Mexico's early policies toward its Texas colonists were highly liberal, with large land grants, no taxes or duties, and cordial relations between Anglo-Americans and Mexicans, but after revolutions beginning in 1829, successive rulers seized power in Mexico and their unjust acts and despotic decrees led to revolution in Texas. In June 1832, colonists forced Mexican authorities at Anahuac to release Wm. B. Travis and others from unjust imprisonment, and Texan victories followed at Velasco on June 26 and Nacogdoches on August 2. Stephen Fuller Austin was arrested on January 3, 1834, and held in Mexico without trial until July 1835. The Texans formed an army, established a provisional government on November 12, 1835, fired the first shot of the Revolution of 1835-36 at Gonzales on October 2, 1835, captured the Mexican garrison at Goliad on October 9, won the Battle of Concepcion on October 28, and captured San Antonio on December 10, 1835 after five days of fighting in which Benjamin R. Milam died. Texas declared independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, but for nearly two months its armies suffered disaster and defeat as James Grant's men were killed on the Aguadulce on March 2, William Barret Travis and his men died at the Alamo on March 6, William Ward was defeated at Refugio on March 14, Amos B. King's men were executed near Refugio on March 16, and James Walker Fannin and his army were put to death near Goliad on March 27, 1836. On April 21, 1836, on this field, the Army of Texas under General Sam Houston, accompanied by Secretary of War Thomas J. Rusk, attacked the larger invading Mexican army under General Santa Anna. The line from left to right was Sidney Sherman's regiment, Edward Burleson's regiment, artillery commanded by George W. Hockley, Henry Millard's infantry, and cavalry under Mirabeau B. Lamar, and Sam Houston led the infantry charge. Crying 'Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!' the Texans charged, surprised the enemy, who rallied briefly and then fled in disorder; the Texans asked no quarter and gave none, the slaughter was appalling, victory was complete, and Texas was free. On the following day General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna received mercy he had denied Travis at the Alamo and Fannin at Goliad. Citizens of Texas and immigrant soldiers in the Army of Texas at San Jacinto came from numerous U.S. states and from Austria, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, and Scotland. By its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world, as Texas's freedom from Mexico led to annexation and to the Mexican-American War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma, with nearly a million square miles changing sovereignty.