the Hidalgo movement, condemning them to death. The Anglo officers protested the decision and endeavored to convince the self-appointed generalissimo and governor to spare them and send them either to prison in southern Mexico or to exile in Louisiana. Instead, the prisoners were placed under the escort of the Mexican rebel Capt. Antonio Delgado who summarily executed them along with 12 others and mutilated the corpses, leaving them lying at the site without burial; even going so far as to steal their belongings. Delgado returned to San Antonio, where he boasted of the butchery, which was announced publicly on the military parade grounds. The brutal atrocity of these events sickened most of the Anglo-Tejano and American forces supporting the independence movement; all the Anglo officers and recruits were horrified, and a party of them rushed to the execution site and gave the victims a Christian burial. Subsequently, most of the Anglo-Tejano and American officers immediately abandoned the cause and returned to eastern Texas, Louisiana and further points east. Samuel Kemper, James Gaines, Warren D.C. Hall and others were so shocked they took furloughs and returned to Nacogdoches. Nonetheless, the appeals of Col. Miguel Menchaca and other Mexican leaders persuaded some to stay and continue fighting for the cause of Mexican independence. On 6 April 1813, Gutiérrez declared the province of Texas independent of Spain and on 18 April proclaimed the first Constitution of Texas, which was more Centralist than Republican. This only further demoralized the remaining Anglo-Tejano and American volunteers, who provided the backbone of the army. The Republican Army of the North, through influence of the putatively independent state of Texas, now initiated its plans for full-scale independence and prepared to meet a counter-offensive from the south, where outrage over the execution of Salcedo and Herrera caused previously neutral criollo forces to join the loyalist troops. Arredondo's revenge To meet the threat represented by the recently separated province, the Spanish crown appointed General José Joaquín de Arredondo to command the Eastern and Western Divisions of the Provincias Internas. He quickly re-organized the royalist forces, appointed new officers, drilled his troops, and awaited for additional supplies while planning for a vast implementation of his counter-insurgency tactics. The anger of the royalist criollos toward the Gutierrez regime, however, was such that many wanted quick and violent retribution by marching toward San Antonio to capture and execute the first "President Protector of