| |
| |
|
|
R E S O L U T I O N
|
|
|
WHEREAS, April 21, 2024, marks the 188th anniversary of the |
|
|
Battle of San Jacinto, the culminating engagement of the Texas |
|
|
Revolution; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, After a decade of sporadic clashes between Texas |
|
|
colonists and Mexican officials, the movement toward rebellion |
|
|
picked up increasing momentum in the fall of 1835; Antonio Lopez de |
|
|
Santa Anna, the president of Mexico, having abrogated the |
|
|
federalist Constitution of 1824 and assumed autocratic power, |
|
|
decided to reestablish troops at posts in Texas that had been |
|
|
evacuated in 1832; as part of that plan, General Martin Perfecto de |
|
|
Cos arrived in San Antonio with a battalion of infantry on October |
|
|
9, 1835; an army of Texas volunteers quickly moved to lay siege to |
|
|
San Antonio, in what became the first major campaign of the |
|
|
revolution; General Cos finally capitulated on December 9, 1835, |
|
|
and he and his troops were allowed to withdraw to Mexico; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Determined to suppress the rebellion, General Santa |
|
|
Anna led an army of some 6,000 men into Texas in early 1836, |
|
|
crossing the Rio Grande near present-day Eagle Pass; at the same |
|
|
time, a second Mexican force, under General Jose de Urrea, advanced |
|
|
into Texas farther to the east; while General Santa Anna besieged |
|
|
some 180 Texas troops at the Alamo, a convention of Texas delegates |
|
|
convened at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1, 1836, and on |
|
|
March 2 adopted a declaration of independence; two days later, the |
|
|
convention appointed Sam Houston, one of the delegates, to take |
|
|
command of the Texas army; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, General Houston left immediately to join Texas |
|
|
troops gathered in Gonzales; when he reached that town, he learned |
|
|
that the Alamo had fallen and that a division of General Santa |
|
|
Anna's army was marching in his direction; given that the effective |
|
|
strength of his own force numbered only 374, as well as the fact |
|
|
that his men were poorly provisioned and largely untrained, he |
|
|
began a withdrawal toward the northeast, playing for time; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Elsewhere, the Texans were meeting with successive |
|
|
defeats; the most shocking of those was the loss of James W. Fannin |
|
|
and some 400 men, who were captured and then executed on March 27 in |
|
|
what became known as the Goliad Massacre; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, In April, General Houston halted his retreat at the |
|
|
Brazos River and spent two weeks drilling his troops; a short time |
|
|
later, on April 20, calculating that the time for battle had come at |
|
|
last, he staked out a position near the confluence of Buffalo Bayou |
|
|
and the San Jacinto River; later that same day, General Santa Anna |
|
|
and his army caught up to the Texans and established their own |
|
|
position; the following morning, General Cos arrived with an |
|
|
additional body of soldiers, bringing the total strength of the |
|
|
Mexican army to perhaps 1,200 or more, as opposed to the |
|
|
approximately 900 men under General Houston's command; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Confident that he had the Texans on the defensive, |
|
|
General Santa Anna planned to launch an attack on April 22; on the |
|
|
afternoon of the 21st, however, while the Mexican army was resting, |
|
|
General Houston drew up his troops in battle formation; General |
|
|
Santa Anna had apparently posted no sentries, and a swell of land |
|
|
between the two armies hid the Texans from view; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, At the given signal, the Texans advanced across a |
|
|
mile of open prairie toward the Mexican army, becoming visible only |
|
|
when they reached within about 200 yards of the Mexican camp; crying |
|
|
"Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Goliad," they took General Santa |
|
|
Anna's troops completely by surprise; the battle lasted 18 minutes, |
|
|
according to Sam Houston's report, but the killing continued for |
|
|
about an hour afterward; in the end, Texan losses stood at 9 dead |
|
|
and mortally wounded, with 630 Mexican soldiers killed and 730 |
|
|
taken prisoner; General Santa Anna himself was captured the |
|
|
following day; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, With the Battle of San Jacinto, the long colonial |
|
|
period of Texas history, stretching as far back as the 16th century, |
|
|
came to an end; Texas would remain an independent republic for nine |
|
|
years before joining the Union in 1845; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Battle of San Jacinto dramatically changed the |
|
|
course of Texas history, and the story of how an outnumbered army of |
|
|
volunteers ultimately prevailed against General Santa Anna and his |
|
|
troops continues to inspire a special sense of pride among Texans to |
|
|
this day; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 88th Texas |
|
|
Legislature hereby commemorate the 188th anniversary of the Battle |
|
|
of San Jacinto and pay tribute to all those whose courage and |
|
|
tenacity brought ultimate victory to the Texan cause. |
| |
|
|
Cain |
|
|
|
|
|
______________________________ |
|
|
Speaker of the House |
| |
|
|
I certify that H.R. No. 549 was adopted by the House on March |
|
|
30, 2023, by a non-record vote. |
|
|
|
|
|
______________________________ |
|
|
Chief Clerk of the House |
| |