170 YEARS AGO TODAY
http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/The_Battle/
THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO. At four o'clock on the afternoon of April 21, while the Mexicans were sleeping and resting, (taking a siesta as what was a custom in their country) the Texans formed a battle line of about eight hundred foot-soldiers and made ready to charge the Mexicans who were on a wooded hill a mile away. Before the battle began, General Houston sent Deaf Smith and five others to destroy Vince's Bridge over which Santa Anna, Almonte, Cos, and their men had crossed as they came down from Harrisburg. At the same time the calvary, sixty-four men led by Colonel Lamar, rode around some woods to come upon the enemy from another side. The foot-soldiers walked nearly to the top of the hill and were within a few hundred yards of the Mexican camp before they were discovered. Their little band began playing a popular song of the time, one verse of which began with, "Will You Come to My Bower I Have Shaded for You?" Reaching the crest of the hill, they opened fire and began yelling, "REMEMBER THE ALAMO!" "REMEMBER GOLIAD!" The Mexicans fired and ran, and in eighteen minutes their whole army was routed. Several hundred Mexicans were killed and almost all the rest were captured. General Castrillion was among the dead. Only twenty-one Texans were killed or seriously wounded. Santa Anna got away on a fresh horse and tried to go back to Richmond, where his main army was waiting. He was pursued by the Texans and when he reached Vince's Bayou, he found the bridge destroyed so he left his horse and ran into the woods.
CAPTURE OF SANTA ANNA. The chase of the fleeing Mexicans ceased at nightfall. Hundreds lay dead on the field and other hundreds were wounded. The night was full of the shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying. The full moon shone over the bay and shed its soft light on th ghastly scene of blood and death. Santa Anna spent the night in the woods where he found a deserted house and some old clothes. He took off his uniform with its gold and braid, and put on a cotton shirt and cheap trousers for a disguise. The next morning he was captured near Vince's Bayou and taken into Houston's camp. His captors thought he was a common soldier, but as they rode by other Mixican prisoners, some of them recognized Santa Anna and shouted, "El Presidente." That meant "the president," and thus he was made known to the Texans. He was then carried before General Houston, who had been wounded in the leg and was resting under a tree. Men cheered, for they felt that the war was ended, the messengers were hurried east to tell the people taking part in the "runaway srape" to return home.
Reference: The Lone Star State, A School History by C.R. Wharton, copyright 1932
A panel on the side of the monument at San Jacinto reads:
"Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas from Mexico won here led to annexation and to the Mexican War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of the States of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma. Almost on-third of the present area of the American nation, nearly a million square miles of territory, changed sovereignty."