Beyond The Battleground: The Competing Legacies Of San Jacinto by James e. Crisp

you were to ask the average Houstonian to describe the legacy of the Battle of I f San Jacinto, the answer might well be: “Look around you!” In other words, all that Houston is today – all of the political and economic development of Texas and the American Southwest through the last 171 years – is sometimes attributed to the outcome of the test of arms and courage on that pivotal day of April 21, 1836. But put aside for a moment the claim of the battle’s “decisiveness.” It is, after all, a very dubious proposition that a different outcome on that single day would have permanently put a stop to the expansion of the United States across the territories of northern Mexico, given the growing disparity in power and population between Mexico and the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. Rather than imagining what might have been had Santa Anna won the contest that day, think instead about another kind of “legacy.” How does this event from the distant past shape the way we think about ourselves and our world today?

6010845_UofH_Text.indd 12 10/13/10 6:12:34 AM Henry A. McArdle, Dawn at the Alamo, 1905. Courtesy Texas State Library & Archives Commission.

6010845_UofH_Text.indd 13 10/13/10 6:12:35 AM A legacy is by definition a powerful For the Texas story, San Jacinto the Mexican dictator. Trouillot is closer link between the past and the present. is doubly important, because as to the truth when he argues that it was Whatever the precise physical realities the anthropologist, Michel-Rolph actually the outcome of the Battle of of critical events such as the Battle of Trouillot, noted in Silencing the Past: San Jacinto which made possible the San Jacinto, it is the broader narratives Power and the Production of History, traditional Texan interpretation of in which we embed such events that the Mexican General Antonio Lopez the Alamo’s meaning. It would have determine for us their historical de Santa Anna lost two battles there. been a very different story–in both significance and their meaning Santa Anna, said Trouillot, “was senses of the word–if Santa Anna had for our own lives. The events and doubly defeated” on April 21, 1836: prevailed and become the victorious narratives that are celebrated through He lost the battle of the day, but he narrator of the war in Texas. monuments, commemoration, and also lost the battle he had won at the Alamo. [Texan General Sam] Houston’s Instead, as Trouillot’s fellow- historical art become a part of the men had punctuated their victori- anthropologist, Holly Beachley Brear, “collective memory” of a people. They ous attack on the Mexican army with has found in her native San Antonio, are the stories that we tell–again and repeated shouts of “Remember the speakers–that is, story-tellers–at again–to explain our world, to anchor Alamo! Remember the Alamo!” With the Fiesta celebrating San Jacinto our values, and to assert our identities. that reference to the old mission, they doubly made history. As actors, they Day recount a “unified narrative These stories, in other words, become captured Santa Anna and neutral- with the sacrificial fall of the Alamo the sacred myths of our societies. ized his forces. As narrators, they gave and the victory at San Jacinto as the Alamo story a new meaning. The the inseparable alpha and omega of military loss of March [sixth] was no the Texas creation mythology.”2 longer the end point of the narrative but About the author: A native Texan a necessary turn in the plot, the trial of Moreover, in her book, Inherit the and a Rice graduate, James E. the heroes, which, in turn, made final Alamo: Myth and Ritual at an American Crisp is associate professor and victory both inevitable and grandiose.1 Shrine, Brear describes what she takes assistant head in the Department In Texan historical mythology, the to be a racist sub-text within the of History at North Carolina heroic sacrifice at the Alamo made sacred narrative of blood sacrifice State University in Raleigh, and is and miraculous redemption: “In this the author of Sleuthing the AlAmo: the victory at San Jacinto possible by DAvy CroCkett’S lASt StAnD AnD other critically delaying Santa Anna long ideology, Fiesta [marks] the end of mySterieS of the texAS revolution. enough for Sam Houston to pull chaos and backwardness characterizing together the army which finally defeated Texas under Mexican dominance; to ‘the faithful,’ Fiesta San Antonio is

McArdle, The Battle of San Jacinto, 1898. Courtesy The State Preservation Board, Austin, Texas 14 Houston History Volume 4, number 2 spring 2007

