[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 21, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H2702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO DAY

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, on April 21, 1836, 174 years 
ago today, Texas forces led by General Sam Houston dealt a decisive 
blow to General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his oppressive 
government.
  Several weeks after signing the Texas Declaration of Independence in 
March of 1836, roughly 900 members of the Texan army overpowered a much 
larger Mexican Army in a surprise attack. Some 700 Mexican soldiers 
were killed and 730 captured, while nine Texans died.
  The Texas army quickly and silently moved toward Santa Anna's camp. 
They were able to get very close because General Santa Anna was still 
pleased with his victory at the Alamo and failed to post men to watch 
the Texans' actions. At close range, the ``Twin Sisters'' drawn by 
rawhide thongs, were wheeled into position to begin unloading shells at 
the napping Mexican Army. The cannons were gifts from the people of 
Cincinnati, Ohio.
  Texas soldiers followed the bombardment and yelled and shouted 
``Remember the Alamo'' and ``Remember Goliad'' stopping only a few 
yards from the Mexican solders to open fire in a surprise attack.
  The Mexican soldiers were better trained than their Texas opponents. 
They were caught off guard. It was a bold attack in broad daylight.
  Texas General Sam Houston, former Member of this Congress from 
Tennessee, future President of the Republic of Texas, future U.S. 
Senator and Governor of Texas, had two horses shot out from under him 
and was shot and his ankle was shattered.
  Santa Anna was captured that day and held prisoner and signed peace 
treaties to give Texas independence.
  The battle is memorialized along the San Jacinto River with a 
monument in our district in La Porte, Texas. A panel on the side of the 
monument states: ``Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the 
decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas from Mexico won 
here led to annexation and to the Mexican War, resulting in the 
acquisition by the United States of the States of Texas, New Mexico, 
Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, 
Kansas and Oklahoma. Almost one-third of the present area of the 
American Nation, nearly one million square miles, changed 
sovereignty.''
  That's what we're commemorating today.

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