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21APR21 at SAN JACINTO

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  • satx78247

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    Friends,

    Today, 21APR21 is the 185th anniversary of our little rag-tag, amateur Texas rebel army, under the command of GEN Sam Houston, defeating the much larger & far better equipped Mexican professional army in just 18 minutes.
    (After that 18 minutes, the killing went on for almost 3 days.)

    QUESTION: WHY is SAN JACINTO DAY not an official TEXAS HOLIDAY??

    yours, satx
     

    Armybrat

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    satx78247

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    To All,

    When I was in HS long ago, The Battle of San Jacinto was called "The MIRACLE at San Jacinto", which was quite appropriate, as Texas had lost virtually ALL of our FEW experienced/trained soldiers at The Alamo & at La Bahia/Goliad.
    (Probably, the most experienced "combat soldier" that Texas had left after La Bahia was a 46YO former member of the British cavalry named R. Doss, who had served as a CPL at Waterloo, who arrived from Baton Rouge, LA in Texas after Goliad.)

    What was left after Goliad to fight GEN Santa Anna's professional army was 1200-1300 UNTRAINED, POORLY EQUIPPED & often unarmed volunteers, who arrived in Houston's camp with little to recommend them, except that they possessed a lust for LIBERTY.
    (Despite what many people think, the average Mexican soldier was a GOOD & TOUGH fighter, at the conclusion of the siege of the Alamo. - What he became after weeks of trying to catch/destroy the Texas Army, under the worst of conditions, was VERY different.)

    GEN Sam Houston had less than 3 weeks actual combat experience under MG Andrew Jackson. He was likely the best trained military leader that Texas had left.

    So how did the Texas revolutionary Army win against all odds? = The truthful answer was that the Winter & Spring of 1836 was the coldest/wettest in Texas history, the Mexican army was POORLY led & GEN Houston conducted a brilliant strategic retreat toward Louisiana, stretching the Mexicans supply lines, while burning/destroying most everything behind the Texicans, until the Mexican Army was riddled with "filth diseases", out of supplies & exhausted.
    (To quote Professor Sylvia Louisa de Vega, of the Autonomous University of Mexico, "Our soldiers were brave but after chasing the Texan rebels across Texas-Coahuila, they simply had nothing more than their deaths left to give for their Motherland.")

    Because GEN Houston had excellent scouts, who watched the Mexican forces carefully & at least two spies in the Mexican camp, so he knew where/when the Mexicans were most vulnerable.
    (In later years Houston's chief spy, EMILY MORGAN, described herself as, "The sultry culebra in Santa Anna's own bed.")
    At that time & place, San Jacinto, he struck the enemy camp when they least expected an attack & won that single battle.
    (In 1841 a reporter for a NY newspaper asked GEN Houston how he knew about SCORCHED EARTH as a way to win the revolution & Houston, being the honest/modest/self-effacing man that he was said, "I once read a book about that.")

    yours, satx
    USA, Retired
     
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    Haystack

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    Friends,

    Today, 21APR21 is the 185th anniversary of our little rag-tag, amateur Texas rebel army, under the command of GEN Sam Houston, defeating the much larger & far better equipped Mexican professional army in just 18 minutes.
    (After that 18 minutes, the killing went on for almost 3 days.)

    QUESTION: WHY is SAN JACINTO DAY not an official TEXAS HOLIDAY??

    yours, satx

    I believe it is for employees of the state of Texas.

     

    satx78247

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    And my great great grandfather was there.

    Haystack; All,

    FYI, one of my ancestors & his 12YO son arrived, on foot, just in time (about Noon on 20APR1836) to participate in the battle. = They had walked, leading a pack burro, all the way from what is NOW Franklin County, TX.

    During my thesis research on the military history of the Texas Revolution, I found accounts of TWO volunteers who arrived on foot, not only barefooted & unarmed BUT they had to be provided clothes to be a TX soldier.
    The period accounts state that one volunteer arrived in Houston's camp completely NAKED (He had lost his clothes, pack & musket while crossing a flooded creek.) & the other volunteer's remaining clothes were so tattered that a TX Sergeant wrote home to his wife that the volunteer HAD to be given clothes "- - - - to cover the nakedness of his nether parts & allow him to move about the camp in some common decency. - He was clad upon arrival only in a few rags. Before morning arrived, he was given unto his person some hot food & drink, as well as decent & warm clothing & a musket.")

    Another account indicates that a volunteer/private from near La Bahia arrived in camp wearing a MEXICAN OFFICER's UNIFORM, riding a horse, saddle/tack & was "very well provided" with supplies.
    (He "HALLOED the camp", yelling "DON'T SHOOT. I'm a friend." & later said that he had "come upon a sleeping Mexican LT at a ford", brained the enemy with a rock, took his clothes, horse, weapons & other things, as the Mexican had many better things than he possessed. = It's "a pure wonder" that some nervous sentry didn't shoot him!)

    yours, satx
     
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