6010845_UofH_Text.indd 14 10/13/10 6:12:36 AM the secular Easter six weeks after the wanted not only to Good Friday of the Alamo’s fall.”3 interview them, but for as For most Texans, the most obvious many of them as possible and memorable pairing of the Alamo to see the finished work. and San Jacinto is to be found in the He did not complete his gigantic paintings of the two battles San Jacinto masterpiece that hang today on either side of the until 1898. McArdle entrance to the Senate Chamber of returned in earnest to the Texas State Capitol. Dawn at the his Alamo painting only Alamo and The Battle of San Jacinto after his cross-town may be encountered not only within rival Robert Jenkins the walls of the Capitol but also in Onderdonk displayed countless book-jackets, posters, and in 1903 his dramatic illustrations of historical texts. There painting Crockett’s Last is a racial message also to be found in Fight (hanging today as these iconic works by the San Antonio- The Fall of the Alamo in based artist Henry A. McArdle, but it the Grand Foyer of the is a more complex message than the one Governor’s Mansion Brear describes in Inherit the Alamo. in Austin). McArdle’s Dawn at the Alamo McArdle began these massive works finally appeared two of art in the 1870s, and by 1874 he years later in 1905.6 had produced a preliminary sketch Of the many From McArdle Notebook, detail of Castrillón and Sylvester (flag- of what would later become Dawn bearer), The Battle of San Jacinto. Courtesy Texas State Library & 4 comparisons that can at the Alamo. However, he soon put Archives Commission. this first project aside and worked be made between are two races that represent opposing instead for the next twenty years on McArdle’s two paintings, one forces in the painter’s mind.”7 The Battle of San Jacinto. The reason for of the most striking is his contrasting doing the paintings “in reverse order” depictions of the Mexican soldiers Was it simply the Mexican slaughter becomes obvious when one realizes and officers. Not surprisingly, some of the Alamo defenders that provoked that McArdle was determined to of these men are shown as fleeing this bestial iconology in McArdle’s achieve historical authenticity as well as the San Jacinto battlefield, but many 1905 painting, so different from aesthetic merit in what were to become of the Mexicans at San Jacinto are his portrayal in the earlier painting the two greatest paintings of his life. portrayed as fighting gamely in a of the Mexicans at San Jacinto? doomed cause–none more so than the Apparently not, because a close look The artist conducted numerous gray-haired “brave and chivalrous” at McArdle’s preliminary sketch from interviews and extensive correspondence General Manuel Castrillón, a red sash the 1870s for Dawn at the Alamo shows with the veterans of the Texas across the breast of his blue uniform, a far more sympathetic view of the Revolution who were eyewitnesses to his head and raised pistol directly to Mexicans – not unlike his treatment the battles, and for obvious reasons, the foreground from the Texan flag- of them in The Battle of San Jacinto. there were a lot more surviving Texans bearer, Sergeant James A. Sylvester. who had fought at San Jacinto than This more benign view may best there were men who had been inside The Mexicans depicted in McArdle’s be appreciated by returning to the the Alamo. (There were a few of the hellish Dawn at the Alamo are more depiction of the death of Davy latter available, however. McArdle brutish than chivalrous, however. Texan Crockett. Unlike the scene described corresponded with both Mexican art historian Sam DeShong Ratcliffe has by Emily Cutrer, the Mexican soldier General Santa Anna and Texan Colonel described them as “plasticene, psychotic fighting with Crockett in McArdle’s Juan N. Seguín–the latter having murderers,” and Emily Fourmy Cutrer early sketch is neither dark nor experienced the siege as a defender of has called McArdle’s vision of the “apelike.” He looks like a perfectly the old mission before being sent out as combatants “Manichean”–with the normal–indeed, even handsome-- a courier, and eventually commanding Force of Evil embodied in the dark Mexican soldier. Another contrast may a company of rebel tejanos under and “apelike” Mexican soldier locked be found just above and to the right Sam Houston at the final battle.)5 in combat with a Davy Crockett of Crockett in both versions of the whose whiteness and noble bearing are work–atop one of the Alamo’s walls– Unfortunately, by the 1870s the San highlighted by the artist’s technique. where the commander of the fortress Jacinto veterans were beginning to die “Crockett and the Mexican are not is about to give up his life for Texas. off in increasing numbers, and McArdle merely two men,” asserts Cutrer, “they Houston History Volume 4, number 2 spring 2007 15

