Battle of San Jacinto determines fate of Texas
Published 1:59 pm, Monday, March 5, 2012
By Anna Flatt
The battle of San Jacinto started on April 21,1836. A day before, on April 20, 1836, the Texan army, made up of many different nationalities such as Tejanos, English, Irish, Scots, Mexicans, French, Germans, Italians, Poles and Yankees, lodged in a forest of oaks near Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River. They had Vince's Bayou on their right, opposite of the San Jacinto River to their left. Buffalo Bayou was behind them. Later that day, Santa Anna's Mexican army moved to settle near the San Jacinto River.
Some men in the army thought they were in a poor position to fend off an attack, but Santa Anna was confident that the Texans would not attack. In the afternoon a small quarrel occurred. On the morning of the fateful April 21st, Erastus "Deaf" Smith and Henry Karnes destroyed the bridge across Vince's Bayou cutting off the path of retreat for both armies. General Sam Houston ordered an immediate attack on the Mexicans as soon as "Deaf"Smith had announced the destruction of Vince's Bridge. The Texans' battle cry was "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" as they opened fire.
The Mexicans were taking their siesta and were very surprised by the attack. They started to panic. Mexican officers tried to pull together the troops but that just made things worse. Houston's ankle was shattered by a musket ball in the fighting. Some of the Mexican calvary even tried to escape using the same bridge the Texans destroyed earlier. The battle only lasted 18 minutes but the killing lasted through the night as the Mexican soldiers were found hiding in the swamps. Nine Texans were killed in the battle and thirty more were injured, while six hundred thirty Mexicans died and seven hundred thirty were taken as prisoners. This is Santa Anna's false account of the battle, "At two o'clock in the afternoon of April 21, 1836, I had fallen asleep in the shade of an oak, hoping the heat would moderate so that I might begin the march, (to find Filisola), when the filibusterers surprised my camp with admirable skill. Imagine my surprise, on opening my eyes, and finding myself surrounded by those people, threatening me with their rifles and overpowering my person. The responsibility of Filisola was obvious, because he and only he had caused such a catastrophe by his criminal disobedience." He disappeared, dressed as a regular soldier. But the Texans grew suspicious when he was saluted as "the president" in Spanish. Also, everyone knew Santa Anna wore silk underwear and when it was known that the man in question was wearing silk underwear, they knew it was him. After the battle, Santa Anna was taken to Velasco, to sign the Treaties of Velasco, with the Texan government.
Right after the battle, many Texans wanted Santa Anna dead. Sam Houston explained why he refused to let the soldiers kill Santa Anna in this quote; "My motive in sparing the life of Santa Anna was to relieve the country of all hostile enemies without further bloodshed, and to secure his acknowledgement of our independence." Santa Anna was not sentenced to death in Texas but he was detained from going home to Mexico due to angry Texans.
The Battle of San Jacinto won Texas' independence from Mexico. News of the amazing victory spread throughout Texas like a West Texas wildfire! Many families returned to their homes to find all their possessions gone. A girl named Dilue Rose Harris went by one of the battlefields, which appeared as a painting of destruction and death. She wrote this two days before her eleventh birthday, "We crossed the San Jacinto the next morning and stayed until late in the evening on the battle field. Both armies were camped near... I had lost my bonnet crossing Trinity Bay and was compelled to wear a table cloth again. It was six weeks since we had left home , and our homes were very much dilapidated. I could not go to see the Mexican prisoners with a table cloth tied on my head for I knew several of the young men."
Following the battle, Sam Houston went to New Orleans for medical treatment for his ankle, the Mexican army was led home by their second in command, Vicente Filisola, and volunteers came to help the Texans, only to find they had already won the war. President David Burnet and Vice President Lorenzo de Zavala had big problems to attend to.Texas had just won the war and now the Texans were returning home not as Mexican citizens, but citizens of the brand new, independent Republic of Texas.