Hero of the Revolution

This is the final in a series of excerpts from Sheer Will: the Story of the Port of Houston and the Houston Ship Channel, highlighting the roles of Galveston Bay and Buffalo Bayou in the birth of the Texas Republic.

Fate, fortune, Providence, or whatever it was shined its light on the Texians and their struggle. It shown brightest where the Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River converge. The Battle of San Jacinto is a commonly told story in Texas. And while it has earned its place in military history—being one of the most decisive outcomes of any battle in history—it shares aspects with another historic battle in ancient Greece. General Sam Houston attacked the Mexicans at approximately 4:30 pm on 21 April 1836. He picked the time to attack for specific reasons. First, it was unconventional for the era. Attacks were usually formed up in the early morning, resulting in mid-morning battles. Houston, however, waited for the sun to move just above the hill from where his forces would charge—burning in the face of the Mexicans. And, Santa Anna’s men still lingered in their tents from their midday rest. None of the Mexican generals expected any action.

A few thousand years before, Themistocles, the Athenian general, performed a late-day naval attack against the Persians in narrow waters not far from Thermopylae. Both Houston and Themistocles attacked superior forces late in the day, inflicting heavy losses on their enemy. Unlike Themistocles, however, Houston’s victory resolved the issue between Texas and Mexico. An 18-minute fight sent Santa Anna fleeing the battlefield on horseback, and what was left of his army fell captive to Houston’s men.

Map detailing the San Jacinto battlefield.

The revolution is noteworthy in the Port of Houston tale because the events surrounding the final weeks of conflict all centered on Buffalo Bayou. It had become a crucial lifeline for the provisional government and the primary link to fortified Galveston (the unneeded last stand). Sam Houston’s triumph had further shed light on the value and viability of the bayou as an avenue between the Texas interior and the outside world. No longer was the Buffalo an obscure stream oozing its way through uncharted jungle. It was a hero of the revolution.

Destiny Takes a Hand

This is the third in a series of excerpts from Sheer Will: the Story of the Port of Houston and the Houston Ship Channel, highlighting the roles of Gavleston Bay and Buffalo Bayou in the birth of the Texas Republic.

One of the first things that helped turn the tide of war against Santa Anna was that one of the ships of the makeshift Texas Navy, the Invincible, went back to early Texas roots and pulled a "Laffite." In other words, the Invincible and her crew assaulted and seized the ship Pocket in an act of piracy. Texians picked the Pocket clean of its cargo that was originally bound for the Mexican army moving across the Texas prairie. That caused one of the splinters of Santa Anna’s overall force to slow down. What’s more, the supplies were sent to Harrisburg in order to help the people in the refugee camps that were popping up all along Buffalo Bayou. The sudden swell of population strained the resident population of Harrisburg, too.  So the food and supplies were a welcome relief. Additionally, ammunition recovered from the Pocket went to fortifications underway on Galveston Island. The final insult was the Pocket itself—she became a ship of the line for the Texas navy.

Another item history glosses over is the capture of the Mexican couriers by General Houston’s scout, Deaf Smith. Smith encountered and ran down the couriers on a patch of ground that is now Bellaire, Texas—a small city surrounded by the Houston metropolis. During the revolution, it was a combination of open prairie and patches of trees and brush clinging to the banks of Brays Bayou. The bounty of Smith’s acquisition is a turning point in history because the information obtained in the pouches of the couriers convinced Houston it was time to stop, turn, and fight. His men were already fired up for a scuffle with Santa Anna, and the fact that the couriers were using the monogrammed saddlebags of William Barrett Travis, the martyred commander of the now fallen Alamo, just threw gasoline on the flames.

By the third week in April, Santa Anna’s force of about 1,000 men marched through the Buffalo Bayou area; he was in hot pursuit of the Texas provisional government. He thought that if he captured them and executed them for treason, the whole insurrection would be over. Upon arrival in Harrisburg, Santa Anna found that the provisional government was gone; he’d just missed them by hours. They had escaped down Buffalo Bayou aboard the Cayuga. Furious, Santa Anna sent a patrol of horsemen stampeding after them. Circumstances favored the rebel government because even when the patrol came upon President Burnet in a canoe and paddling his way out to the Cayuga, they didn’t recognize him and went on about their frantic search for the fugitive government.