6010845_UofH_Text.indd 15 10/13/10 6:12:39 AM All photos courtesy Texas State Library & Archives Commission & Archives Library State Texas courtesy All photos

McArdle, detail of Crockett’s combat, preliminary sketch, 1874. McArdle, detail of Crockett’s combat Dawn at the Alamo, 1905. Alamo historian Reuben Potter flag; but Travis is unaware that he legal segregation and disfranchisement. described in 1874 the death of is about to be stabbed in the back Artistic productions from this time–in William Barret Travis in McArdle’s by the bayonet of a sinister, leering novels, cartoons, and silent films more evenhanded version as follows: Mexican infantryman–who did not as well as serious works of art and “Travis is seen in a death grapple with appear at all in the original sketch. history–often carry racial baggage a Mexican standard bearer, a struggle Unfortunately, McArdle’s 1905 that can cause pain or embarrassment 9 in which both are going down along painting is typical of its time. This when read or viewed today. with the banner which its bearer had work, like the creation of the Alamo On the other hand, the principal vainly attempted to plant.” There are shrine itself from the ruins of the artistic commemorations of the Battle no obvious visual clues that indicate old mission, came about in the early of San Jacinto–most notably the sleek which of the two men is the Mexican, twentieth century just as Texas and the star-topped monument completed in which the American, as they fight to United States were passing through March 1938 (largely with New Deal 8 the death over the future of Texas. one of the most difficult and painful dollars from Washington)–bear few Not so in the revised version of Dawn periods in the history of American race overt marks of the official racism of at the Alamo! This time a remarkably relations, with Mexican-Americans the past.10 The Alamo–both the site tall, uniformed Travis blasts away at as well as African-Americans being and the story–has been during the the head of the bearer of the Mexican relegated to a second-class citizenship of past century far more often the focus

McArdle, 1874 preliminary sketch for Dawn at the Alamo as shown on page 167 of Sleuthing the Alamo.

