[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9587-9588]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            SAN JACINTO DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, growing up in Houston, Texas, I always liked 
April 21 because it was a school holiday. I believed there was no 
school on that day because it was my mother's birthday and she never 
really told me differently. I was proud to be the only kid that had a 
mom with a school holiday.
  It was only later that I came to find out the holiday also 
represented the most important day and most important military victory 
in Texas history, one that is studied in military schools throughout 
the world. It occurred near what is now Houston, Texas. It was a unique 
holiday for southeast Texas called ``San Jacinto Day.''
  After Santa Anna, the Dictator of Mexico, invaded Texas with his 
massive army, and then stormed over the Alamo walls, killing William 
Travis, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and the other Texas Volunteers on 
March 6, 1836, he went looking for the rest of the Texans that wanted 
independence from Mexico.
  General Sam Houston had been building the Texas Army, and Santa 
Anna's three armies were giving chase. The Texas army and their 
families fled east in what historians call the ``runaway scrape.''
  Finally, near the San Jacinto River and the Buffalo Bayou at Lynch's 
Ferry, Sam Houston stopped to fight. He and his army of 700 faced Santa 
Anna and his army of over 1,600 on the marshy plains of San Jacinto, 
Texas.
  Scout Deaf Smith was ordered to burn the only escape bridge, thus 
trapping both armies between the river and the marshes.
  It was April 21, 1836. General Sam wanted to charge into battle the 
next day at dawn, but decided not to wait any longer. So in the middle 
of the afternoon, General Sam and the Boys marched in single line in 
broad daylight with little cover towards the Mexican army.
  The outnumbered Texans were an odd, terrifying-looking bunch. Without 
regular uniforms, they were dressed in buckskins, with pistols in their 
belts, bowie knives, long muskets, and tomahawks. They came from every 
State in the United States and from Mexico. The Tejanos, Mexicans loyal 
for Texas independence, were led by Captain Juan Sequin. So as not to 
confuse the Tejanos with Santa Anna's army, General Sam had Sequin put 
a playing card in the headband of each Tejano so they could be easily 
recognized.
  This was General Houston's first Texas battle. Santa Anna's veteran 
army had yet to lose any battle. The Texans charged, yelling, 
``Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!'' They carried a flag of a 
partially nude Miss Liberty, and the fife played a bawdy house song 
called ``Come to the Bower.''
  Santa Anna army's, caught napping, was routed. Most of the enemy were 
killed or wounded. The rest were captured or disappeared. The victory 
was stunning. Only a dozen Texans were killed. Santa Anna was captured, 
disguising himself in a private's uniform.
  Texans wanted Santa Anna hung because of the Alamo and for murdering 
Colonel Fannin and his 300 volunteers at Goliad after they had 
surrendered to the Mexican army. Wise and politically astute General 
Sam Houston would have none of the lynching and spared Presidente Santa 
Anna for later bartering power.
  Texas became a free and independent nation that day and claimed what 
is now Texas, and parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and 
even Wyoming. It was one of the largest land transfers in world history 
as a result of just one battle. The latter land was sold to the United 
States to pay Texas' war debts. Texas was a republic for over 9 years, 
and then it was admitted to the Union in 1845 by 1-vote margin. Some 
now wish the vote had gone the other way.
  In 1936, Texans built the San Jacinto Monument to honor the Texas War 
of Independence and General Sam's Victory. It looks exactly like the 
Washington Monument, but it has a star on top, and, of course, it is 
bigger.
  Today, the bugles are silent and the battlefield is surrounded by 
petrochemical plants. Not much is said nowadays about Texas 
independence or San Jacinto Day. It is not even a school holiday 
anymore. But tomorrow, proud Texans will be at the San Jacinto 
Battleground to honor the few brave Texans and Tejanos that made Texas 
a new, free, independent nation.

[[Page 9588]]

  We remember our past knowing we were a nation once, and sometimes we 
still act like an independent people and country. And the rest, they 
say, is Texas history.
  I will fly the Lone Star flag proudly on San Jacinto Day, and I will 
take my mom a bunch of flowers, remembering that this glorious day was 
once a school holiday to celebrate my mother's birthday.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________