The Battle of San Jacinto, which determined the fate of the North American continent, is the most poorly recorded -- and perhaps the most ignored --decisive engagement in modern history.
San Jacinto, of course, established the de facto independence of the Republic of Texas, which in turn led to the war between the United States and Mexico and to American seizure of the entire Southwest. The utterly decisive outcome of that 1846 Mexican-American war is well-studied and understood, but San Jacinto was the key. If that battle had not been fought and won by Texan colonists, the Anglo presence in Texas would have been expunged -- most of the population had already fled. The Sabine would have remained a hard, treaty-bound border between the United States and Mexico, and history would have turned out differently.
Some Mexicans and other historians pooh-pooh that. They assert that the United States would have grabbed the territory anyway, by hook or crook. That may be true -- American leaders lusted for the Pacific -- but events would have taken a different, messier course. However bloody, the Battle of San Jacinto was clearly decisive; Mexico never again seriously threatened Texas.
Why doesn't the battle at Buffalo Bayou rank among history's premier events? Many reasons: Only some 2,100 men were involved. It was a brief firefight in a remote neighborhood that hardly seemed to affect the world. The little San Jacinto River did not even appear on contemporary maps. (Andrew Jackson couldn't locate it.) The decisive nature of the battle was hardly seen outside of Texas; the Mexican government certainly did not acquiesce in the result. Finally, this was perhaps the worst-reported important engagement in the history of the world.
No participants wrote down a detailed account until 20 years afterward. The first was published in the Texas Almanac of 1857. Sam Houston, the Texan commander, wrote a terse report listing only the results. Principal figures at the battle became political antagonists during the Republic years, and to put it mildly, lied about each other's exploits. Mexicans felt a sense of humiliation. The Texan colonists who won went home to rebuild and get on with their lives. and few were given to literary endeavors.
Even fragmentary eyewitness accounts differed in detail: Three participants described the captured President Santa Anna's garb three different ways. The battlefield itself partly sank under shifting waters. All this left large gaps in verifiable history.
Some things are clear enough: San Jacinto was a classic case of a commander's overconfidence. Santa Anna thought that Texan resistance was broken at the Alamo and Goliad. He divided his numerically superior army into five columns -- not to fight but to sweep through Texas, burning every plantation, dwelling and town in their path, ridding the province of Anglo rebels. He remained with one column, about 700 strong.
The strategy worked: The Anglo population fled toward Louisiana in what became called the "Runaway Scrape." However, Santa Anna had not cleared the country of the enemy; somehow Sam Houston held a small army of settlers together, much as Washington had mustered his Continentals during retreat. Whether Houston was trapped, or allowed himself to "be trapped" by Santa Anna at the San Jacinto has been argued; Houston kept his own counsel. Why he held back while Santa Anna received reinforcements, now outnumbering the Texans 1,200-918, is unknown. And how the tired, angry, belligerent and nearly rebellious Texan army, attacking in mid afternoon on April 21, 1836, marched undetected almost a mile across open grassland and took veteran troops by surprise is still a cause for speculation.
The results however are clear. The Texans charged into the Mexican camp, which dissolved in disorder. Routs often become slaughters, and this was no exception. The battle itself lasted a few minutes, the pursuit and killing of Mexican soldiers longer. The Mexican president and dictator was captured the next day, ending the campaign.
What we should remember is this: Although no one quite realized it as the sun sank at San Jacinto, the American West was won.  By the Texas Militia !!

ARTICLE PROVIDED BY MICHAEL HEIT

THANKS MIKE