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| SUNRAYS JULY 2014
ONLINE:
SCTXCA.ORG
Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of
articles highlighting nearby locations
that would make for a fun day trip. With
summer upon us, resident writer Sandy
Nielsen will take us to sites worth visit-
ing within a day’s drive from Sun City
Texas. Have a happy summer and safe
travels—wherever you go!
O
n a spring afternoon in 1836,
900 impassioned Texans
slipped unnoticed through
the tall, tidal plain grass field, east of
current-day Houston. Their impending
surprise attack on 1,250 Mexicans would
become arguably one of the most deci-
sive battles in the world, based on the
amount of territory that changed hands
because of it.
It was only four months since General
Santa Anna, President of Mexico, had
moved into Texas with 6,000 soldiers to
quell a rising rebelliousness among the
settlers there. Patriots at the Alamo in
San Antonio had fought an impossibly
lopsided battle in March, pledging to
die before they would surrender. Later,
Santa Anna would win another battle at
Goliad and execute the 300 survivors,
contrary to all Mexican codes of mili-
tary honor.
The remainder of the Texan forces, un-
der Sam Houston, had retreated before
Santa Anna, knowing that they might
have only one more chance to engage the
Mexicans, and that it would be a “win
or die” situation.
Birth of a Republic
In 18 minutes that April day—amid cries
of “Remember the Alamo!” and “Remem-
ber Goliad!”—630 Mexicans and eight
Texans were killed in an encounter that
gave the advantage to the individual
fighting style favored by the Texans, over
the organized and mass-fire style of the
Mexicans, a tactic totally disrupted by
Above is one of the works featured at the San Jacinto Monument and Museum; the painting “El Presidente Arrives in Camp”
depicts the capture of General Santa Anna, as he’s brought into the Texas camp.
18 Minutes That
Changed the World
By Sandy Nielsen
A 34-foot granite Lone Star caps the
San Jacinto Monument. Windows show
the observation deck.
