After the Alamo fell, the entire population of Texas — including its own government — fled in a panicked stampede east. Sam Houston used the chaos to quietly build the army that won everything.
In the spring of 1836, following the fall of the Alamo and the Goliad Massacre, thousands of Texian settlers abandoned their homes and fled eastward ahead of Santa Anna's advancing army in a mass exodus known as the Runaway Scrape.
The fleeing crowds included not just civilians but the Republic of Texas's own provisional government, which evacuated town after town — from Washington-on-the-Brazos to Harrisburg to New Washington — barely staying ahead of Mexican cavalry.
As people fled, entire towns were deliberately burned to deny them to the enemy. Gonzales, San Felipe de Austin, Harrisburg, and New Washington were all put to the torch by retreating Texians.
While the public saw Sam Houston's strategic retreat as cowardice, Houston was using the precious weeks at Groce's Landing to drill and train his ragged volunteers into a disciplined fighting force — the same force that would end the war in 18 minutes.
The suffering was immense: families abandoned livestock, furniture, and years of work. Secretary of War Thomas Rusk later credited the women of Texas specifically, saying 'more was due the women' for keeping families alive through the chaos.
The Runaway Scrape ended abruptly on April 21, 1836, when Houston's army destroyed Santa Anna's force at San Jacinto — upon hearing the news, the fleeing settlers turned around and went home.