San Jacinto: 18 minutes that changed history

".........waving his hat and shouting "San Jacinto! San Jacinto! The Mexicans are whipped and Santa Anna a prisoner." The scene that followed beggars description. People embraced, laughed and wept and prayed, all in one breath. As the moon rose over the vast flower-decked prairie, the soft southern wind carried peace to tired hearts and grateful slumber. As battles go, San Jacinto was but a skirmish; but with what mighty consequences! The lives and the liberty of a few hundred pioneers at stake and an empire won! Look to it, you Texans of today, with happy homes, mid fields of smiling plenty, that the blood of the Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto sealed forever . Texas, one and indivisible!”
--Mrs. Kate Scurry Terrell describing the scene among refugee families on the Sabine River.

The middle of April, 1836, was misery compounded by terror for thousands of Texian colonists fleeing the advance of the armies of Mexican dictator Santa Anna.
The colonists expected no mercy should they be caught. Santa Anna had murdered more than 3,000 of his countrymen just a year previous when the state of Zacatecas rose in revolt. And they knew he’d given orders that any adult Anglo male was to be considered a rebel and summarily executed if found.
Col. James Fannin’s force of 352 men at Goliad had surrendered and been put to the sword. No quarter had been given to the 183 defenders of the Alamo.
As the sun rose through the mists which clung to the spot where the San Jacinto River met Buffalo Bayou on April 21, 1836, death walked through the camp of the refugees fleeing from all points west of what is now Houston.
Many of them had lost everything they had in the preceding month, after word of the defeats at the Alamo and Goliad. Hundreds had been robbed, raped or murdered by Mexican partisans while trying to flee; others had been attacked by roaming bands of Kiowa and Comanches. Hundreds – according to some sources, thousands – had fallen prey to typhoid and dysentery, or been swept away by floodwaters of the swollen rivers, creeks and bayous.
But in 18 minutes on April 21, 1836, the course of history was changed, and a new nation was born.
The following story of the Battle of San Jacinto, and the winning of Texas Independence, is taken from several sources, primarily Texas A&M University’s “Sons of the Dewitt Colony” website, which reproduced Kilman and Kemp’s accounting of the San Jacinto campaign; and from the Handbook of Texas Online:

Four days after the Texas Declaration of Independence, news came to the convention on the Brazos of the desperate plight of Colonel William Barret Travis, under siege at the Alamo in San Antonio. Houston, commander-in-chief of the Texas Army, left Washington and hurried to Gonzales to take command of the troops there and go to the aid of Travis.
He arrived on March 11, but late in the day learned from two Tejanos who had just arrived from San Antonio that the Alamo had fallen and its 183 brave defenders massacred – including seven members of Captain Juan Seguin’s company of 37 Tejano volunteers, named the Second Regiment of Texas Volunteers, Ninth Company: Juan Abanillo, Gregorio Esparza, Antonio Fuentes, Toribio Losoya, Andres Nava and Juan Antonio Padilla, all natives of San Antonio, and José Maria Guerrero called "El Tuerto," from Laredo..
This was confirmed two days later by Mrs. Susannah Dickinson, who had been released by the Mexicans after seeing her husband killed in the old mission. Texas army scouts had found her trudging toward Gonzales with her babe in her arms.
The reports of the Alamo slaughter terrified the people of Gonzales, and they fled eastward. Men, women and children packed what belongings they could take in wagons and carts, on horseback, or on their own backs, and fled their homes in terror across the rain soaked country . . . all moving eastward toward the Louisiana border to escape the wrath of the bloodthirsty Santa Anna.
Houston, realizing that his few hundred green troops were no match for Santa Anna’s well-drilled, disciplined force, evacuated Gonzales and had the rear guard put the town to the torch.
On March 19, Colonel James Walker Fannin Jr., commanding about 450 volunteers withdrawing from Goliad toward Victoria, was defeated in battle on Coleto Creek by General José Urrea's forces of 1200 infantry and 700 cavalry. Fannin surrendered. On Palm Sunday, March 27, he and 352 of his men were marched out on the roads near Goliad and brutally executed on Santa Anna’s orders.
Santa Anna split his forces into several columns in an attempt to bring the Texians to battle. Houston's scouts reported that General Ramirez y Sesma and General Adrian Woll were on the west side of the Colorado with approximately 725 troops and General Eugenio Tolso with 600. By this time recruits and reinforcements had increased Houston's army to a strength estimated as high as 1200.
The chilling news of Fannin's defeat, reaching the Texian forces on March 25, impelled many to leave the ranks, to remove their families beyond the Sabine. Those remaining clamored for action, but Houston decided to continue his retreat.
