- The Battle of San Jacinto -
- The Soldiers of San Jacinto -

Note: It is our custom to publish this every year in honor of San Jacinto Day.

I wrote it several years ago as the preface to J. B. McDonald's The Soldiers of San Jacinto. My goal was to write a full description of the battle as succinctly as possible.

When taking on such a task, you have to leave out things that are interesting, but not pivotal. I wanted it to be an armature on which anyone deciding to study the battle in greater depth could hang new information and further their understanding.

God bless the Soldiers of San Jacinto.

- Mark


PS - The ugly maps are also my handiwork. Hope you won't hold them against me.






The Battle of San Jacinto in 900 Words


4:00 PM, April 21, 1836 - General Houston, atop a dappled gray, gives the order, “Trail arms! Forward!”

Some 900 men, unwashed, underfed, caked with mud and dressed in rags, begin a long walk through knee-high grass. They have been pushed to the edge, run from their homes, their crops and houses burned.

They don’t know whether their families have found safety. They've lost kin and good friends at the Alamo and at Goliad. They want a fight and are about to get it.

At the far left of this parade line is the Second Regiment of Volunteers, 330 men under Colonel Sherman. To their right, at the center of the Texian force, is Colonel Burleson’s First Volunteers, 386 men strong.

Next are the 32 men of Colonel Hockley’s Artillery Corps. They man two iron cannons, six-pounders called the Twin Sisters, gifts from the people of Cincinnati. To the right of the artillery are 92 men of the Regular Army under Lt. Colonel Millard.

At the extreme right is the Cavalry, 62 mounted men commanded by Colonel Mirabeau Lamar, just yesterday a private.

All advance in perfect silence.-- excerpt, rest at link above --

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