179 years ago, General Santa Anna surrendered to General Sam Houston

[txradioguy]

Texans all over the world will be remembering the events of April 21, 1836 where in a prairie near what would one day be La Porte, the Lone Star State took its next step into legend.

 The clash between General Sam Houston’s Texas rebels and General Santa Anna's troops that day ended with a Texan victory, concluding the Texas Revolution.

 Cries of “Remember the Alamo!” and “Remember Goliad” disturbed the slumber of Mexican troops taking siestas under trees.

 The ensuing firefight was only 18 minutes long, starting at around 3:30 p.m., with 630 Mexicans killed. There were nine dead Texans out of just over 900 fighters. About 730 Mexicans would be taken prisoner by Houston’s men.

 General Santa Anna had no lookouts posted and if he had, it’s unclear just how the day would have shaken out for General Houston and the rest.

 Houston was wounded in the ankle by a rifle ball in the fight. He accepted the surrender of Santa Anna while sitting down under an oak tree on a blanket. Santa Anna, a prisoner of war, was found in nearby tall grass the day before dressed as a common soldier and not the brave general he purported to be.
 
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/179-years-ago-today-General-Santa-Anna-6211970.php

[chitownchica]

Texas, our Texas, all hail the mighty state!  :cheers mate:

I'm thankful to those men and what they accomplished. 

[SVPete]

The man who fancied himself the Napoleon of the West - and his crack army - got caught napping. He didn't learn from it. 10 years he brought Mexico into war with the US trying to enforce his claim that the words "Rio Grande" in the Treaty of Velasco referred to the large Nueces River instead of the actual Rio Grande. That didn't work out too well for him, either; it worked out better for the US Southwest, for which the US paid, in silver or gold, per the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (which was negotiated and signed before anyone outside of Central California could have known of the discovery of gold in CA).