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6010845_UofH_Text.indd 16 10/13/10 6:12:46 AM “because obviously some Hispanics don’t understand their Texas history and heritage. I celebrate July 4 and Sept. 16 (Mexico’s independence day) as part of our state history. It saddens me more that the educational system hasn’t gotten that story over. We haven’t gotten past those old prejudices.”16 What most of the Anglo-Texans failed to appreciate is that Ramos and those who agreed with him were not ignorant of San Jacinto’s place in the Texan narrative of freedom and independence; what Ramos was doing Courtesy Texas State Library & Archives Commission. & Archives Library State Texas Courtesy was embedding the Battle of San Jacinto in a counter-narrative which McArdle, detail of Travis’ combat, Dawn at the Alamo, 1905. emphasized not the defeat of a dictator’s army by a handful of rebel farmers, of both anti-Mexican sentiments and reference to his victory at San Jacinto. but the aggrandizement of Mexican the retributive protests against racism (A similar pose by Sam Houston in the territory by the aggressive, expansionist and “Yankee imperialism” than has form of an equestrian statue stands guard “United States of the North.” been the less iconic, less universally today over the city’s Hermann Park.) 12 11 In contrast to Ramos’s narrative, familiar San Jacinto battleground. In January 2006, University of the central elements in the traditional Yet hard feelings related to the Texas Houston history professor Raúl Anglo-Texan creation story begin with Revolution remain, even in twenty- Ramos published an editorial in the planting and patient nurturing first century Houston. According to the Chronicle arguing that the new of a colony in the “wilderness” by Lori Rodriguez, writing in the Houston name and logo would divide the city Stephen F. Austin, the “Father of Chronicle on Texas Independence Day, rather than unite it by reminding its Texas” (even though Texas, as Juan 2006, “civic leaders were caught off many inhabitants of Mexican origin Seguín’s ancestors could attest, had guard” early in the year by negative of the defeat of a Mexican army, the been established more than a century reaction among the city’s Hispanics (now secession of Texas from Mexico, and before Austin’s arrival). Next comes 42 percent of the population and the a “sometimes shameful history” of the imposition of arbitrary rule and largest ethnic group in town) to a newly “American conquest culminating in exorbitant taxation of the industrious arrived Major League Soccer team’s the invasion of Mexico in 1846 and Anglo-American settlers by a distant, chosen name of “Houston 1836.” Team the loss of almost half of its territory.”13 distracted, and ultimately dictatorial owners claimed that the year referred Shortly thereafter, a visit from Harris central government. When the Texans to the founding of the city rather than County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia to (including tejanos such as Juan Seguín) to the famous battle that separated soccer team owner Philip F. Anschutz rise up in revolt, most of their citizen- Texas from Mexico, but it did not help convinced him that for business reasons soldiers are mercilessly slaughtered their case that the five-pointed star of if no other, a quick name change was after being defeated by large Mexican the team’s new logo bore a silhouette in order.14 Today the team is known armies at the Alamo and at Goliad. of General Sam as Houston Dynamo; the star and the Houston on general on horseback are long gone.15 In the Anglo-Texan narrative, the vic- Houston 1836 soccer tory at San Jacinto, coming after it ap- horseback–a Letters to the editor and statements team logo. Courtesy of peared that the Texan cause was all but Houston Dynamo. clear, if to the press by Anglo Houstonians in lost, powerfully appeals to Texan pride second-hand, reaction to these developments made because its dimensions and consequenc- it clear that whether angry or merely es seem almost unbelievable: hundreds hurt over the protest and the turn of Mexicans dead and hundreds more of events, they believed that those captured, including the feared autocrat who were offended by the historic of Mexico himself, yet with scarcely a references in the soccer team’s short- dozen Texan casualties; effective Texan lived “Houston 1836” logo simply control over a vast and rich territory; did not appreciate the state’s proud the welcoming of Texas into the com- history. “It disappointed me,” said munity of nations after recognition by local historian C. David Pomeroy Jr., the major powers of the world; and all Houston History Volume 4, number 2 spring 2007 17

