Battle of San Jacinto - Essay Example

The researcher states that many American immigrants had migrated to Mexican Texas with full backing by the Mexican government near the beginning of the Mexican Independence. These immigrants started to rise up against the Mexican government in 1835 when the government of Santa Anna declared dictatorship rule over the country. Gradually, Texans formed a provisional government and started a movement for independence. This movement for independence was supported by many Americans, who volunteered to help the Texans in this movement.

An army was formed by the help of these volunteers. In 1836 Santa Anna entered Texas with his army to take back its territory and put it back under the control of Mexico. Two battles were fought at Alamo and Goliad. Both of these battles were won by the Mexican army and a large number of Texan army was slaughtered brutally. After these two battles general Houston led his army against the army of Santa Anna near the river of San Jacinto in Texas. General Houston proved to be a very sharp and far sighted leader.

The number of men in the Mexican army was already more than that of the Texan army and Houston did not want to give time to Santa Anna to call for more troops. Due to this reason he decided to execute a surprise attack against the Mexicans. This was a major risk on General Houston’s part because in this plan most of his army would be exposed to the Mexicans. On the other hand a critical mistake was made by the Mexican leader Santa Anna, in his confidence gained by the last two wins; he did not pay much attention to this battle and failed to post lookouts for any surprise attacks by the Texan army.

This surprise attack by the Texan army was conducted in the evening of 21st April. The Texan army moved forward without getting caught by the Mexican army because their approach was hidden by trees and the uneven ground. Havoc reigns on the enemy as the Texian cavalry attack their stunned counterparts with slashing sabers (McDonald, McCord & Haas 2008). This thing worked in the favour of the Texans because Santa Anna had not sent any men for lookouts. The bridge on the river was cut off by the Texans so that no retreats or reinforcements were possible.

This was for both the armies because now the only way out of this was the ten feet deep water. The Texan infantry was led by General Houston himself. It was a well planned attack and the Mexican army was completely surrounded by the attackers. The Texan army had two artillery weapons called the twin sisters which were given to them by the city of Cincinnati. These weapons were placed in the battle and were of great help. It was a completely silent attack and the Texan forces did not reveal themselves until they were a few yards away from the Mexican army camps and then charged.

They charged while shouting different slogans of “Remember Goliad” and “Remember Alamo”. The Texan army started firing at the surprised Mexicans. The Mexican army was not prepared for this kind of attack by its opponents and was completely taken by surprise. Most of the Mexican army was resting or asleep after building fortifications. Some of them were gone to gather woods while some of the others were fetching water at the time of the attack. The unarmed Mexicans had no choice but to ran and a complete chaos was created in the Mexican