They were motivated and pissed off.
Sorry for the language.
Santayana was a bucket of excrement.
http://www.texasescapes.com/MikeCoxTexasTales/231-San-Jacinto-Monument.htm
The last to die of wounds sustained during the [San Jacinto] battle was Giles Albert Giddings, a 24-year-old surveyor from Pennsylvania, who had lingered until June 7.That's a lot of wisdom for a 24 year old. It sounds like back then, young people were well acquainted with the sacrifices of our Founding Fathers.The details of Giddings’ last moments went unrecorded, but a letter he wrote to his parents only 11 days before the battle has survived.
“If we succeed in subduing the enemy and establishing a free and independent government, we shall have the finest country the sun ever shown upon,” Giddings wrote the day after he enlisted in the Texas army, “and if we fail we shall have the satisfaction of dying fighting for the rights of men.”
He went on to urge his parents not to worry about him. “I am no better, and my life no dearer, than those who gained the liberty you enjoy. If I fall you will have the satisfaction that your son died fighting for the rights of men.”