice the size of the Texian one and still couldn’t accomplish such a simple task. The Mexican army was underpaid, underfed, and untrained. Most of this was due to Santa Anna not caring about or trying to help his Army. His Army also barely had time to sleep, due to village raids. A sleepy, hungry army is going to have a lot of trouble trying to function properly. Because of the lack of food, Mexico was always in a state of “we need to win this war while we have supplies”. This put a lot of pressure of Mexican generals as well, because one mistake could be the difference between failure and success. Most of these men had never seen a battle before either. Santa Anna just enlisted every man over the age limit. If a scared and hungry young boy is thrown into a war with a gun that was from 30 years ago, (ill get into that later) chances are that he won’t do too well. Fear can lead to paralysis, and in a situation where your life can be over in a split second, that isn’t too good.
The second thing Santa Anna Should have done is upgrade his artillery. Mexican Soldiers were using guns that were used during the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century! The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War, A Book written by Peter Guardino states that even Texas soldiers were shocked when they found the weapons of Mexican troops because of how old they were. On top of that, the Texians had the newest weapons and had access to “flying artillery” a kind of weaponry that would use horses to allow more soldiers to be deployed faster and more effectively. This lack of advanced weaponry was definitely one of the key factors to Mexico’s downfall.
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The last factor that led to Mexico’s defeat was the fact that Mexico was essentially broke when the war was going on. This is due to the fact that Mexico couldn’t import or export goods, as well as add taxes onto imports. Another factor to this is that financial stability was just non-existent. This is mainly due to Mexico’s president changing many times over the war, even though Santa Anna was the main president that is targeted in history books as being defeated. Another reason related to this is that Mexico couldn’t even afford their own horses. They had to but rental horses when they could. Considering that horses are a way of traveling from point A to B really fast, and that they can carry a lot of weight, this is a key factor in Mexico’s downfall. These are the reasons why Mexico had to sign a peace treaty and surrender to Texians. After the peace treaty was signed, the US gave Mexico $15 million dollars to help with its financial issues.
Comparing what Mexico fought with and their conditions to the Texian Army’s many advantages, I believe that it is safe to say to say that if Santa Anna and Mexico just some simple changes, Mexico could have won the siege of Bexar.
References
- Texas State Historical Association – Siege of Bexar
- ThoughtCo – The Battle of the Alamo
- National Park Service – War of 1812: Siege of Bexar
- Wikipedia – Siege of Bexar
- Study.com – The Texas Revolution: Summary & Facts
- HistoryNet – Timeline of the Siege of Bexar
- Texas State Historical Association – Santa Anna, Antonio López de
