Spanish troops led by General José Joaquín de Arredondo defeated republican forces (calling themselves the Republican Army of the North), consisting of Tejano-Mexican and Tejano-American revolutionaries participating in the Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition, under General José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois.

The army flew a solid emerald green flag, thought to have been introduced by Colonel Magee, who was of Scots-Irish descent.

Nacogdoches was taken on August 12, 1812, with little opposition, and on November 7, 1812, the Republican Army of the North marched into what is present-day Goliad, where they took the Presidio La Bahía.

After numerous battles and heavy losses, the Spanish lifted the siege and returned to San Antonio de Bexar.

There were approximately 1,400 Texians in Lara's Republican Army at the time, composed of Tejanos, Americans, Euro-Mexicans (Criollos), former Spanish Royalist soldiers aided by an auxiliary force of Indians, and at least one black slave.

[2] The Republican soldiers gave chase and apparently mistook the cavalry, which kicked up large clouds of dust, for the main army.

A native of North Carolina of German ancestry, Seitz was a career soldier who fought in the first militia at Nashborough and in Logan County, Kentucky before he and his family relocated to Baton Rouge in 1799.

Of a very interesting note is a young lieutenant, Antonio López de Santa Anna, who fought in the bloody battle and followed his superiors' orders of taking no prisoners.