THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO
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 AntonioLopez de Santa Anna, President and Dictator of Mexico and self-styled“Napoleon of the West,” with his proud army, andchanged 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 grimhardship, tragedy and romance ... the story of the epochal battlethat established the independent Lone Star Republic, on April21, 1836, and indelibly inscribed the names of Texas patriots onhistory’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 preludein the oppressive Mexican edict of April 6, 1830, prohibiting furtheremigration of Anglo-Americans from the United States toTexas; 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 atGonzales, the capture of Goliad, the “Grass Fight,” and the siegeand capture of San Antonio ... all in 1835. The Texas Declarationof 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 cameto the convention on the Brazos of the desperate plight of ColonelWilliam Barret Travis, under siege at the Alamo in San Antonio.Sam Houston, commander-in-chief of the Texas Army, left6Washington post-haste for Gonzales, to take command of thetroops there and go to the aid of Travis. He arrived there on the11th, and at about dark learned from two Mexicans who had justarrived from San Antonio that the Alamo had fallen and its 183brave defenders massacred. This was confirmed two days later byMrs. Almeron Dickinson who had been released by the Mexicansafter seeing her lieutenant husband killed in the old mission. Shewas trudging toward Gonzales with her babe in her arms whenthe Texas army scouts found her.
The reports of the Alamo slaughter terrified the people ofGonzales. They were panic-stricken by the general belief thatSanta Anna next would sweep eastward with his well-trainedarmy, in a drive to wipe the rebellious Texans from the face ofthe earth.
Then began the exodus of frantic colon