Battle of San Jacinto

Texas officially signed their Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836. Just four days
later, news finally came of Colonel Travis's cry for reinforcements at the Alamo. General Sam Houston immediately left with a
few hundred troops to help him. Once they reached Gonzales on March 11 to organize more volunteers, Houston learned that
the Alamo had fallen and all 188 of its men were killed. The people of Gonzales were frightened, and began the famous
"Runaway Scrape." Mostly women and children packed as much as they could, and headed for the border of Louisiana to
escape Santa Anna's wrath. Houston knew that his small fleet were no match against the Mexican army alone, and so he
retreated across the Colorado River.

Very close by, the Mexicans captured another town. On March 19, forces under General Jos Urrea defeated a band of
Texans 450 strong near Goliad. On Palm Sunday, by order of Santa Anna the 352 Texans captured and their commander,
Colonel James Walker Fannin Jr. were ordered out into the streets of Goliad and executed.

The two bloody defeats (Alamo and Goliad) panicked the people of Texas. Even some army volunteers ran away with their
families. Houston continued his retreat for several days and finally rested on land of the plantation owned by Jim E. Groce.
While Houston and his troops were resting, Santa Anna's troops were busy chasing the government leaders who had fled from
Washington-on-the-Brazos to Harrisburg and then to New Washington (present day Morgan's Point).

On April 11 while still at Groce's plantation, the Texans received two cannons. A gift from the citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio.
They were called "The Twin Sisters."

The moral boost the cannons provided was enough to get the Texans moving again. Houston decided to head to the other
side of the Brazos River. They continued on through present day Harris county. It was thought that they would cross the
Sabine River (Texas's Eastern state border) where U.S. troops were camped. Instead on April 18, they marched into the
present city of Houston.

New information was gathered from two prisoners captured by Deaf Smith. He told Houston that Santa Anna in person with
several hundred soldiers had crossed a bridge over Vince's Bayou. Since the bridge was the only way out of where the
Mexicans were, Houston decided that it was time to fight.*

On the morning of April 21, Houston ordered Deaf Smith to destroy the bridge over Vince's Bayou, leaving no retreat for the
Mexicans. They were completely blocked in by the river at the North and East, marshes to the East and South-East and a
moat to the West.

At about 3:30 in the afternoon, Houston finally gave the order to attack. 910 ragged, tired and dirty Texans charged the
unprepared Mexicans. The fighting lasted only about 18 minutes. Along with the sounds of war came the famous battle cry
"Remember the Alamo," "Remember Goliad!" The official numbers were 630 Mexicans killed, 208 wounded and 730 taken
prisoner. Only 9 Texans were killed.

When the Mexican prisoners were reviewed, it was noticed that Santa Anna wasn't one of them. Nor was he dead. A
search began, to find the Mexican President. Unfortunately, nobody knew what he looked like, so when a runaway Mexican
soldier was captured and brought back to the battlefield, the Texans were pleasantly surprised to hear the other Mexican
soldiers calling him "El Presidente." Santa Anna was caught! He was taken before General Houston who spared his life.
Santa Anna eventually signed an agreement that would order all Mexican soldiers to evacuate the state of Texas. It was
officially recognized as a free republic!