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This Week: The San Jacinto Monument
On the morning of April 21st, General Sam Houston held a council of war. The majority of his officers voted to await Santa Anna’s attack in order to leverage their position. General Houston let each man in the council plead his case. Then he made a decision, which he kept to himself until that afternoon: they would attack.
Around 4:30 p.m., the Mexican soldiers awoke from their afternoon siestas to the smell of gunpowder and cries of vengeance. Flushed with victory from the siege of the Alamo, Santa Anna had failed to post sentries to monitor the Texans’ activities.
In eighteen minutes the Texians were in control of the Mexican camp.
For Mexico, the defeat was the beginning of a downhill martial and political spiral that would result into the loss of nearly a million square miles in territory. As a result of the Battle of San Jacinto, almost a third of what is now the United States of America changed ownership.
San Jacinto Museum of History: The Battle - April 21, 1836