Notable during Houston’s maneuvering was the presence of the cavalry rear guard commanded by Seguin – the only Tejano company involved in the campaign on the Texian side. Seguin himself had been sent from the Alamo as a courier, and now took command of the rear guard.
When the provisional Texas government at Washington-on-the-Brazos learned of the Mexicans' approach in mid-March, it fled to Harrisburg (what is now Houston). President David G. Burnet sent the commander-in-chief a caustic note, prodding him to stop his retreat and fight.
Secretary of War Thomas J. Rusk arrived at the camp April 4 at Burnet's direction, to urge Houston to a more aggressive course, but Houston continued to retreat.
When Houston showed no disposition to fight, Santa Anna decided to take possession of the coast and seaports, including Anahuac.
Crossing the Brazos at Fort Bend (now Richmond) on April 11, Santa Anna’s force of about 700 men and one twelve-pounder cannon continued toward Harrisburg. Urrea was at Matagorda with 1200 men: Gaona was somewhere between Bastrop and San Felipe, with 725; Sesma, at Fort Bend, with about 1,000, and Vicente Filisola between San Felipe and Fort Bend, with nearly 1800 men.
Santa Anna arrived at Harrisburg on April 15. There he learned that the Burnet government had gone down Buffalo Bayou to New Washington (now Morgan's Point), and as he approached the government took ship to Galveston. Santa Anna then set out for Anahuac via Lynchburg.
Meanwhile, on April 11, Houston’s force received two cannon, known to history as the "Twin Sisters," a gift from citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio.
On April 13 Houston ordered Major Wyly Martin, Captain Mosely Baker, and other commanders of detachments assigned to delaying actions, to rejoin the main army near the home of Abram Roberts, at a settlement known as "New Kentucky" (near present-day Spring). At Roberts' two wagon trails crossed -- one leading to Harrisburg and the other Robbins' Ferry on the Trinity and on to the Sabine and the United States.
Many of his officers and men, as well as government officials, believed that Houston's strategy was to lead the pursuing Mexicans to the Sabine River, the eastern border of Texas. There, it was known, were camped United States troops under General Pendelton Gaines, with whose help the Texans might turn on their foes and destroy them.
However, on April 17, when Roberts' place was reached, Houston took the Harrisburg road instead of the one toward the Louisiana line, much to the gratification of his men.
From two prisoners, captured by Erasmus "Deaf" Smith, the famous Texas spy, Houston first learned that the Mexicans had burned Harrisburg and had gone down the west side of the bayou and of San Jacinto River, and that Santa Anna in person was in command. In his march downstream Santa Anna had been forced to cross the bridge over Vince's Bayou, a tributary of Buffalo Bayou, then out of its banks. He would have to cross the same bridge to return.
Viewing this strategic situation on the morning of April 19, Houston told his troops it looked as if they would soon get action.
In a letter to Henry Raguet, Houston said:
"This morning we are in preparation to meet Santa Anna. It is the only chance for saving Texas."
In an address "To the People of Texas" he wrote: "We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish…We must act now or abandon all hope."
Houston's force crossed Buffalo Bayou to the west side, near the home of Isaac Batterson, two and a half miles below Harrisburg, on the evening of April 19. Some 248 men, mostly sick and non-effective, were left with the baggage at the camp opposite Harrisburg. The march was continued until midnight.
At dawn April 20 the Texans resumed their trek down the bayou, to intercept the Mexicans. At Lynch's Ferry, near the juncture of Buffalo Bayou and San Jacinto River, they captured a boat laden with supplies for Santa Anna. This probably was some of the plunder of Harrisburg or New Washington. Ascertaining that none of the enemy forces had crossed, the Texans drew back about a mile on the Harrisburg road, and encamped in a skirt of timber protected by a rising ground.
That afternoon, Colonel Sidney Sherman with a small detachment of cavalry engaged the enemy infantry, almost bringing on a general action. In the clash two Texans were wounded---one of them, Olwyn J. Trask, mortally---and several horses were killed. In this preliminary skirmish Mirabeau B. Lamar, a private from Georgia (later President of the Republic of Texas), so distinguished himself that on the next day he was placed in command of the cavalry.
Santa Anna's blue-uniformed army made camp under the high ground overlooking a marsh, about three-fourths of a mile from the Texas camp. They threw up breastworks of trunks, baggage, pack-saddles and other equipment. Both sides prepared for the expected conflict.
The Texians awoke to find Thursday, April 21, a clear fine day. Refreshed by a breakfast of bread made with flour from the captured supplies and meat from cattle slaughtered the day before, they were eager to attack the enemy. They could see Santa Anna's flags floating over the enemy camp, and heard the Mexican bugle calls on the crisp morning air.
