Victoria, Texas). These men sought to re-establish republicanism under the Mexican constitution of 1824.

The fall of Tampico greatly alarmed the Mexican authorities who, at this time, were desperately trying to ward off a full-scale French invasion and at the same time were having to contend with the growing conflagration at home.[19]  Having gained access to an important gulf port, the insurrectionists could now cooperate with the French and receive military supplies more readily from abroad, and gain some financial support from the customs. The government acted quickly. It ordered General Martín Perfecto de Cós, military commandant at San Antonio de Béxar in 1835, to take command of the military forces in the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila y Téjas;[20]  and in an effort to repossess Tampico dispatched General Canalizo from Matamoros, with a force which had been raised to repel the French invasion. The government troops, it was reported, were "promised the privilege of plundering the inhabitants [of the town], to encourage them, and the houses of the foreigners were pointed out to them as fittest to be pilfered."[21]  Canalizo's troops, although assisted by those of General José de las Piedras and the inept General Cós and numbering upwards of two thousand men,[22]  were defeated after a hard-fought