Battle of San Jacinto
Following the Mexican victory at Goliad, Santa Anna divided his forces and sent the majority to
Galveston to attempt stomp out rebel resistance leaving him with a force of approximately 700 men.
After a series of strategic retreats, Houston saw this move by Santa Anna as an opportunity and
gathered his forces and headed eastward. On April 20, 1836 both Santa Ann and Houston's armies
met Buffalo Bayou on the San Jacinto river with the only thing separating them being a large grassy
mound. Later that day, one of Santa Anna's reinforcements of 500 soldiers arrived increasing his
forces to approximately 1200 men. Santa Ann held off attacking choosing instead to wait until his
second larger unit of reinforcements arrived, however he did not realize that Texas forces had burned
Vince's Bridge which prevented Santa Anna's reinforcements from crossing the Sims Bayou near
Harrisburg, Texas.
Because Santa Anna did not believe
Houston would attack now that his first
wave of reinforcements had arrived and
because the his men were exhausted due
to their long forced marches, Santa Anna
ordered his men to rest so they would be
prepared to fight upon the arrival of his
remaining forces. However with the
Mexican reinforcements cut off at Sims
Bayou, at approximately 4:00 PM on April
21, 1836 Houston ordered a surprise
attack on the Santa Anna's forces
catching them completely unprepared
After only about 18 minutes of fighting,
the Texas had killed approximately 630
Mexican soldiers and had taken 730
prisoners. To avoid capture or death,
Santa Anna put on a private's uniform
and fled. He was captured the next day
hiding in a marsh and brought before
Sam Houston at the site of the battle.
Santa Anna was forced to sign the
Treaties of Velasco giving Texas its
independence. The treaty however was
not recognized by Mexico but the
Mexican government was not willing to
launch another attack on Texas.