"Battle for Béxar 1835 - what Mexican units were there?" Topic

Martín Cos was sent up to Béxar after the start of the Texas Revolution. He ultimately wound up with about 1200 men after a few subsequent groups of reinforcements joined him. I have never seen any information about which units he brought with him.

I assume that before he arrived, the Mexican troops in Texas consisted of presidiales and garrison troops. But Cos must have brought regular troops with him, either permanente or activo in regards to the infantry and cavalry he had for the Bexar campaign of 1835.

Can anyone point me to a source for which units were with him?

Artorius, I have a book titled "The Alamo. and the Texas War for Independnce" by Albert A. Nofi, PH.D. It is the best source of information I have come across for the conflicts of this era in Texas.
On page 32, the last paragraph informs of events that took place in September 1835. Including General Cos landing at Copano Bay with 400 reinforcements for the garrison at San Antonio. On page 37, it informs there were about 1,000 Mexican troops in the San Antonio vicinity, mostly presidiales plus one regular battalion, the Matamoros, having arrived with Cos.

On page 39, it adds a column of conscripts under Col. Domingo Ugaertecha arrived on Nov 5th, bringing troop strength to 1400-1500 men.
The book goes into very good details about the skirmishes in San Antonio at the time. As a result on page 48, it reports Cos's situation deteriorated to about 1,100 troops, many ill-trained conscripts as well as hundreds of camp followers.

The book is 222 pages including index. There are several orders of battle for Texas and Mexican forces, maps, illustrations, etc. Details I have not seen elsewhere. For example page 72 contains a chart with a count of how many and what caliber artillery pieces were in the Alamo broken down by 7 different sources.

Thanks, WarWizard. I saw Nofi's book on Amazon and now I'll buy it.

Nofi does good work.

My BLOODY DAWN rules include a scenario for Cos defending the Alamo instead of Bexar. I postulate that he sends his cavalry south to fetch re-enforcements and abandons the conscripts and camp followers, and puts the Matamoros battalion, 400 regular infantry, plus his gunners and riflemen, into the Alamo.

It is then the TEXIANS who have to attack. I let them pull up a couple of six pounders to use as wall breakers, as they did in Bexar. They will accept surrender and give quarter, so the Mexicans will not fight to the death, but may surrender if enough parts of the compound are captured. It makes for a wild and fun game.

If you let Cos KEEP some cavalry to sortie out from the fort, the play balance swings against the Texians.

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