Part 1

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THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO _and the_ SAN JACINTO CAMPAIGN

by L. W. Kemp and Ed Kilman

COPYRIGHT, 1947 by L. W. KEMP and ED KILMAN Second Printing

Printed in the United States of America The Webb Printing Co., Inc., Houston

The Battle of San Jacinto _and the_ San Jacinto Campaign

FOREWORD

San Jacinto, birthplace of Texas liberty!... San Jacinto, one of the world's decisive battles!... San Jacinto, where, with cries of "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" Sam Houston and his ragged band of 910 pioneers routed Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, President and Dictator of Mexico and self-styled "Napoleon of the West," with his proud army, and changed the map of North America!

Here is a story that has thrilled Texans for more than a century ... a story of desperate valor and high adventure; of grim hardship, tragedy and romance ... the story of the epochal battle that established the independent Lone Star Republic, on April 21, 1836, and indelibly inscribed the names of Texas patriots on history's scroll of American immortals.

The actual battle of San Jacinto lasted less than twenty minutes, but it was in the making for six years. It had its prelude in the oppressive Mexican edict of April 6, 1830, prohibiting further emigration of Anglo-Americans from the United States to Texas; in the disturbance at Anahuac and in the battle of Velasco, in 1832; in the imprisonment of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas," in Mexico in 1834.

Immediate preliminaries were the skirmish over a cannon at Gonzales, the capture of Goliad, the "Grass Fight," and the siege and capture of San Antonio ... all in 1835. The Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, officially signalized the revolution.

RETREAT FROM GONZALES

Four days after the 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. Sam Houston, commander-in-chief of the Texas Army, left Washington post-haste for Gonzales, to take command of the troops there and go to the aid of Travis. He arrived there on the 11th, and at about dark learned from two Mexicans who had just arrived from San Antonio that the Alamo had fallen and its 183 brave defenders massacred. This was confirmed two days later by Mrs. Almeron Dickinson who had been released by the Mexicans after seeing her lieutenant husband killed in the old mission. She was trudging toward Gonzales with her babe in her arms when the Texas army scouts found her.

The reports of the Alamo slaughter terrified the people of Gonzales. They were panic-stricken by the general belief that Santa Anna next would sweep eastward with his well-trained army, in a drive to wipe the rebellious Texans from the face of the earth.

Then began the exodus of frantic colonists known to Texas history as the "Runaway Scrape." 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.

General Houston, realizing that his few hundred green troops were no match for the well-drilled hordes from Mexico, evacuated Gonzales and had the rear guard put the town to the torch. The Texans crossed the Colorado River on the 17th at Jesse Burnam's, and camped there for two days. Then the army resumed its march down the east bank to Benjamin Beason's crossing, some twenty miles below, near the present town of Columbus. Camp was pitched at Beason's on the 20th.

Had the retreating column been fifty miles farther south, the troops might have heard the distant rumble and crackle of gunfire. 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 Jose 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 shot down, by order of Santa Anna.

THE MEXICAN PURSUIT

Flushed with their Alamo victory, the Mexican forces were following the colonists. 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 Tolsa 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 Texas 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. On the 26th, keeping his own counsel, he marched his army five miles. On the 27th the column reached the timbers of the Brazos River bottoms, and on the 28th arrived at San Felipe de Austin, on the west bank of the Brazos. On the 29th the army marched six miles up the river in a driving rain, and camped on Mill Creek. On the 30th after a fatiguing tramp of nine miles, the army reached a place across the river from "Bernardo," on one of the plantations of the wealthy Jared E. Groce, and there camped and drilled for nearly a fortnight.[1]

When the _ad interim_ Texas government at Washington-on-the-Brazos learned of the Mexicans' approach, in mid-March, it fled to Harrisburg. 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.

Houston having shown no disposition to fight, Santa Anna decided to take possession of the coast and seaports, as a step in his plan to round up the revolutionists. Crossing the Brazos at Fort Bend (now called Richmond) on the 11th, the Mexican general proceeded on April 14 on the road to Harrisburg, taking with him about 700 men and one twelve-pounder cannon. 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 the 15th. There he learned that the Burnet government had gone down Buffalo Bayou to New Washington (now Morgan's Point), about eighteen miles southeast. Burning Harrisburg, Santa Anna sped after them. On the 19th when he arrived at New Washington he learned that the Texas government had fled to Galveston. Santa Anna then set out for Anahuac, via Lynchburg.

