How did Sam Houston gain control of the Texas Army?

Answer 1

During the formative months leading up the creation of the Texas Revolution, a number of different men, each with different plans of action and supporters held varying degrees of authority and commissions granted by the Consultation that met in Gonzales. (That body consisted of three delegates from each of the Texas municipalities. They rarely met as a complete body and seldom had a legitimate quorum.) They made appointments and decrees, issued orders and then changed them or had them changed the next day by a different group. It was a period of mass confusion.

Texas had an army of volunteers without central leadership, it authorized a Provisional Army and told Sam Houston to create it, but they also added a third element called the Permanent Volunteers which was independent and had a more favorable enlistment contract. At that point the Council authorized an attack on Mexico called the Matamoros Expedition and named Houston the Commander in Chief. He had the title, but he still had no Army.

Consensus was finally reached to form a government in favor of Mexican Citizenship under the Constitution of 1824. The majority quickly shifted and by 2 March 1836 Texas declared Independence from Mexico and the war began in Texas.