Their scheme contemplated an army to be commissioned, armed, fed, and clothed by Texas, but managed, privately, by Johnson and Grant. The Council did not take kindly to this independent idea, but in the general breakdown of the Provisional Government was browbeaten by Johnson into a vague acceptance of his plans.

In the meantime, however, General Houston had overtaken Grant's army at Goliad and persuaded all but two of the companies to enlist in the service of Texas, rather than in the private army of Johnson and Grant. The latter then proceeded to San Patricio with their two remaining companies -- sixty men -- in order to maintain a semblance of independent command. This was on January 22; and on that same day General Urrea occupied Matamoros with reinforcements sufficient to hold that place against any force the Texans, at that time, could bring to bear. The flank and rear of a Texan force advancing from Copano toward Matamoros would also be exposed to attack by Santa Anna's principal army then concentrating at Laredo, and points north, for its march to Béxar. The small Texan army left by General Houston at Refugio -- seven companies and about 200 men -- were without breadstuffs or adequate supplies of ammunition and could only await the coming of Colonel Fannin's command.

That officer sailed from the mouth of the Brazos on January 24 with the four companies of the Georgia Battalion and Captain Luis Guerra's Mexican artillery company (brought by General Mexía from the fort at the Tampico bar), and was followed by the Invincible with Captain Burr H. Duval's Company on January 26. Fannin, after a rough passage, made his landfall at Aransas Pass on January 28 and moved up to Copano, and had disembarked his troops and stores by February 4. The Invincible brought cheering news. Colonel John A. Wharton, General Houston's Adjutant General, had just arrived off the Brazos from New Orleans with Captains Turner's and Hart's companies of recruits -- a hundred men -- and with the schooner Tamaulipas laden with powder, munitions, clothing, and ordnance, and the schooners Caroline and Emeline laden with provisions purchased by the Texan agents at New Orleans with the new money the Texan commissioners had found. This flotilla, convoyed by the naval schooner Liberty would be due at Copano within three or four days. The brig Mattawamkeag, with the New York Battalion -- 184 men -- was also eagerly expected, though some weeks overdue.