Today is San Jacinto Day! In celebration of the decisive Sam Houston led victory over Santa Ana that insured Texas' independence from Mexico.

http://www.thc.texas.gov/news-...utes-san-jacinto-day

And it also in conjunction with this historical day that Texas Aggies worldwide celebrate Aggie Muster.
Aggie gather to remember their days at A&M and honor those Aggies that have passed on in the preceding year. Whoop!:

http://www.aggienetwork.com/muster/

http://www.aggienetwork.com/muster/#mustertradition

One of the neat things for me about the Muster on Corregidor in 1946, commemorating the one held in 1942, was that one of the attendees was a neighbor our ours. We can look at the picture and, say we knew that man. And his kids and grandkids were able to see him commemorated in a display about that event at College Station..

It certainly is!

I did not know Aggies mustered on this date. It's only fair. Texas Exes gather on Texas Independence Day, March 2. When I was in school, the Aggies gathered the day after Thanksgiving, to sing "Wait 'til next year" together, a muster of sorts.

I do love reading a nice rivalry ribbing.

Remember the Alamo!

Remember Goliad!

Sam Houston totally surprised Santa Ana at San Jacinto, literally catching the Mexican army napping. The Mexicans didn't know the Texians were near, and Houston's troops used a slight rise to get within a few hundred yards or less of the Mexican encampment before charging.

They charged in and the battle itself was over in 18 minutes, although the Texians chased and killed runaways for quite some time. The Texans wanted revenge after the slaughters at the Alamo and Goliad. Many Mexicans tried to escape into the swampy estuaries surrounding the battlefield and drowned. Santa Ana tried to disguise himself, but was recognized and brought to Sam Houston. Soon, the Mexican government recognized Texas as independent.

This, of course, later lead to Texas joining the Union, and the accession of what is now New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, and parts of Colorado becoming part of the United States after the Mexican-American war.

A great day to remember. As an aside, as the product of a "mixed marriage" I well know the A&M/UT rivalry.

quote:

This, of course, later lead to Texas joining the Union, and the accession of what is now New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, and parts of Colorado becoming part of the United States after the Mexican-American war.

I love this part.

God Bless Texas!

Here!

I'll go to Aggie Muster in the Capitol.

The Battle of San Jacinto

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.


4:30 PM - The Second Volunteers under Sherman, having traveled swiftly through the oaks on the Texian left, fire on the surprised men of General Cos’ command. The Battle of San Jacinto has begun. The Mexican forces return fire, but they are soon on the run. Sherman, leading the pursuit, is the first to shout, “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!”

The main body of the Texian forces crest a slight rise. They are 200 yards from the Mexican breastworks, a four foot barricade of cut brush, saddles and baggage. Houston, riding thirty yards in front of the First Regiment, orders, “To the charge! To the charge!”

Musicians strike up a bawdy march on fife, drum and fiddle. General Castrillón directs his cannon fire on Lamar’s advancing cavalry. The Twin Sisters, loaded with cut-up horse shoes, hail hot metal at the alarmed Mexican troops. A small force advances on the Texian artillery, but is repulsed.


4:35 PM - Havoc reigns on the enemy left as the Texian Cavalry attack their stunned counterparts with slashing sabers. Burleson’s First Volunteers are upon the breastworks engaging Matamoros Battalion. To their right Texian regulars assault Aldama Battalion with equal ferocity.

Stampeding behind the lines, riderless Mexican horses bring terror to the breastworks defenders, who now believe they are being attacked from the rear. The Second Volunteers drive Cos’ panicked men rearward into Colonel Almonte’s Guerrero Regiment, pushing them all nearly two hundred yards.


4:40 PM - Almonte attempts to rally any men who can still be commanded, but it is too late. Matamoros and Aldama Battalions turn from defense of the breastworks in wild retreat. The First Volunteers and Texian Regulars are over the breastworks, pursuing with savage intent. The resistance at the Mexican cannon position is overcome and the gun seized. Any Mexican cavalry able to mount up flee toward Harrisburg, Santa Anna among them.


