Posted on 03/21/2010 7:20:51 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
The Battle of San Jacinto
As related by DeWitt Colonist Creed Taylor to James T. DeShields and published in "Tall Men With Long Rifles" 1935.
The morning of April 21 dawned bright and crisp. It was to be a great day for Texas. From their crude pallets the boys sprang up as if for a joyous holiday. Merry jests went the rounds, and the camp wits spared neither high private nor officers. "If you get bumped off, Bill, won't you will me your coonskin cap?" Tomlinson said to a comrade: "You can take the cap now; I'll wear a Mexican officer's hat on parade tomorrow,"' rejoined the confident comrade. And he was as good as his word, for he did wear a dead Mexican officer's uniform the next day.
(Excerpt) Read more at tamu.edu ...
"It was the great Napoleon, I believe, who said "quarter hours decide the destinies of nations." And so it was at San Jacinto."
I appologize to any that are offended by some of the language and references, but it was written in 1935. You cannot judge historic events by current norms of civility.
There are some conclusions in the article that I do not agree with, but it is a very vivid description of the event. The battle is said to have lasted 18 minutes.
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In light of the events that happened in Washington DC yesterday, are we approaching one of those pivital moments in the history of our Nation?
Thank you Sir, for the pic of the only Texas battle flag to fly over the battle of San Jacinto.
We are 1 month away from the anniversary of the battle and events yesterday in DC drove me to make this post early.
God Bless Texas!
I had been thinking allot about the Texas revolution lately, and the conditions that led up to it. I live close to the San Jacinto monument, and go there often.
Remember Goliad. Remember Gonzales. Remember the Alamo.
Texas can do without the other 49.
Great read, thanks for posting this.
Yes, but always Remember "San Jacinto". Too often we forget what that short battle set in motion. Freedom is a condition that MUST be cherished, and protected at all cost.
Truer words were never spoken. You are right. I mentioned only the other three, as those were "battle cries" at the Battle of San Jacinto.
Thank you for posting this. If you make another post on San Jacinto day, be sure and ping me.
I will ping you, because I intend to post again on April 21. Unless someone beats me to it. Not sure what I will post yet, but in light of our current political turmoil, this example is very very important.
My father served in Germany, Belgium and Czechoslovakia. He was an armorer. He maintained quad 50’s and Bofors.
He saw Dachau about 2-3 weeks after liberation.
Then he came back to farm here in Texas and raise his family. A modern day Cincinatus. The family has owned/operated some of the land here for over 110 years.
Some of my ancestors were born in Texas during the Republic.
Thanks for the quote by Thomas J. Rusk. I had never seen it before.
God Bless Texas! And God Bless the United States of America!
Enemies of “We the People” are put on notice. This will end badly for you.
A Yellow Rose bump 4 later when I’m off cell phone.
General Houston and his men followed Santa Anna all across Texas, but when they got here, both armies had climbed into the ring.
Thanks for the photo’s. Great view of the monument with lay of the land.
Thank you very much, I have never seen this wonderful account. I remember when we discovered that Deaf Smith was an ancestor in the ‘70s. We asked my grandma if this was true, and if so, why she had never said anything about it. She replied, “he was just my [great] uncle, we never thought anything about it.”
Now that’s a Texan, God rest her soul.
folks forget, well Texans do not but, after the battle at the Alamo,SantaAna ordered his men to dismember and set fire to the dead and wounded.
Makes me weep just typing this
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 Fernández Castrillón, 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.
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!
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 1836. The Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, officially signalized the revolution
The San Jacinto Monument is a 567.31-foot (172.9 m)[1] high column located on the Houston Ship Channel in Harris County, Texas near the city of Deer Park. The monument is topped with a 220-ton star that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. The monument, constructed between 1936 and 1939 and dedicated on April 21, 1939, is the world's tallest monumental column and is part of the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site.
By comparison, the Washington Monument is 555 feet 5⅛ inches tall. The column is an octagonal shaft faced with Texas Cordova shellstone, topped with a 34-foot (10 m) Lone Star - the symbol of Texas. Visitors can take an elevator to the monument's observation deck for a view of Houston and the USS Texas.
The San Jacinto Museum of History is located inside the base of the monument, and focuses on the history of the Battle of San Jacinto and Texas culture and heritage. The San Jacinto Battlefield, of which the monument is a part, was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960, and is therefore also automatically listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[2] It was designated an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1992.[3]
A panel on the side of the monument at San Jacinto today underscores the importance of the battle after more than a century and a half of reflection: "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 one-third of the present area of the American nation, nearly a million square miles of territory, changed sovereignty."
I wonder what these good men would have to say about this:
Thousands Expected to Rally for Immigration Overhaul in Washington TODAY
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2476087/posts
Thank you for posting. Saved. Bookmarked.
A big Don’t-Mess-With-Texas Bump!
BTT
This is the day that made this great State possible.
Always remember San Jacinto.
Bump for 2011
Thank you for the reminder sir. Will post something tomorrow morning.
On the TX board, re_nortex mentioned that he wanted to post something.
I'll now defer that to those who have longer tenure here on FR and are native Texans (although I moved here by choice, I was regretfully not fortunate enough to be born here).
My plans were to commemorate the 175th anniversary by posting an article about the Battle of San Jacinto from a faculty member at Texas A&M. I also intended to compare how much more significant this victory over tyranny was over the so-called "Earth Day" (also on April 21) celebrated by liberals, fascists and environ-whackos.
I'll be looking forward to the post by one of you with better credentials than I have. It's a day that should be respectfully honored not only by Texans but by all patriots who truly cherish liberty and freedom.
re, you are a true Texan. Never doubt it, never question it. Texas is in your DNA.
Fossil, thanks for posting this. The history of Texas has always been a huge part of my life.
God Bless Texas. May She live forever.
Actually, I came very close to being a native Texan since my mom was here in Texas where I was conceived and where my dad was stationed. My father was KIA in the early months of WWII and my mom then moved to Pennsylvania (where my dad's family was from) and that's why I happened to have been born there unfortunately.
I'll add that while I was a kid in elementary school, a little girl whose father was transferred from the Beaumont area to Pittsburgh absolutely charmed me. She was so sweet, well-mannered and had that unforgettable, adorable Texas accent. She brought in a little Texas flag for me and I used to wave it around during recess on the playground. I knew that by accident of birth I'll just have to live with Pennsylvania on my BC but Texas was and is in my DNA.
I am happy for any good posts related, from whatever source.
From a native who can say that some of my ancestors were born in Texas during the Republic:
“Texas is not where you were born, but a State of Mind, Heart and Attitude”
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I am not a decendant of those who fought to liberate Texas, but am planning to post an excerpt from a website of those who are. Unless I miscalculated, this is the 175th Anniversity of the Battle of San Jacinto.
Yes...we're just hours away from the 175th anniversary of that blessed day. The working title I was planning for my post was:
Triumphant Texans Topple Tyrant! Victory at San Jacinto: 175th Anniversary
Feel free to steal it or adapt it for your posting. I'll be eagerly watching for it.
The paragraph from the Texas A&M site (see above) that says so much is:
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!
I almost weep like John Boehner :-) when I think of the brave Texans who fought for liberty and freedom.
That event 175 years ago cemented a people and put in place a pattern of behavior that exists no where else in the U.S.
If those who are now scheming to destroy the U.S. think they will do that easily, they are going to learn a painful lesson. Men who love freedom more than their life still exist and will not be subjected.
As Sam Houston said: “Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.”
Some things simply do not change.
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