| |
THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTOby
Archie P. McDonald, PhD |
|
| The
Battle
of San Jacinto, which began with a skirmish on April 20, 1836, and ended with
a full, if brief, battle the next day, determined the fate of an independent Texas.
The losing general, Santa Anna, was captured and temporarily discredited; and
the winning general, Sam Houston, though wounded, started on his way to the presidency
of the Republic of Texas. And the drama took place in the southwestern corner
of East Texas.
The campaign
began on March 11 when Houston reached Gonzales
on his way to assist the defenders of the Alamo.
He found 374 men who had come on a similar mission, but they had waited in Gonzales
for leadership. Houston surely provided that.
Houston learned that the
men had not heard a signal cannon, fired at dawn each day at the Alamo, since
March 6. He sent Deaf Smith down the San Antonio Road to investigate. Smith returned
with Mrs. Almaron Dickinson, her infant daughter, and a servant, and from her
Houston and others in Gonzales
learned the fate of the 180-something defenders of the Alamo.
That began the San Jacinto Campaign, or a chase, if one looks at the
history of it in a certain way. Houston knew his men were not sufficiently trained
or equipped, not to mention sufficient in number, to fight the disciplined 5,000
to 6,000 Mexican soldiers then in Texas. So he moved eastward, and Santa followed.
Forty-two days later, the commanders and their soldiers met on the plain of San
Jacinto, approximately 200 miles from where they started.
It began with
a skirmish in which Mexican troops would have killed Secretary of War Thomas J.
Rusk, had he not been rescued by a private newly arrived from Georgia named Mirabeau
Buonaparte Lamar. Because of his gallantry in the effort, Lamar commanded the
Texas cavalry the next day as a colonel.
The Texans spent the night of
April 20 preparing to resume the battle the next morning, and were disappointed
when Santa Anna did not attack them and Houston did not order an attack on the
Mexican camp.
Santa Anna's delay resulted for the arrival during the
evening of about 500 reinforcements, which had disturbed his camp all night. Houston's
delay, many Texans thought, came from his fear to fight at all. Finally, about
4:30 in the afternoon, Houston assembled his men in two ranks and led them across
the plain and into the Battle of San Jacinto. The battle proper lasted about eighteen
minutes but carnage caused by "Remembering" the Alamo
and Goliad lasted
until dark.
The Battle
of San Jacinto led to the Treaty of Velasco,
signed on May 14, 1836, in which Santa Anna agreed to recognize the independence
of Texas. And not just the independence of East
Texas, where the victory was won, but as far as the Rio Grande flowed.
All
Things Historical
April 18-24, 2004
A syndicated column in over 70 East Texas newspapers
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical Association.
Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more than 20 books
on Texas. |
Battle
of San Jacinto - Related ArticlesThe
Battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836 by Murray Montgomery ("Lone
Star Diary")
Because of the eventual consequences of this encounter,
the battle is considered, by many historians, as one of the most important in
world history.
Survivor's Account of the Goliad Massacre by Murray Montgomery ("Lone
Star Diary")
"There is a day in Texas history that quite possibly
could be considered one of the most tragic. On that day, March 27, 1836, General
Santa Anna ordered the execution of some 380 Texas army soldiers - they were prisoners
of war. ....." San
Jacinto Day by Archie P. McDonald ("All Things Historical"
)
News of the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, and the execution of
Texians captured at Goliad three weeks later, produced the terrible Runaway Scrape,
a mad flight of refugees who scrambled eastward to escape a similar fate at the
hand of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna’s armies. In the midst of these troubles,
one man, Sam Houston, rode west...Baker
Talk by Mike
Cox ("Texas Tales")
"In modern times, battles begin with
precision air strikes. In the 19th century, battles began with stirring speeches.
Sometime in the early 1900s, the Beeville Picayune published the talk Captain
Mosley Baker supposedly gave to the men of his company at San Jacinto on April
21, 1836..."
The
Top Ten Facts About The Construction of The San Jacinto Monument San
Jacinto Monument by Mike Cox ("Texas
Tales")
"Most people think the towering star-topped limestone monument, built during
the Texas Centennial in 1936, is the only San Jacinto monument. Actually, it’s
only the biggest."Alfonso
(Alphonso) Steele - Last Texas survivor of the battle of San Jacinto, and
a State Park dedicated to himThe
Last Hero by Bob Bowman ("All Things Historical" )
The
last surviving veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, lies in
an almost forgotten cemetery in deep East TexasA
Frenchman at San Jacinto by Bob Bowman
In 1893, the Galveston Daily
News printed a reporter’s interview with Charles Cronea, a Jean Lafitte pirate
who fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, where Texas won its independence from
Mexico... The
Treaty of Velasco by Archie P. McDonald ("All Things Historical"
)
General Sam Houston, and later Interim President David G. Burnett, chose
negotiation instead of revenge for the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad. Twin
Sisters by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales")
The most famous pieces
of artillery in Texas historyMore
Texas History Columns |
|
|
