The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836 near LaPorte, 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.
Background
During the early years of Mexican independence, numerous anglo-american immigrants had settled in Texas, then a part of Mexico.
In 1835, they rebelled against the Mexican government of General Santa Anna after he rescinded the Constitution of 1824 and asserted dictatorial control over Mexico.
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 and defeated a Texan force at the Battle of the Alamo, then he 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 caught up with him on April 19. He established positions around the San Jacinto River, and Houston established his positions across a field a thousand 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 21st Houston decided to attack.
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.
In less than twenty minutes, the Texan army had won, killing 600 Mexican soldiers and taking 730 prisoner.
The following day, Santa Anna was captured. He was taken to Washington, D.C. where 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"
For more info, see:
http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/The_Battle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Jacinto
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, is the close to one of the "unknown" chapters of Texas, Mexican and American history. When the Mexican commissioners made advances for peace at the beginning of the year 1848, they were given terms almost as liberal as those offered them before Scott had stormed and occupied their capital. By the treaty concluded at Guadalupe-Hidalgo, February 2, 1848, Mexico was required to cede California and New Mexico to the United States and to recognize the Rio Grande as the southern and western boundary of Texas. In return, the United States paid Mexico $15,000,000 cash and assumed some $3,250,000 more in claims of American citizens on the Mexican government. Considering the facts that California was scarcely under Mexican control at all and might have been taken at any moment by Great Britain, France, or Russia; that New Mexico was still the almost undisturbed home of Indian tribes; that the land from the Nueces to the Rio Grande was almost a desert; and that the American troops were in possession of the Mexican capital, the terms offered Mexico were very generous. Polk was urged by many to annex the whole country of Mexico to the United States, but he refused to consider such a proposal.
