The Mexicans, by mid-November, had just come to realize that retaking the whole of Texas, as Santa Anna had originally hoped, was now virtually impossible. General Woll still believed, however, that by making a drive towards Austin, and successfully capturing the city, they could at least force the Texians to stop resisting, and that maybe they could negotiate giving away a small part of the Texas region back to Mexico. So, on the 27th of November, he ordered any available forces, which numbered as much as 4,000 at the moment, to press ahead for Austin. The first 2,000 men arrived just to the southeast of the city on the morning of the 29th, and were placed on standby, to wait for further orders....
Meanwhile, to the east, about 500 of the Texians who'd volunteered to liberate Washington arrived just outside of the former capital on the afternoon of the 27th. The Mexicans still holed up in the city were immediately notified by their scouts, and were ordered to fire by their commander.
The battle was surprisingly tame at first; very few shots were exchanged on the first couple of days, and the Texians actually didn't lose a single man on the 28th, while only a small handful of Mexican deaths were reported. It was on the 29th when the real combat would begin. The Texians fired first at 7:45, taking out a half dozen sentries and wounding several others, all without a single loss of their own. The Mexicans immediately responded with their own gunfire, but had to use it somewhat sparingly as ammunition was running low.....
Even early on, the Texians had a clear advantage. Some of them were veterans of several battles, and had been combat-hardened, whereas many of the Mexicans had been essentially plucked off the streets. The Mexicans had also suffered problems with their supply lines, whereas the Texians had been able to bring a few extra supplies with them.....All in all, the battle lasted only eight and a half hours in a single day; the Texians lost 42 men, but the Mexicans suffered 77 killed, and were forced to withdraw from the city altogether; the Texians now had their first real victory for quite a long time.
The same general scenario repeated in Montgomery as well; on the first of December, the militias from the Trinity River towns of Geneva, Swartwout, Cincinnati, and Carolina, numbering about 700 men total, arrived on the outskirts of the town at around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, after crossing Town[now Radley] Creek. And they, too, brought some extra supplies. The Mexicans had a spare cannon, and once their scouts had spotted the Texians, used it to fire a warning shot towards them. The Texians were unfazed, however, and immediately began to return the favor; the liberation of Montgomery had now begun.
The Mexicans of Montgomery were a little bit better stocked than their counterparts in Washington had been. Andres Videgaray had, however, ordered that his men conserve as much ammunition as possible. Which normally would have made sense, but proved to be a hindrance in the long run, as the Texians smashed their way southwards against the sentries. By 10 o'clock that night, the Texians were on the very outskirts of town, ready to make their final move.....
The Texians moved first; at around nine o'clock, a few of the rear-guard Texians managed to snipe a few of the Mexican guards, and an adjutant of Videgaray's. A few shots were exchanged for the next hour, but it was at 10 a.m. when the real fighting began, as the Texians began to charge directly towards town, in spite of Videgaray's increasingly desperate attempts to keep them away.....
As the sun set on Montgomery, the results were clear: Videgaray's forces had been decimated. 102 Mexicans died in the defense of the city, 75 on the 2nd alone, with 120 more injured. The Texians lost 40 men, and 92 were injured. But their mission had succeeded, and many of them spent the night celebrating a victory well earned, and long overdue....
