A Select Glossary of the Texas Revolution

Fannin, James Walker, Jr.Fannin participated in the battle of Gonzales as captain of the Brazos Guards. With James Bowie, Fannin led the Texan forces in the battle of Concepcion and the capture of the Espada Mission. Fannin was offered the position of Inspector General of the Texan forces by the General Council, but he took, instead, an honorable discharge on November 22, 1835. He then spent time campaigning for a larger army. On December 7, Sam Houston commissioned Fannin a colonel in the regular army; on December 10, the General Council ordered him to enlist reinforcements and contract for war supplies. As agent for the government, Fannin began recruiting forces for the proposed Matamoros Expedition on January 9. He was elected colonel of the Provisional Regiment of Volunteers at Goliad on February 7, and he acted as commander-in-chief of the army from February 12 to March 12, 1836. Learning that Urrea had occupied Matamoros, Fannin and his men fell back on Goliad and began fortifying the city. Ordered to relieve William B. Travis at the Alamo, Fannin made a short-lived effort to transport supplies and ammunition. When the transport wagons broke down, the soldiers voted to return to Goliad. After the fall of the Alamo, Houston ordered Fannin to retreat to Guadalupe Victoria. Fannin delayed, however, staying in Goliad until March 19. Urrea’s forces surrounded Fannin’s troops at Coleto Creek, and, after two days of pitched fighting, Fannin was forced to surrender. He and his men were executed at Goliad on March 27.

FederalistsA Mexican political party which supported a federal system of government. The federalists opposed Santa Anna’s proposal to do away with the Mexican Constitution of 1824. The party also advocated separate statehood for Texas. These men assisted the Texans during the 1835 campaign, abandoning the Texan cause only when the colonists declared independence from Mexico.

Filisola, VicenteAn Italian general, second in command to Santa Anna, Filisola supervised the troop crossings at the Colorado after the army left San Antonio. He joined Gaona in the march eastward. On April 23 Filisola received news of Santa Anna’s capture. Ordering the men under his command to congregate near Fort Bend, Filisola tried to surrender command. When his fellow generals refused to accept the resignation, Filisola led the Mexican retreat.

FlashThe Flash was a privateer fitted out for Texas in the spring of 1836. The ship picked up victims of the Runaway Scrape on the Brazos and took them to Morgan’s Point. At Morgan’s Point, the Flash took on the Texan provisional government and transported its members to Galveston, narrowly escaping capture by Almonte’s forces.

FloraAn American schooner, the Flora took Sam Houston to New Orleans for medical treatment after the battle of San Jacinto.

Fort BendSanta Anna transported his troops across the Brazos at this point. Later, as the Mexican forces retreated before the Texan army, Filisola gathered his available forces here and attempted to resign command.

Fort DefianceJames Fannin wrote the government in February to say that the men of Goliad, after strengthening the fort there, had elected to rename it “Fort Defiance.”

Fort JessupThe federal fort across the border in Louisiana. Secret messages from the fort’s commander, E. P. Gaines, to Sam Houston offered assistance in the pursuit of the war. Troops from Fort Jessup did, in fact, come onto Texan soil when rumors of Indian uprisings in the Nacogdoches area were received.

Four Hundred League GrantThe Coahuila and Texas legislature passed an act on March 14, 1835, authorizing the government to sell 400 leagues of land without regard to the size of individual grants—a violation of previously legislated limitations on the amount of land which could be purchased by one individual. The scandal divided Texans throughout much of the Revolution. Attempts to protect these extensive land purchases were the basis for repeated efforts to mount a Matamoros Expedition.

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