The battleground, off the La Porte road, some twenty-three miles from the County Courthouse in Houston, is a State park of 402 acres. It is situated near the confluence of San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou—now the Houston Ship Channel—not far from the Bay. It is a spot of natural beauty. The land has a gentle roll, and vegetation is brilliant. Wild flowers here grow in profusion and fairly radiate their splendor. Nowhere else in this section are more luxuriant mossy “beards” to be found than on the huge liveoaks of San Jacinto.

The country surrounding the battlefield and nearby Lynchburg—known in the old days as “Lynch’s Ferry”—was one of the early settlements of Texas colonists. The sylvan retreats along the wide stream and adjacent lagoons were once popular as homes of prominent Texans. Across the bayou from the battleground was the home of Lorenzo de Zavala, ad interim Vice President of the Republic.

Nearby lived David G. Burnet, ad interim President. Later General Houston had a home on Trinity Bay, a few miles from the battlefield. It is now a Boy Scout camp. Ashbel Smith, minister of the Republic of Texas to England, had his home at about the site of present Goose Creek, not far from Lynchburg.

Texas Revolution Epitomized

The thumbnail history of the Texas revolution, inscribed on the exterior of the monument’s base in eight panels, is as follows:

THE EARLY POLICIES OF MEXICO TOWARD HER TEXAS COLONISTS HAD BEEN EXTREMELY LIBERAL. LARGE GRANTS OF LAND WERE MADE TO THEM, AND NO TAXES OR DUTIES IMPOSED. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ANGLO-AMERICANS AND MEXICANS WAS CORDIAL. BUT, FOLLOWING A SERIES OF REVOLUTIONS BEGUN IN 1829, UNSCRUPULOUS RULERS SUCCESSIVELY SEIZED POWER IN MEXICO. THEIR UNJUST ACTS AND DESPOTIC DECREES LED TO THE REVOLUTION IN TEXAS.

IN JUNE, 1832, THE COLONISTS FORCED THE MEXICAN AUTHORITIES AT ANAHUAC TO RELEASE WM. B. TRAVIS AND OTHERS FROM UNJUST IMPRISONMENT. THE BATTLE OF VELASCO, JUNE 26, AND THE BATTLE OF NACOGDOCHES, AUGUST 2, FOLLOWED: IN BOTH THE TEXANS WERE VICTORIOUS. STEPHEN FULLER AUSTIN, “FATHER OF TEXAS”, WAS ARRESTED JANUARY 3, 1834, AND HELD IN MEXICO WITHOUT TRIAL UNTIL JULY, 1835. THE TEXANS FORMED AN ARMY, AND ON NOVEMBER 12, 1835, ESTABLISHED A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT.

THE FIRST SHOT OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1835-1836 WAS FIRED BY THE TEXANS AT GONZALES, OCTOBER 2, 1835, IN RESISTANCE TO A DEMAND BY MEXICAN SOLDIERS FOR A SMALL CANNON HELD BY THE COLONISTS. THE MEXICAN GARRISON AT GOLIAD FELL OCTOBER 9, THE BATTLE OF CONCEPCION WAS WON BY THE TEXANS, OCTOBER 28. SAN ANTONIO WAS CAPTURED DECEMBER 10, 1835 AFTER FIVE DAYS OF FIGHTING IN WHICH THE INDOMITABLE BENJAMIN R. MILAM DIED A HERO, AND THE MEXICAN ARMY EVACUATED TEXAS.

TEXAS DECLARED HER INDEPENDENCE AT WASHINGTON-ON-THE-BRAZOS, MARCH 2. FOR NEARLY TWO MONTHS HER ARMIES MET DISASTER AND DEFEAT; DR. JAMES GRANT’S MEN WERE KILLED ON THE AGUA DULCE, MARCH 2, WILLIAM BARRET TRAVIS AND HIS MEN SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES AT THE ALAMO, MARCH 6, WILLIAM WARD WAS DEFEATED AT REFUGIO, MARCH 14, AMON B. KING’S MEN WERE EXECUTED NEAR REFUGIO, MARCH 16, AND JAMES WALKER FANNIN AND HIS ARMY WERE PUT TO DEATH NEAR GOLIAD, MARCH 27, 1836.

ON THIS FIELD ON APRIL 21, 1836 THE ARMY OF TEXAS COMMANDED BY GENERAL SAM HOUSTON, AND ACCOMPANIED BY THE SECRETARY OF WAR, THOMAS J. RUSK, ATTACKED THE SUPERIOR INVADING ARMY OF MEXICANS UNDER GENERAL SANTA ANNA. THE BATTLE LINE FROM LEFT TO RIGHT WAS FORMED BY SIDNEY SHERMAN’S REGIMENT, EDWARD BURLESON’S REGIMENT, THE ARTILLERY COMMANDED BY GEORGE W. HOCKLEY, HENRY MILLARD’S INFANTRY AND THE CAVALRY UNDER MIRABEAU B. LAMAR. SAM HOUSTON LED THE INFANTRY CHARGE.

WITH THE BATTLE CRY, “REMEMBER THE ALAMO! REMEMBER GOLIAD!” THE TEXANS CHARGED. THE ENEMY, TAKEN BY SURPRISE, RALLIED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THEN FLED IN DISORDER. THE TEXANS HAD ASKED NO QUARTER AND GAVE NONE. THE SLAUGHTER WAS APPALLING, VICTORY COMPLETE, AND TEXAS FREE! ON THE FOLLOWING DAY GENERAL ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA, SELF-STYLED “NAPOLEON OF THE WEST,” RECEIVED FROM A GENEROUS FOE THE MERCY HE HAD DENIED TRAVIS AT THE ALAMO AND FANNIN AT GOLIAD.

CITIZENS OF TEXAS AND IMMIGRANT SOLDIERS IN THE ARMY OF TEXAS AT SAN JACINTO WERE NATIVES OF ALABAMA, ARKANSAS, CONNECTICUT, GEORGIA, ILLINOIS, INDIANA, KENTUCKY, LOUISIANA, MAINE, MARYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, MICHIGAN, MISSISSIPPI, MISSOURI, NEW HAMPSHIRE, NEW YORK, NORTH CAROLINA, OHIO, PENNSYLVANIA, RHODE ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, TENNESSEE, TEXAS, VERMONT, VIRGINIA, AUSTRIA, CANADA, ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, IRELAND, ITALY, MEXICO, POLAND, PORTUGAL AND SCOTLAND.

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 A MILLION SQUARE MILES OF TERRITORY, CHANGED SOVEREIGNTY.

Brigham Monument

DEAD ON THE FIELD OF HONOR

Prior to the erection of the present great shaft, the principal memorial on the battlefield was a plain square spire monument of Rutland variegated marble, fifteen and one-half feet high, which with the base stands seventeen feet. After its dedication it was placed at the grave of Benjamin R. Brigham, one of the nine Texans who were killed or mortally wounded in the battle, and whose bodies, with one exception, were buried on the ground on which the Texan army had camped April 20. Board markers had been placed at all of the graves but when in 1879 Judge J. L. Sullivan of Richmond, Texas, began to raise funds by public subscription to erect a joint monument where their bodies lay, the grave of Brigham was alone recognizable.