The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 16, July 1912 - April, 1913 Page: 48

The Southwestern Ilistorical Quarterly

that memorable day, rendered valiant service in the cause of Texas
independence.1
The following account of the battle of San Jacinto was writ-
ten by Captain James Tarleton, captain of the company of Texas
volunteers that first went from Louisville :2
. At last, at 3 1/2 p.m. we were ordered to prepare for
battle, which was soon (lone; and then commenced a conflict, the
parallel of which, I presume,, cannot be found on record. To see
a mere handful of raw undisciplined volunteers, just taken from
their ploughs and thrown together with rifles without bayonets,
no two perhaps of the same calibre, and circled by only two pieces
of artillery, 6 pounders, and a few musketeers, some with and
some without bayonets, and some 40 or 50 men on horseback to
meet the trained bands of the heroes of so many victories-to see
them, with trailed arms, marching to within 60 or 70 yards of
such an army at least double in number and entrenched too behind
a breastwork impregnable to small arms and protected by a long
brass 9 pounder-to see them, I say, do all this, fearless, and
determined to. save their country and their country's liberty or
to die in the effort was no ordinary occurrence. Yet such was
their conduct, and so irresistible was the Spartan phalanx, that it
was not more than from 15 to 20 minutes from our first fire until a
'Richard Roman, of Kentucky, commanded a company in the fight.
Muster Rolls, p. 208. The Second Regiment of Texas Volunteers was
commanded by Colonel Sidney Sherman, another Kentuckian, who, with a
Kentucky regiment gallantly led the left wing at the battle of San
Jacinto. THE QUARTERLY, XIV, 213. Cf., also, Barker, "The San Jacinto
Campaign," in Ibid., IV, 262-336 passim, for allusions to Colonel Sher-
man's activity in the San Jacinto campaign. For services rendered the
government by him and for money expended for the same, Colonel Sher-
man was allowed by the Texan Congress the sum of $3973.17. Gammel,
Lawos of Texas, I, 1491.
"It is susceptible of almost positive proof," says one writer, "that
ninety-eight per cent of those who fought at San Jacinto were already
settled in Texas or remained in the Republic after the Revolution." Ful-
more, "The Annexation of Texas and the Mexican War," in THE QUAR-
TERLY, V, 29, note 2. At the same time it is asserted by others that
Texas "could never have recovered from the severe blows received in the
Alamo and Goliad had it not been for the active help of friends in the
United States." Smith, "The Quarrel Between Governor Smith and the
Council," in THE QUARTERLY, V, 345. Cf., also, Ibid., IX, 260.
2This letter, which is of considerable length, is taken from the Louis-
iana Journal, and is printed in the Commonwealth of June 8, 1836, and
in the Frankjfort Argus of June 15, 1836. Only those portions relating
to the battle of San Jacinto are reproduced. An extended account of the
battle agreeing in the main with Captain Tarleton's description, was
contributed by Colonel George W. Hockley to 'the Louisiana Advertiser
of May 23, 1836, and is copied in the Virginia Herald, May 25, 1836.