Luck of the Draw

General Santa Anna ordered every single Texan prisoner executed—men, fighting for the Republic of Texas. A total of 214 of them had been captured in December 1842 on the south bank of the Rio Grande in Mier, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The Mexican Army then marched them south to Salado, where the Texans decided they had gone “far enough if not too far into the country.” The Texans had been retaliating for Mexican attacks around San Antonio, known then as West Texas, and the capture of their fel