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Monday, February 29, 2016
Page #14
Texas History Minute: Sam Houston and the San Jacinto swore that Texas troops would receive no quarter or mercy. As defeats mounted, Houston pulled back toward East Texas to assemble his army and prepare for a final stand. He wrote his troops on April 7, “The victims of the Alamo and the names of those who were murdered at Goliad, call for cool, deliberate vengeance. Strict order, discipline, and subordination Dr. Ken Bridges will insure us the victory.” By Sam Houston needed a miracle. April 19, they arrived at Buffalo Thousands of troops were charging Bayou near the San Jacinto River into Texas from Mexico, threatening in what is now Harris County with all that Texas settlers had built and Santa Anna arriving the next day. all that they attempted to defend. Heartbreaking defeats at the Alamo On the afternoon of April 21, while and Goliad had severely damaged the Santa Anna and his troops rested, army and morale. Now on the run in Houston took his 800 troops and the spring of 1836, the hopes of charged at the Mexican force of Texas lay with him. nearly 1,450. Houston himself was shot in the ankle, but the army Mexico was in the midst of its own quickly overwhelmed Santa Anna’s civil war by 1836, with the Texas forces, taking very light casualties. Revolution being just a part of it. Government after government had In one glorious moment, Houston been overthrown in a series of and the Texas Army triumphed upheavals as one factions after over Santa Anna. The battle was a another tried to lay claim to the rout. About 630 of Santa Anna’s country. In fact, the nations of troops died and 730 taken Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, prisoner. In the chaos of the battle, and El Salvador had initially been a many Mexican troops had fled the part of Mexico when it won its scene, and Santa Anna himself independence from Spain in 1821. seemed to have slipped away as After yet another revolution in 1823, well. Houston ordered that his those nations split away. At this troops redouble their efforts to find point, states across Mexico rose in him, for if he managed to escape rebellion against the government in and redirect his remaining forces, Mexico City. the battle at San Jacinto would have been for nothing. Texas settlers had risen up as well and declared their independence on The next day, Santa Anna was March 2, 1836. Sam Houston, a hero found, disguised as a private and from the War of 1812 and former hiding among his troops. His own governor of Tennessee, had been troops had given him away by chosen to command the Texas loudly addressing him as “El Army. While he accepted the Presidente.” He was brought command without hesitation, before Houston where he formally Houston realized that in spite of the surrendered his army. fighting spirit of the troops, they were outmanned and outgunned. Houston’s victory secured the independence of Texas from Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexico. Within months, a jubilant the current president of Mexico, had Texas public elected Houston as gathered thousands of troops and the first elected president of the
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Republic of Texas with 79% of the vote. Harrisburg was incorporated as the City of Houston in 1837, named in his honor. Though Houston had won the great victory he needed, many new and complex challenges still faced Texas.
the Texas public. The State of Texas officially purchased the battle site in the 1890s, while a 570-foot obelisk was completed in 1939 in memory of the battle.
Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, The importance of the Battle of San writer, and history professor. He Jacinto and the role of Sam Houston can be reached at was never lost in the imagination of drkenbridges@gmail.com.