It was discovered at about nine o'clock that General Martín Perfecto de Cos had crossed Vince's bridge, about eight miles behind the Texans' camp, with some 540 picked troops, swelling the enemy forces to about 1265. General Houston ordered "Deaf" Smith and a detail to destroy the bridge and prevent further enemy reinforcements. This also would prevent the retreat of either the Texans or the Mexicans toward Harrisburg. In dry weather Vince's Bayou was about fifty feet wide and ten feet deep, but the excessive April rains bad made it several times wider and deeper. With "Deaf" Smith in the detail that destroyed the bridge were Young P. Alsbury, John Coker, John Garner, Moses Lapham, Edwin R. Rainwater and Dimer W. Reaves.
Shortly before noon, General Houston held a council of war with Colonels Edward Burleson and Sidney Sherman, Lieutenant Colonels Henry Millard, Alexander Somervell and Joseph L. Bennett, and Major Lysander Wells. Two of the officers suggested attacking the enemy in his position, while the others favored awaiting Santa Anna's attack. Houston withheld his own views, but later, after having formed his plan of battle, submitted it to Secretary of War Rusk, who approved it.
General Houston disposed his forces in battle order at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Over on the Mexican side all was quiet; many of the foemen were enjoying their customary siesta. The Texans' movements were screened by the trees and the rising ground, and evidently Santa Anna had no lookouts posted. Big, shaggy and commanding in his mud-stained unmilitary garb, Houston rode his horse up and down the line.
At the command the Texians, 910 strong, moved quickly out of the woods and over the rise, deploying. Bearded and ragged from 40 days in the field, they were a fierce-looking band. But their long rifles were clean and well oiled. Only one company, Captain William Wood's "Kentucky Rifles," originally recruited by Sidney Sherman, wore uniforms.
(In his official report of the battle, April 25, 1836, Houston said 783 Texans took part. Yet in a roster published later he listed 845 officers and men at San Jacinto, and by oversight omitted Captain Alfred H. Wyly's Company. In a Senate speech February 28, 1859, Houston said his effective force never exceeded 700 at any point. Conclusive evidence in official records brings the total number at San Jacinto up to 910.)
The battle line was formed with Edward Burleson's regiment in the center; Sherman's on the left wing; the artillery, under George W. Hockley, on Burleson's right; the infantry, under Henry Millard, on the right of the artillery; and the cavalry, led by Lamar, on the extreme right.
Silently and tensely the Texas battle line swept across the prairie and swale that was No Man's land, the men bending low. A soldier's fife piped up with "Will You Come to the Bower,"' a popular tune of the day. That was the only music of the battle. As the, troops advanced, "Deaf" Smith galloped up and told Houston, "Vince's bridge has been cut down." The General announced it to the men. Now both armies were cut off from retreat in all directions but one, by a roughly circular moat formed by Vince's and Buffalo Bayous to the west and north, San Jacinto River to the north and cast, and by the marshes and the bay to the east and southeast.
At close range, the two little cannon, drawn by rawhide thongs, were wheeled into position and belched their charges of iron slugs into the enemy barricade. Then the whole line, led by Sherman's men, sprang forward on the run, yelling, "Remember the Alamo!" "Remember Goliad!" All together they opened fire, blazing away practically point-blank at the surprised and panic-stricken Mexicans. They stormed over the breastworks, seized the enemy's artillery, and joined in hand-to-hand combat, emptying their pistols, swinging their guns as clubs, slashing right and left with their knives. Mexicans fell by the scores under the impact of the savage assault.
The gallant Mexican General Manuel Fernández Castrillón tried to rally his troops, but he was killed and his men became crazed with fright. Many threw down their guns and ran; many wailed, "Me no Alamo!" "Me no Goliad!" But their pleas won no mercy.
The enraged Texians reloaded and chased after the stampeding enemy, shooting them, stabbing them, clubbing them to death. From the moment of the first collision the battle was a slaughter, frightful to behold. The fugitives ran in wild terror over the prairie and into the boggy marshes, but the avengers of the Alamo and Goliad followed and slew them, or drove them into the waters to drown.
Men and horses, dead and dying, in the morass in the rear and right of the Mexican camp, formed a bridge for the pursuing Texans. Blood reddened the water. General Houston tried to check the execution but the fury of his men was beyond restraint.
Some of the Mexican cavalry tried to escape over Vince's Bridge, only to find that the bridge was gone. In desperation, some of the flying horsemen spurred their mounts down the steep bank; some dismounted and plunged into the swollen stream. The Texans came up and poured a deadly fire into the welter of Mexicans struggling with the flood. Escape was virtually impossible.
