…is Monday, actually, the anniversary of the defeat of the forces of Mexican dictator/Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at San Jacinto, in the bayous southeast of present-day Houston, practically in Galveston Bay. The Texian victory led to establishment of the Republic of Texas. The day is the last of what Texana author Mike Cox calls the High Holy Days of Texas history–Texas Independence Day on March 2, the fall of the Alamo on March 6, and the battle of San Jacinto on April 21. I would add March 27, Palm Sunday, the day of the Goliad massacre by Mexican troops–certainly the least defensible thing they did–which explains why some Texians wanted to hang Santa Anna after his capture.
A Dallas cousin and I, doing our Texas genealogies, recently rounded up a possible SJ combatant-ancestor cousin of ours, one John Matchett. We found a pay voucher for JM at the state archives dated in 1840 showing him to have been a member of Capt. Wyley’s Company in Sidney Sherman’s 2nd Regiment from April 1 to July 23, 1836. A few years ago, JM was listed on this unofficial roster but his name–along with all the other soldier names therein–has since been removed. Although he’s still on this, similar one. Still, he’s not on any of the official lists we can find, so we’re not sure what to think about it.
Meanwhile, in a little irony, Mr. B.’s second grade class starts its "Mexico Week" this year on, wait for it, San Jacinto Day. Multiculturalism at work, I suppose. I wonder if the school system did it on purpose?
MORE: Meanwhile, today is Patriot’s Day up north, commemoration of a time surely on Texan minds during the 1836 revolution.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 