He dispatched his brother-in-law, General Martín Perfecto de Cós, with a large body of soldiers to reconquer Coahuila and bring it under the military dictatorship centered in Mexico City. Ahead of Cós, Coahuilan officials and other refugees poured across the Rio Grande, bringing with them their fears and their hatred for Santa Anna. These emotions spread like an epidemic across Texas, finding ready reception among American settlers, who by now were fearful about their own future.

In Texas, after the relative calm which had followed the Anahuac and Velasco affairs, it seemed that history had come full circle, for the central government reestablished its customs offices in those two places. Citizens resisted, blood was spilled, and men were thrown in jail. The time was ripe for William Barret Travis and Sam Houston and others of the war-party persuasion who had long advocated that Texas should break free of the Mexican yoke. Stephen F. Austin could no longer bring his sober influence to bear on Mexico’s behalf. He remained in prison, charged with treason for having advocated a constitution. Time was ripe also for those in Mexico who called for taking Texas back from the Americans. The voices of reason and good will were smothered on both sides by the call for war.

James Lewis plowed his field and harvested his garden and cared for his few cattle, but he did so with a needling restlessness, his eyes going often to the horizon. He knew Mexico had remanned its abandoned garrisons. It seemed only a question of time until the soldiers marched across the land to establish for once and all the supremacy of Mexico over these immigrant Texans. Santa Anna had made it clear in Zacatecas and Coahuila: All who opposed him, in even a minor way, would be crushed beneath the boots of his army. He took no prisoners and granted no mercy. No longer was he the liberal savior of his nation. He was its emperor, and he ruled by blood and fire.

James found it hard to accept the relative calm of his brother Andrew, who spoke little of the troubles but took care of his work, planting and cultivating his fields as if he had no concern for what was happening to the south, out of his sight, as if he knew he would remain on this piece of land forever. “You know how many revolutions there have already been in Mexico,” he told a nervous James. “There are a lot of people down there who hate Santa Anna. Chances are that they will rise up against him before the trouble ever gets this far north. Anyway, we’re farmers, not soldiers. If they would only let Austin out of jail—”

But James suspected his brother harbored fears he did not want to reveal lest they frighten the women and children. Rumors that summer of 1835 had spread through Texas like a prairie fire, and gloom had laid itself across the land like smoke from that consuming blaze. If wild reports were to be believed, Santa Anna was marching north with ten thousand men, and Mexican agents were out among the horseback Indian tribes, firing them up for war against the Texans.