General Houston rode slowly from the field of victory, his ankle shattered by a rifle ball. At the foot of the oak where he bad slept the previous night be fainted and slid from his horse into the arms of Major Hockley, his chief of staff
As the crowning stroke of a glorious day, General Rusk presented to him as a prisoner the Mexican general Don Juan Almonte, who had surrendered formally with about 400 men. The casualties, according to Houston's official report, numbered 630 Mexicans killed, 208 wounded, and 730 taken prisoner.
Against this heavy score, only nine Texans were killed or mortally wounded, and thirty wounded less seriously. Most of their injuries came from the first scattered Mexican volley when the attackers stormed their barricade. The Texans captured a large supply of muskets, pistols, sabers, mules, horses, provisions, clothing, tents and paraphernalia, and $12,000 in silver.
Santa Anna had disappeared during the battle, and next day General Houston ordered a thorough search of the surrounding territory for him.
In the afternoon Sergeant J. A. Sylvester spotted a Mexican slipping through the woods toward Vince's Bayou. Sylvester and his comrades caught the fugitive trying to hide in the high grass. He wore a common soldier's apparel round jacket, blue cotton pantaloons, skin cap and soldier's shoes. With Sylvester in the capture of Santa Anna were Joel W. Robison, Joseph D. Vermillion, Alfred H. Miles and David Cole.
They took the captive to camp, and on the way, Mexican prisoners recognized him and cried, "El Presidente!" Thus his identity was betrayed; it was indeed the dictator from below the Rio Grande. He was brought to General Houston, who lay under the headquarters oak, nursing his wounded foot.
The Mexican President pompously announced, "I am General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, and a prisoner of war at your disposition." General Houston, suffering with pain, received him coldly. He sent for young Moses Austin Bryan and Lorenzo de Zavala Jr. to act as interpreters.
Santa Anna cringed with fright as the excited Texas soldiers pressed around him, fearing mob violence. He pleaded for the treatment due a prisoner of war.
"You can afford to be generous," he whined; "you have captured the Napoleon of the 'West."
"What claim have you to mercy?" Houston retorted, "when you showed none at the Alamo or at Goliad?"
They talked for nearly two hours, using Bryan, de Zavala and Almonte as interpreters. In the end Santa Anna agreed to write an order commanding all Mexican troops to evacuate Texas. Later, treaties were signed at Velasco, looking to the adjustment of all differences and the recognition of Texas independence.
Thus ended the revolution of 1836, with an 18-minute battle which established Texas as a free republic and opened the way for the United States to extend its boundaries to the Rio Grande on the southwest and to the Pacific on the west. Few military engagements in history have been more decisive or of more far-reaching ultimate influence than the battle of San Jacinto.
The victory was perhaps most poignant for its lone Tejano participant, Juan Seguin, who had been refused permission to leave the army by Houston after carrying Travis’ message to Houston in early March and was thus spared the fate of his comrades.
Seguín, appointed a colonel following San Jacinto for the valor he showed on the battlefield, accepted the Mexican surrender of San Antonio on June 4, 1836, and served as the city's military commander through the fall of 1837; during this time he directed burial services for the remains of the Alamo dead. He resigned his commission upon election to the Texas Senate at the end of the year.

“Compañeros de armas: Estos restos que hemos tenido el honor de conducir en nuestros hombros son los de los valientes héroes que murieron en el Alamo. Sí mis amigos, ellos prefirieron morir mil veces a servir el yugo del tirano. Que ejemplo tan briIlante, digno de anotarse en las páginas de la historia. El genio de la libertad parece estar viendo en su elevado trono de donde con semblante halagueño nos señala diciendo: "Ahí tenéis a vuestros hermanos, Travis, Bowie, Crockett y otros varios a quienes su valor coloca en el número de mis héroes.---Yo os pido a que poniendo por testigo a los venerables restos de nuestros dignos compañeros digamos al mundo entero. Texas será libre, independiente o pereceremos con gloria en los combates.”
--Col. Juan Seguin, at the burial services for the defenders of the Alamo
(Translation: Comrades in arms: These remains which we have had the honor of carrying on our shoulders are the ones of the brave heroes who died in the Alamo. Yes, my friends, they preferred a thousand deaths rather than surrender or serve the yoke of the tyrant. What a brilliant example. Worthy indeed of being recorded in the pages of history. The genius of liberty seems to be witnessing from its high throne, from whence with praising look points out the deed saying: "Here you have your brothers, Travis, Bowie, Crockett and a few others whose valor, places them in the number of my heroes.---The worthy remains of our venerable companions bearing witness, I ask you to tell the world, Texas shall be free and independent or we shall perish with glory in battle.)