I’d spend it at the battlefield this weekend…
Bugle calls and thundering cannons will fill the air Saturday at the old San Jacinto battlefield — the site where Sam Houston’s army won Texas’ freedom from Mexico — but this time the smoke and hubbub of war will all be in fun.
Hundreds of military reenactors will relive the clash between Texas rebels and Santa Anna’s troops as the highlight of the annual festival commemorating the Texans’ April 21, 1836, victory.
The actor-soldiers also will dramatize the “runaway scrape” — the flight of Texans from the advancing Mexican army — and the march of Sam Houston’s troops from Gonzales to San Jacinto.[1]
Today, in just a couple of hours, they will have a ceremony on the steps of the San Jacinto Monument. In all probability, the ceremony will last longer than the battle itself…
Houston disposed his forces in battle order about 3:30 in the afternoon while all was quiet on the Mexican side during the afternoon siesta. The Texans’ movements were screened by trees and the rising ground, and evidently Santa Anna had no lookouts posted. 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 under Lamar on the extreme right. The Twin Sisters were wheeled into position, and the whole line, led by Sherman’s men, sprang forward on the run with the cry, “Remember the Alamo!” “Remember Goliad!” The battle lasted but eighteen minutes. According to Houston’s official report, the casualties were 630 Mexicans killed and 730 taken prisoner. Against this, only nine of the 910 Texans were killed or mortally wounded and thirty were wounded less seriously. Houston’s ankle was shattered by a rifle ball. The Texans captured a large supply of muskets, pistols, sabers, mules, horses, provisions, clothing, tents, and $12,000 in silver.[2]
So today, we here in Texas celebrate the day when a few hundred of our forefathers stopped running towards the USA and ran towards the Mexican Army that had been chasing them across the state.
I grew up with the San Jacinto Battleground in my backyard (figuratively). I have no idea how many times I have visited the Park that makes up the modern representation of what those early Texans saw that day. But it seems that we went out there at least once a year. Today, the battlefield sits right smack in the middle of the Houston Ship Channel Industrial Zone. And while it’s possible to sit and tune out the modern day on the horizon and visualize what it must have felt like in the days of the Revolution, the thing you can’t quite block out is the odor of the chemical plants all around you. Here in Texas that smell has always been equated to the smell of money…Something I have never bought into.
I will say that watching the shipping traffic cruise past the Battleship Texas has always been an impressive sight. As children we used to love to picnic along the ship channel and watch the bow waves wash up on shore as the large ships pushed past…
To all Texans everywhere…Happy San Jacinto Day
[2] Handbook of Texas Online – SAN JACINTO, BATTLE OF.