6010845_UofH_Text.indd 17 10/13/10 6:12:47 AM this accomplished on their own, by a the United States, shows that this was the American Union, Houston strove desperate and outnumbered ragtag army not in essence an internal revolt by ad- to bring it in, and when it was in the consisting almost entirely of volunteers. opted Mexican citizens dissatisfied with Union, he strove to keep it there. The events of the Texas Revolu- their national government, but rather a Thus there are two narratives–one tion, including San Jacinto, take on “true international war.” Mexico, claims might say two myths–that each over- a very different meaning when seen Vásquez, in reality fought “two wars simplify the complex truths about the in the context of the Mexican narra- with the United States”–in 1835-36, Battle of San Jacinto. Houstonian Jan tive of the first half of the nineteenth and again in 1846-48. In this opinion, DeVault, the president of the Friends century. The steady erosion of Spanish she echoes the claims of nineteenth-cen- of the San Jacinto Battleground, was and then Mexican territory in North tury Mexican soldiers and statesmen, exactly right when she told the Hous- America through the arrival of Anglo- who saw the hand of the American gov- ton Chronicle during the recent fracas American settlers, followed close behind ernment behind the Texas Revolution, over the naming of the soccer team by the armies of the United States, is and blamed the United States directly that “History is never simple.” Said 17 the central theme of a plot line that for the resulting loss of territory. DeVault, a member of the Daughters becomes predictably repetitive. The Vásquez points to Sam Houston, in of the Republic of Texas: “You can’t pattern of infiltration, revolt, claims particular, as an agent of American think [simply] of Texas versus Mexico. of independence, and rapid absorption imperialism.18 Is this accusation justi- That’s too narrow. If this controversy into the North American colossus is fied? Almost certainly, yes. Houston helps us look at history with wider eyes remarkably similar, whether the action was sent to Texas by President Andrew and a bigger focus, then hooray.”20 is played out in West Florida, Texas, Jackson in 1832, ostensibly as a roving Hooray, indeed. One of the main ac- or California – even to the point of ambassador to the Comanche Indians, tivities of DeVault and other members Americans in each of these territories but clearly as another set of eyes and of the Friends of the San Jacinto Battle- claiming to be a free republic and bran- ears for Jackson in a land that he (and ground has been the sponsorship over dishing a new flag with a single star! other American presidents) had long the past few years of the annual San Ja- Rather than focus on the specifics coveted. After crossing back over the cinto Symposium, a blend of academic of Santa Anna’s humiliating defeat at Sabine River into Louisiana, Hous- and popular presentations, open to San Jacinto, Mexicans interpreted the ton posted a letter to Jackson from the public, on the history of the Texas events of 1835 and 1836 as simply more Natchitoches on February 13, 1833. Revolution and the Texas Republic. of the same: Americans were pouring After extensive travel across Texas, Interestingly, some of the recent across the border–legally at first, and and enough politicking to get himself speakers at the San Jacinto Sympo- then as armed invaders–in a manner elected to an upcoming convention sium (now held every April at the that made the Texas experience seem which would draft a series of demands University of Houston), have pre- hardly unique. One of the clues to the on the Mexican government, Houston sented material which, while generally different Mexican perspective on the reported to Jackson that he was sure favorable to the Texan cause, have Texas Revolution is the standard inclu- that “nineteen-twentieths of the popula- lent considerable credence to the cen- sion in that narrative of the conflict tion of the province” actually desired tral claim of the Mexican narrative of an event which is almost never a “the acquisition of Texas by the United of the Texas Revolution: that it was part of the Texan creation story: the States.” He was certain that the im- largely a creation of American inter- occupation of East Texas (specifi- pending convention would demand at ests, if not of direct intervention by cally, Nacogdoches) in mid-1836 for least separate statehood within Mexico the government of the United States. several months by United States Army for Texas, and predicted that “unless Just last year (2006) not long after units dispatched from Louisiana. (The Mexico is soon restored to order” Texas the argument over the meaning of American government claimed that would take action to separate itself “1836” had played out in the pages of the post-San Jacinto occupation was completely from the Mexican nation. the Chronicle, symposium attendees intended to protect Texan civilians Houston would be ready for any were treated to a crackerjack Power- against Indian attacks, and that the en- contingency, but his ultimate loyalty Point presentation on the Texas Navy try was sanctioned by an existing treaty was clear. “I may make Texas my abid- by Jonathan W. Jordan, author of with Mexico, but the tacit military/dip- ing place!” he told Jackson, and vowed the newly-published Lone Star Navy: lomatic statement was far louder than that “in adopting this course, I will Texas, the Fight for the Gulf of Mexico, the official humanitarian excuse.) never forget the country of my birth.” and the Shaping of the American West. This direct intervention, writes his- He promised to keep Jackson well In this really superb book, Jordan torian Josafina Zoraida Vásquez of the informed of “any facts, which could combines great writing with remark- Colegio de México, along with the aid enable you, during your administra- able technical expertise and an under- pouring sin empacho–without embar- tion, to acquire Texas.”19 For the rest of standing of the complex geopolitics rassment–into Texas from other parts of his life, as long as Texas was outside of 18 Houston History Volume 4, Number 2 spring 2007

