The Yellow Rose, a True Story?

How can a ragtag army of misfits and rapscallions soundly defeat one of the best-trained armies in the world? And in only twenty minutes, give or take a minute or so?

Some of you already know what I’m talking about. And no, it isn’t Gaddafi’s forces and the rebel Lybians.

The battle of which I speak took place 175 years ago on the banks of the San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou.

The battle at San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, when Sam Houston and his makeshift army routed a far superior military force in the blink of an eye by historical time.
Screaming at the top of their lungs “Remember the Alamo; Remember Goliad,” the savgage Texians charged across the Mexican fortifications, stampeding the nodding Mexicans. The outnumbered Texians, at the cost of nine lives, killed more than 600 soldados and overran the rest, according to historian Kent Biffle.

Since that date, historians have cussed and discussed just how in the blazes Sam Houston pulled off such a victory.

There have been numerous theories posed, but one of the most intriguing is the story of Emily West who came to be known as the Yellow Rose of Texas.

It was she, many historians claim, who delayed Santa Anna long enough so the surprised soldados could only stumble about in confusion from lack of leadership.
Says Biffle, “The Yellow Rose of Texas is fancifully famous for bedazzling Santa Anna out of his fancy pants at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.”

Possibly he gleened that information from William Bollaert, an English ethnologist who wrote in an 1842 essay “The battle of San Jacinto was probably lost to the Mexicans, owing to the influence of a Mulatta Girl (Emily) belonging to Col. Morgan. She was closeted in the tent with General Santana at the time the cry was made ‘the Enemy! They come! They come!’ She detained Santana so long that order could not be restored readily again.”

Could all this be true? Could the great state of Texas have been given birth with the midwifing help of a ‘mulatta girl’? And was she the real ‘Yellow Rose of Texas’?
Chances are a fairly certain ‘yes’ to both questions.

A long time friend of Houston, James Morgan, of Morgan’s Point, sought to bring emigrants to the fledging colony that would soon be Texas. One of the emigrants was Emily West, a mulatto, from Bermuda.

Emily was a bright young woman who volunteered to be indentured to escape the prejudice against her mixed race. As custom for indentured workers, they took their employer’s last name, so she became known as Emily Morgan. She had met Houston on more than one occasion at her employer’s plantation.

Colonel James Morgan’s settlement, New Washington, sat on the shores at the mouth of the San Jacinto River where he loaded flatboards with various supplies for Houston.
With Santa Anna’s approach on April 18, settlers fled New Washington; however, Emily and a young black boy named Turner were captured by the Mexican army. Santa Anna was struck by her beauty.

Emily convinced Turner to escape and inform Houston of the Mexican general’s arrival. Turner has to be the ‘mysterious visitor’ some historians say paid Houston a clandestine visit a couple nights before the battle.

Santa Anna was a ladies’ man. Though married to a woman in Mexico, he remarried teenage captives throughout his Texas campaign. Emily appeared to be a suitable replacement.

So, he set up camp on the plains of San Jacinto despite vehement protestations from his colonels who insisted the location severely violated wartime strategy.

They were right.

On April 21, Houston, said to be perched in a tree, saw Emily preparing a champagne breakfast for Santa Anna. His supposed comment was “I hope that slave girl makes him neglect his business and keeps him in bed all day.”

And the rest is history.

Morgan was so impressed by Emily’s heroism that he repealed her indenture and gave her a passport and funds back to New York where all trace of her faded away.
Did it happen that way?

Well, the stories hold water, and ‘Yellow Rose’ was the expression for mulatto females during that period. And James Morgan did spread her story to anyone who would listen all the way from Texas to his influential partners in New York.

Now, whether true or not, the tale does make for a good story. And I believe it.




rconwell@gt.rr.com
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com

The Eighteen-Minute Battle

The Eighteen-Minute Battle

April 21, one hundred and seventy-four years ago, the Texian Army defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto in a historic fight that gained independence for the rebels and ultimately set the stage for statehood.

There have been an untold number of stories of the battle in movies, TV, and novels. Some are so filled with fabrication that I’m surprised the authors even set the story in Texas. Others are fairly close to what seems to be the general consensus of what took place.

After the adoption of the Texas Declaration of Independence, Houston left New Washington for Gonzales to take charge of the troops and go to Travis’ aid. There, on March 12, he learned of the fall of the Alamo.

Settlers fled east, but Houston and his small army remained to stave off Santa Anna.
Houston pulled up at the Colorado, waiting anxiously for Fannin to join him as ordered, but Fannin did not follow the orders. He was captured. On Palm Sunday, he and his men were executed.

On March 23 (some say the 25th), Houston learned of Fannin’s capture. On Palm Sunday, the 27th, Santa Anna executed and burned Fannin and his men. The four hundred men Houston counted on had vanished. The next day, he moved his army east once again, despite his men’s griping and complaining. They wanted to fight, not retreat.

For two weeks they camped on the Brazos until a mysterious message came to Houston that Santa Anna was to his south, heading his way. Houston moved out.

At this point, Santa Anna began making a series of mistakes that sealed his defeat. Hearing that President Burnet and his staff had moved to Harrisburg, he made the very mistake Wellington had prodded Napoleon into making. As Houston had gambled, the small dictator split his force three ways, and with 700 men, moved south.

Santa Anna pushed his men hard until 9:00 p.m., camped without water, pulled out early next morning, and hurried on. Anxious to reach Harrisburg, he took only a few men and raced ahead, riding into the village at midnight, but Burnet had moved his cabinet to Galveston.

He then received word came that Houston was heading for the Trinity. Santa Anna saw another chance to end the revolution in one stroke, ambush Houston at Lynch’s Ferry.
At the head of his 700 men, he raced to Lynch’s Ferry. In his enthusiasm, he ignored the sluggish waters of Buffalo Bayou on the left; San Jacinto estuary at the rear; and the marshes of Galveston Bay on the right. No room for maneuvering.

Leading 700 exhausted soldiers, Santa Anna arrived ahead of Houston.
Houston soon came up behind him.

On the twentieth, there were a couple skirmishes. One Texian was killed.

On the twenty-first, General Cos arrived with four hundred men, the second prong of the split, bringing the Mexican force to 1100 against Houston’s reported 783.

Houston knew the third prong with three thousand or so Mexican forces was coming. He ordered Vince’s Bridge destroyed, cutting off Mexican reinforcements and Mexican flight as well as Texian retreat. It was fight or die.

At four o’clock, Houston gave the charge. Eighteen minutes later it was over. They captured the Mexican general the next day.

But, what would have happened if Fannin had obeyed orders and joined Houston at the Colorado? What if Houston had not received that mysterious message on the Brazos? What if Santa Anna had not pursued Burnet? What if he hadn’t split his troops? What possessed him to camp where he did, a spot not even a shavetail lieutenant would have selected?

Reverse any of those decisions, and we might find ourselves in a completely different world today.






rconwell@gt.rr.com

www.kentconwell.blogspot.com