THE ROAD TO SAN JACINTO

Meanwhile, on April 11th, the Texans at Groce's received two small cannon, known to history as the "Twin Sisters," a gift from citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio. Thus fortified, General Houston, after a consultation with Rusk, decided to move on to the east side of the Brazos. The river being very high, the steamboat "Yellow Stone" and a yawl were used to ferry the army horses, cattle and baggage across. The movement began on the 12th and was completed at 1 p.m. on the 13th.

On the 13th Houston ordered Major Wyly Martin, Captain Moseley Baker, and other commanders of detachments assigned to delaying actions, to rejoin the main army at the house of Charles Donoho, about three miles from Groce's. At Donoho's the road from San Felipe to eastern Texas crossed the road south from Groce's.

On April 16 the army marched twelve miles to the home of Samuel McCurley on Spring Creek, in present Harris county. The creek forms the boundary line between Harris and Montgomery counties. Three miles beyond McCurley's was the home of Abram Roberts at a settlement known as "New Kentucky." At Roberts' two wagon trails crossed, one leading to Harrisburg and the other to Robbins' Ferry on the Trinity and on to the Sabine.

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 Pendleton 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. They spent the night of the 17th near the home of Matthew Burnett on Cypress Creek, twenty miles from McCurley's. On April 18 the army marched twenty miles to White Oak Bayou in the Heights District of the present city of Houston, and only about eight miles from Harrisburg--now a part of Houston.

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 the 19th, Houston told his troops it looked as if they would soon get action. And he admonished them to remember the massacres at San Antonio and at Goliad.

"Remember the Alamo!" The soldiers took up the cry. "Remember Goliad!"[2]

In a letter to Henry Raguet he 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 the 19th. Some 248 men, mostly sick and non-effective, were left with the baggage at the camp opposite Harrisburg. The march was continued until midnight.

ON THE EVE OF BATTLE

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 Texans 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 beeves 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 Martin 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.[3] 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 had made it several times wider and deeper.

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.

THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO

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, the Chieftain rode his horse up and down the line. "Now hold your fire, men," he warned in his deep voice, "until you get the order!"

At the command, "Advance," the patriots, 910 strong, moved quickly out of the woods and over the rise, deploying.[4] Bearded and ragged from forty 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.

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,"[5] 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 east, 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.

General Manuel Fernandez Castrillon, a brave Mexican, tried to rally the swarthy Latins, 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 revolutionists 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 had slept the previous night he 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 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. As 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.

THE CAPTURE OF SANTA ANNA

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[6] 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.

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 eighteen-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.

Opposing Commanders' Reports

It is interesting to compare the accounts of the battle of San Jacinto written by leaders of the opposing Texan and Mexican forces.

General Sam Houston, in his official report of the engagement to President David G. Burnet, dated April 25, 1836, reviewed his movements during the three days preceding the battle, and then said:

"_About nine o'clock on the morning of the 21st, the enemy were reinforced by 500 choice troops, under the command of General Cos, increasing their effective force to upward of 1500 men, whilst our aggregate force for the field numbered 783. At half-past three o'clock in the evening, I ordered the officers of the Texian army to parade their respective commands, having in the meantime ordered the bridge on the only road communicating with the Brazos, distant eight miles from the encampment, to be destroyed--thus cutting off all possibility of escape. Our troops paraded with alacrity and spirit, and were anxious for the contest. Their conscious disparity in numbers seemed only to increase their enthusiasm and confidence, and heightened their anxiety for the conflict. Our situation afforded me an opportunity of making the arrangements preparatory to the attack without exposing our designs to the enemy. The first regiment, commanded by Colonel Burleson, was assigned to the center. The second regiment, under the command of Colonel Sherman, formed the left wing of the army. The artillery, under special command of Colonel George W. Hockley, Inspector-General, was placed on the right of the first regiment; and four companies of infantry, under the command of Lieut.-Col. Henry Millard, sustained the artillery upon the right. Our cavalry, 61 in number, commanded by Colonel Mirabeau B. Lamar (whose gallant and daring conduct on the previous day had attracted the admiration of his comrades), completed our line. Our cavalry was first dispatched to the front of the enemy's left, for the purpose of attracting their notice, whilst an extensive island of timber afforded us an opportunity of concentrating our forces, and deploying from that point, agreeably to the previous design of the troops. Every evolution was performed with alacrity, the whole advancing rapidly in line, and through an open prairie, without any protection whatever for our men. The artillery advanced and took station within 200 yards of the enemy's breastwork, and commenced an effective fire with grape and canister._