6010845_UofH_Text.indd 18 10/13/10 6:12:48 AM into which the Texas Navy blithely Finally, there is the team of Bill Mexico City as proof of American sailed in the days of the Republic. and Marjorie K. Walraven, who have complicity in the Texas rebellion). Jordan makes a good case for his compared Texas muster rolls and land Jonathan Jordan is a practicing argument that “The Texas Navy, as grants with lists of U. S. Army deserters attorney who now lives in the Atlanta much as the Battle of San Jacinto, saved to arrive at the conclusion that perhaps area, and whose ten-year stint as Texas, and thereby altered the history as many as two hundred soldiers from a lawyer in Houston gave him the of the American West.”21 Moreover, the United States–some actually desert- incentive and the opportunity to he shows just how central American ers, some only taking that convenient turn his passion for the Texas Navy help was to the success of the Navy designation temporarily–may have par- into a book that has garnered high and the Revolution. According to Jor- ticipated in the Battle of San Jacinto. praise from professional historians. dan, “If the United States was Texas’s The Walravens explained to their As one of those professional historians biological parent, then shipping lanes Symposium listeners the importance of (with only a slightly pointy head), it from New Orleans were the umbili- the many references to bayonets at this has been my privilege to attend each cal cord that kept the rebellion alive battle; these weapons were standard one of the San Jacinto Symposia since 22 during its embryonic months.” issue for U. S. Army soldiers, but not the founding of the series in 2001, Significantly, what Jordan calls Tex- likely to be carried by Texas settlers. and it has been my honor to be the as’s very “first naval victory”–the cap- They suggest that Sam Houston, well moderator of the event each year since ture of the Correo Mejicano in September aware of this fact, took pains to indi- 2003. What I and the truly civic- 1835–was carried out by the American- cate that bayonets were not used by the minded founders of this institution registered armed schooner San Felipe Texans at San Jacinto–but anecdotal have tried to give Houston and Texas is owned by the Texan firm of McKinney evidence indicates otherwise. Also not- a forum where history can be carefully & Williams. This ship also happened ing that not only the famous Twin separated from myth without sacrificing to be carrying Stephen F. Austin from Sisters cannon, but many of the men the popular passion for the past. who were expertly firing these guns at New Orleans to Texas, with the inten- We have also brought together as San Jacinto seem to have been fresh tion, says Jordan, “of forcing Mexico speakers descendants of Sam Houston arrivals from the United States, includ- to accept the Americanization of and Sidney Sherman to argue about 23 ing some from Fort Jessup, Louisiana, Texas.” It is further telling that the what really happened on April 20 the Walravens conclude that “the pres- prisoners from the Mexican ship were and 21 of 1836; fierce detractors ence of U. S. soldiers at the battle of put in irons aboard their ship, and the and ardent defenders of General San Jacinto shows that the role of the “Correo Mejicano, now flying an Ameri- Houston’s vision and actions in the can flag, . . . set sail for New Orleans United States in the Texas Revolution 26 San Jacinto campaign; bearded Texian 24 has been greatly underestimated.” in the company of the San Felipe.” re-enactors, skilled archaeologists, Another recent speaker at the San It should be noted that none of these tejano scholars, and even historians Jacinto Symposium is Edward L. Miller, researchers who seem to have added from Mexico City, including the fiery whose book New Orleans and the Texas some force to the “Mexican narrative” Josafina Zoraida Vásquez and the Revolution has gathered much recent of Professor Ramos (who was a speaker studiously careful but slyly provocative acclaim. Miller goes even further than himself at the 2003 San Jacinto Miguel Soto of the Universidad Jordan in asserting American interest Symposium) are from the ranks of left- Nacional Autónoma de México. wing revisionist academics or other in and control over the Texas Revolu- Differing opinions – differing varieties of pointy-headed intellectuals. tion. He argues that the outcome of the narratives – are respected at the Before their retirements, Bill Walraven war in Texas was largely determined San Jacinto Symposia, but pointed was a columnist for the Corpus Christi by stage managers working from the questions are directed to every speaker Caller-Times and Marjorie was a high- shadows of the Crescent City both and panelist by an audience that school history and journalism teacher. to shape the goals and to secure the combines strong opinions and great success of the struggle. In a bold in- Edward L. Miller taught Texas expertise – sometimes even in the same terpretation which will inevitably be History in San Antonio, where he is questioner! If a “legacy” is a powerful controversial, Miller claims that the now a public-school administrator. He link between the past and the present, concerns of the Anglo-American set- became interested in the New Orleans then I think that this city and state tlers in Texas and their leaders were connection to the Texas Revolution can be very proud of the people– essentially secondary to the plans as a member of the San Antonio especially those from the Friends of powerful commercial interests in Living History Association, as he of the San Jacinto Battlefield–who New Orleans and their schemes for researched the uniforms worn by the have created this marvelous forum, 25 American territorial expansion. New Orleans Volunteer Greys (whose and crafted this valuable legacy.  regimental flag was captured by Santa Anna at the Alamo and sent back to Houston History Volume 4, Number 2 spring 2007 19

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