The Battle of San Jacinto

Following her independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico welcomed foreign settlers to her sparsely-populated possession of Texas, which saw a large group of Americans under the leadership of Stephen F. Austin settle along the Brazos River. Soon outnumbering local Mexican residents, tensions between the Mexican government and American settlers spiked in the early 1830s, leading Texas to declare her independence from Mexico in March of 1836. Initially suffering defeat against the larger forces of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Sam Houston and his Texas Volunteers were forced to flee eastward, leading to the complete slaughter of Texan holdouts at the Alamo, followed by the ruthless slaughter of some 350 Texans at Goliad that same month.

Symbols of Resistance

Thirsty for revenge, Texans soon made the Battle of the Alamo and the slaughter at Goliad a symbol of their heroic resistance against the Mexican government, and after Colonel Sidney Sherman disobeyed Houston’s order not to engage Mexican troops while on a reconnaissance mission, on April 21, 1836, 935 Texas Volunteers routed the Mexican Army’s larger force of 1,250 soldiers at the Battle of San Jacinto, shouting “Remember the Alamo, remember Goliad” as they forced an unprepared Mexican army into a disorganized retreat. Lasting a scant eighteen minutes, the slaughter to follow lasted much longer, when fleeing Mexicans were massacred at Peggy Lake, slaughtering 630 soldiers in a bloodbath that turned the lake water red. “Gentlemen, I applaud your bravery,” Houston said in response, “but damn your manners.”

Shameful Surrender

Discovered in a private’s uniform, Santa Anna was taken prisoner during the battle, forced to sign a peace treaty at Velasco Texas, which recognized Texas independence in exchange for his freedom, although tensions continued to build along the Texas-Mexico border for the next decade to come. In short order, Houston was elected president of the Lone Star Republic, while in 1845, when President John Tyler arranged for a compromise that allowed Texas to join the United States as a slave state, the move ignited the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848, which in turn ceded 55% of Mexico’s land to the United States, making the Battle of San Jacinto, a conclusive victory for Texas independence.