Austin himself soon came to the conclusion that his plan of storming Bexar was inadvisable, for, writing to the council, November 30 (see Foote, Texas and the Texans, II 161-164), he said: “The most of them [in the army] are men of families, whose loss would have made a fearful void in our thin community. They might have been precipitated upon the fortifications at Bejar, which were defended by seven or eight hundred men, and a number of cannon, and taken the place by storm, against superior numbers; and Texas might, and in all probability would have been covered with mourning in the hour of victory. On consultation with the officers in councils of war, . . . the system was adopted of wasting away the resources, and spirits, and numbers of the enemy by a siege, the ultimate success of which appeared to be certain, without any serious hazard on our part.”
