Battle of San Jacinto

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{{Infobox Military Conflict |conflict=Battle of San Jacinto |partof=the Texas Revolution |image=Image:Sam Houston at San Jacinto.jpg |caption=Sam Houston at the battle of San Jacinto |date=April 21, 1836 |place=Houston, Texas |result=Decisive Texan victory |combatant1=Mexico |combatant2=Texas |commander1=Antonio López de Santa Anna |commander2=Sam Houston |strength1=about 1,200 |strength2=910 |casualties1=630 killed, 208 wounded, 730 captured |casualties2=9 killed, 30 wounded }} Template:Campaignbox Texas Revolution

The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texas Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican forces. Hundreds of Mexican soldiers were killed or captured, while there were relatively few Texan casualties.

1 Background
2 The battle
3 Aftermath
4 See also
5 External links

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Background

During the early years of Mexican independence, numerous Anglo-American immigrants had settled in Texas, then a part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. In 1835, they rebelled against the Mexican government of General Santa Anna after he rescinded the Constitution of 1824 and asserted dictatorial control over Mexico. Besides capturing a number of outposts and defeating the Mexican army garrisons in the area, the Texans formed a provisional government and drafted a Declaration of Independence. Early in 1836, Santa Anna personally led a force of several thousand Mexican troops into Texas to put down the insurrection. First, he entered San Antonio de Béjar and defeated a Texan force at the Battle of the Alamo, then the right wing of his offensive, under General José de Urrea, defeated a second Texan force near Goliad. Santa Anna ordered that all traitors be put to death.

Sam Houston, now in command of the main Texan army, retreated. Santa Anna pursued him and he devised a trap, in which three columns of Mexican troops would converge on Houston's force and destroy it. However, he diverted one column to attempt to capture the provisional government, and a second one to protect his supply lines. Meanwhile, he led the only remaining column against Houston. Santa Anna caught up to Houston on April 19. He established positions around the San Jacinto River, and Houston established his positions across a field 1,000 yards away.

Believing Houston to be cornered, Santa Anna decided to rest his army on April 21 and attack on the 22nd. On the morning of April 21, Houston held a council of war and the majority of his officers favored waiting for Santa Anna's attack. Houston, however, decided in favor of a surprise attack that afternoon. With his army of 910 men, he decided to attack Santa Anna, whose troops numbered about 1,200. Most of the attack would come over open ground, where the Texan infantry would be vulnerable to Mexican gunfire. Even riskier, Houston decided to outflank the Mexicans with his cavalry, stretching his troops even thinner. However, Santa Anna made a crucial mistake: during the army's traditional Mexican afternoon siesta, he failed to post sentries around his camp.

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The battle

On April 21, at 4:30 pm the Texan attack began. The Texan army moved quickly and silently across the high-grass plain, then when they were only a few dozen yards away, charged Santa Anna's camp shouting "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Goliad", only stopping a few yards from the Mexicans to open fire. Confusion ensued. Santa Anna's army were professional soldiers, but they were trained to fight in ranks, exchanging volleys with their opponents. They were also ill-prepared and unarmed, at the time of the attack and some were thousands of miles from home. They also were demoralized by their own leader, because at Goliad and the Alamo Santa Anna had flouted the rules of war by executing enemy prisoners en masse. Many Mexican soldiers ran into the marshes along the river. Some of the Mexican army rallied and attempted to push the Texans back, but their training left them ill-equipped to fight well-armed American frontiermen in hand-to-hand combat. During the battle, Houston was wounded and Santa Anna escaped. In 18 minutes, the Texan army had won, killing about 600 Mexican soldiers and taking 730 prisoner.

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Aftermath

Image:San Jacinto Memorial 1.jpg The following day, Santa Anna was captured. On May 14 he signed the Treaties of Velasco, in which he agreed to withdraw his troops from Texan soil and, in exchange for safe conduct back to Mexico, lobby there for recognition of the republic. However, the safe passage never materialized; Santa Anna was held for six months as a prisoner of war (during which time his government disowned him and any agreement he might enter into) and finally taken to Washington, D.C., in the supposedly uninvolved United States. There he met with President Andrew Jackson, before returning in disgrace to Mexico in early 1837. By then, however, Texan independence was a fait accompli, although Mexico did not officially recognize it until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

Today, the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site commemorates the battle, and includes the San Jacinto Monument, the world’s tallest memorial column. The park is located in La Porte, about 25 miles east of Houston. The monument contains the inscription:

"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."