The battle for the Alamo in 1836 and the Texan Revolution have always been more or less synonymous, but the garrison of that adobe mission station outside San Antonio de Bexar did not represent all of the Texian soldiers - although they might at times have been forgiven for thinking so.

It has often been said that the organisation of the Texian Army during the Revolution defies explanation. Arguably, this is because in one sense there was no Texian Army as such, or at least not one with a continuous history, for throughout the revolution it was constantly re-inventing itself. Companies appeared and disappeared, indeed whole regiments and even whole armies came and went, and if some soldiers could show some continuity of service under a variety of commanders, others served only briefly before returning home.

Nevertheless by breaking down the history of the army into three distinct phases; it is possible to make some sense of it and what follows is not a conventional account of the Texan Revolution but rather an operational history of the Texian army.