Some preliminary information
After the fall of the Alamo, Sam Houston was in Gonzalez, just west of San Antonio, and started a retreat, to the East, in front of the Mexican Army, this was called the Run Away scrape. &nbap; As he retreated across Texas he built a small army of volunteers into what was called the Texas Army.

We want to make this trip to follow the path of the Run Away Scrape, that is, from Gonzales to San Jacinto and finally visit Washington on the Brazos (where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed).

"The news of the Alamo's fall and the slaughter of Fannin's men at Goliad created a panic among the Texas settlers. Their flight was impeded by the lack of wagons; draft animals to pull them and the terrible traveling conditions brought on by the heavy rains. After a prolonged drought experienced throughout Texas in 1835 the skies opened up and sent torrential rains down upon the fleeing settlers, making the roads a quagmire and filling the rivers from bank to bank. The refugees repeatedly found themselves struggling for miles over bad roads only to be met at the riverbanks with uncrossable fords and crowded ferries. Houston ordered small details of men to watch the roads and river crossings in order to keep him informed of the enemy forces following his small army." (from The Runaway Scrape at Texas A&M).   Sam Houston, at Gonzales about 60 mi. east of San Antonio, ordered the various parts of the Texas Army to proceede east and assist all people who wanted to escape the Mexican Army (mostle women and children).   The Runaway Scrape is the story of these Texian settlers who ran before the oncoming Mexican army, until the Battle at San Jacinto where the Mexican Army was defeated.   Campsites of the Texas Army during the Runaway Scrape

Another excerpt from "The Runaway Scrape" at TAMU:
"The desolation of the country through which we passed beggars description. Houses, were standing open, the beds unmade, the breakfast things still on the tables, pans of milk molding in the dairies. There were cribs full of corn, smoke houses full of bacon, yards full of chickens that ran after us for food, nests of eggs in every fence corner, young corn and garden truck rejoicing in the rain, cattle cropping luxuriant grass, hogs, fat and lazy, wallowing in the mud, all abandoned. Forlorn dogs roamed around the deserted homes, their doleful howls adding to the general sense of desolation. Hungry cats ran mewing to meet us rubbing their sides against our legs in token of welcome. Wagons were so scarce that it was impossible to remove household goods, many of the women and children, even, had to walk." Smithwick also recalled some of his own countrymen who took advantage of the panic-stricken settlers "...There were men - or devils, rather - bent on plunder, galloping up behind the fugitives, telling them the Mexicans were just behind, thus causing the hapless victims to abandon what few valuables they had tried to save. There were broken-down wagons and household goods scattered all along the road."