Ruiz, Jose Francisco A native Texan, he was one of four representatives from Bexar to the Convention of 1836 where he signed the Declaration of Independence. As alcalde of San Antonio, he identified the bodies of William B. Travis, James Bowie, and David Crockett after the fall of the Alamo. He stopped the Mexican soldiers who were throwing the bodies into the San Antonio River, and gathered wood and ordered the bodies to be burned. Runaway Scrape Texans fled from their homes before the advancing Mexican army. The pace of the refugee traffic increased as news of the fall of the Alamo, Houston’s retreat, and the massacre at Goliad circulated. Washington-on-the-Brazos, Richmond, and settlements on both sides of the Brazos were abandoned. Settlements between the Colorado and the Brazos followed, and then Nacogdoches and San Augustine. The panic was increased by reports of Mexican-inspired Indian uprisings. The panic ended only after the news of the battle of San Jacinto became widespread. Rusk, Thomas Jefferson Rusk organized a company of volunteers in the fall of 1835 at Nacogdoches and joined the army at San Antonio. He left before the siege of Bexar, appointed a contractor for the army. He was Inspector General of the army from December 14, 1835, until February 26, 1836. A delegate to the Convention of 1836, he was elected Secretary of War on March 17. He left to join the army on April 1 and remained with the regular forces under Houston’s command, participating in the Battle of San Jacinto. S San Antonio Captured by the Texan army after active fighting from December 5 to 10, the town was retaken by Santa Anna on February 23. It remained in Mexican hands until after the battle of San Jacinto. San Felipe The Consultation met in San Felipe, November 1835, making San Felipe one of the first capitals of the Republic (until the Convention of 1836 met at Washington-on-the-Brazos). It was burned on March 29, 1836, when retreating Texan soldiers were unable to prevent the Mexican army’s crossing the Brazos.