endured all the hardships of winter and who were not even sufficiently clad for summer, many of them having but one blanket and one shirt, and what was intended for them given away to men some of whom had not been in the army more than four days, and many not exceeding two weeks." For the next several months it was unclear who was in charge of the Texian army—Fannin, Johnson, Grant, or Houston. On January 10, Johnson issued a call to form a Federal Volunteer Army of Texas which would march on Matamoros during the Matamoros Expedition. Defensive maneuvers (March – April 1836) The Mexican army returned to Texas in February and initiated a siege of the garrison in San Antonio on February 23. The commander at the Alamo, William B. Travis, sent numerous letters to the Texas settlements, begging for reinforcements. Men began to gather in Gonzales to prepare to reinforce the garrison. Before they left, the Mexican army launched the Battle of the Alamo, and all of the Texian soldiers who had been stationed in Bexar were killed. This left two branches of the Texian Army: Fannin's 400 men at Goliad and Neill's 400 men at Gonzales, who soon reported to Houston. On hearing the news of the massacre at the Alamo, Houston ordered his army to retreat and burned the town of Gonzales as they left. He ordered Fannin to bring his men and join the rest of the army. Fannin's force was defeated at the Battle of Coleto Creek, and on March 27 Fannin and his men were executed at the Goliad Massacre. A few soldiers escaped, and 80 soldiers who had just arrived from the United States and had no weapons were spared. As news spread of the defeats at the Alamo and Goliad, men flocked to the Texian army. By early April, Houston commanded about 800 men. The Texas Revolution essentially ended on April 21, when the Texian Army routed a Mexican force and captured Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. For six months David G. Burnet, ad interim President of the Republic, had diligently maintained the army laws set forth by the Consultation in December 1835. The 1835–36 Regular Army of Texas would never consist of more than 100 soldiers and would never approach the Consultation's number goal of 560 infantry, 560 artillery and 384 cavalry, in the permanent "Regular