4:45 PM - Sherman’s Second Volunteers chase Cos and Almonte’s men into a small bayou to the Texian left. The First Volunteers force Matamoros Battalion into the marsh at the rear of the Mexican position and into Peggy’s Lake. Some try to surrender, pleading for their lives, crying, “Me no Alamo! Me no la Bahia!” There is no mercy.

Many Texians fire only once and don’t waste time to reload. They turn their rifles around and swing them as war clubs, breaking many off at the breach in the act of shattering a skull. The air is filled with the acrid smell of gun powder and the stench of feces as dying men void their bowels.


4:48 PM - The Battle of San Jacinto is over, but not the killing. Behind the Texians are the enemy dead. To their front, in marsh, lake and bayou, those Santanistas still living try in vain to escape or plead for their lives. The Texians calmly, but briskly reload, time and again. Each shot means the end for another of Soldado.

Sundown - A guard is set on the Mexican camp to keep the men from looting. The spoils are to be divided among them as war booty. Mexican soldiers who escaped the slaughter are being rounded up and marched to the oak stand on Buffalo Bayou from which the Texians set out barely two and a half hours ago. They will be held in a pen made of split logs, rope and anything else that lends itself to the job.

The Texians wander back to camp, singly and in small groups. Some talk about deeds of the day, others sing songs, laugh and trade cheers across the prairie. Still others just walk, their thoughts their own until the end of their days.

If the Alamo is called Texas’ Thermopylae, then San Jacinto is her Agincourt. Of the Texian forces there are but seven killed. Twenty-nine are wounded, including General Houston, his ankle shattered by a copper ball from an escopeta. Of those wounded four will die.

The Mexican dead number 630. The prisoners tally 730, of which 208 are wounded. The events of this day will mean perpetual freedom for Texas, as a republic for now, and in ten years as one of the United States. History will show that the soldiers of San Jacinto have set the keystone in the arch of Manifest Destiny.







Texas Quote

"Be men, be free men, that your children may bless their father's name."

- General Sam Houston
April 21, 1836

https://app.robly.com/archive?...4a604ce7b57a5dbeed3f


I know-it probably wasn't a copper ball.

Q: What did Davy Crockett say to Jim Bowie when they got up in the morning and looked out over Santa Ana's army?

A: What the fuck? I didn't know we were pouring concrete today.

The Texans were outnumbered (910 troops vs 1360 troops) in San Jacinto but it was an absolute ass whoopin' since it was payback time for the executing the Texans who surrendered in Goliad. Santa Ana was damn lucky his life was spared at San Jacinto considering he had given the order to treat the men at Goliad as pirates. The casualty numbers are really telling on how lopsided San Jacinto was:

KIA - 650 Mexicans, 11 Texans

Wounded - 208 Mexicans, 30 Texans

In honor of the triumph, the Texans built the San Jacinto monument 13 feet taller than the Washington Monument.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

"Texas, to be respected must be polite. Santa Anna living, can be of incalculable benefit to Texas; Santa Anna dead, would just be another dead Mexican." -- Sam Houston

Link to original video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WZs3F9rwEK8

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
"Texas, to be respected must be polite. Santa Anna living, can be of incalculable benefit to Texas; Santa Anna dead, would just be another dead Mexican." -- Sam Houston

I don't recall previously seeing that quote. Thanks for sharing.

"Here!"

Thanks to those that served and sacrificed.

As a transplant into Texas, I am not imbued with the totality of this history, but I recognize its importance. I join my native Texas friends in celebrating this event.

flashguy

Lets not forget Goliad while we are at it

This was from the celebrations of San Jacinto day today at the battlefield. The man in the middle is Sam Houston IV, the great-grandson of General Sam Houston.



The guy in the hat is a former colleague of mine who is now a justice on one of the Texas Courts of Appeals, Ken Wise. Ken is a student of Texas history. He has a podcast called "Wise About Texas" that is very good. Check it out if you are interested in Texas history. The third is Jeff Brown, a Texas Supreme Court justice.