Posted on 03/02/2006 9:09:17 AM PST by stainlessbanner
If you're a true blue Texan or even from another state or nation, you probably know about Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and William Barret Travis.
The revolutionary martyrs of the Alamo deserve their fame along with Sam Houston, who led 783 men against the 1,400-man army of Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna in the April 21, 1836, Battle of San Jacinto.
But many more obscure heroes of the Texas Revolution were just as brave and played important roles.
Speaking at today's 2 p.m. "Toast of Texas" ceremony at Haley Memorial Library at 1805 W. Indiana Ave., attorney-historian Lloyd McDonald will review the deeds of Capt. Albert Martin, John W. Smith, William King and numerous Hispanics who fought beside the "Texicans."
Knowing Santa Anna had surrounded the Alamo with 2,000 men on Feb. 23, 1836, Martin, Smith and King led 32 men from Gonzales 70 miles southwest to San Antonio on March 1 to join the 150 men who were hopelessly besieged there.
Then Capt. Juan Seguin led 28 Hispanics with Houston to the San Jacinto River, east of present day Houston near Baytown, and the battle that won independence, killing half of Santa Anna's army in 18 minutes.
Having just finished a book entitled "The Alamo Generation," McDonald said it is a compelling tale "of how primitively those people had to live at that time and how much they had to sacrifice to make something out of nothing in the wilderness.
"Martin, Smith and King knew full well that no more reinforcements would be coming to the Alamo. But nevertheless they said, 'We're going to help these guys,' and died in the battle on March 6."
State Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo and House Speaker Tom Craddick of Midland also commented on the significance of the day, which commemorates the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the Brazos 169 years ago.
Seliger, a Borger native, chose to be sworn into office on Independence Day two years ago in the Texas Senate chamber by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Gov. Rick Perry. "It's a great day symbolically and it creates a great memory," he said Tuesday.
"When Texas became independent -- the only state to have been a sovereign nation -- has particular meaning for all Texans. In my remarks, I mentioned the people who had served in that chamber like Barbara Jordan, Bob Bullock, Bill Ratliff and Gov. Perry.
"Mostly I thought about my parents, who had passed away, and how proud and thrilled they would have been."
Seliger's father Louis was a Longview native who founded a steel company and was George H.W. Bush's North Texas financial chairman in Bush's 1966 U.S. Senate campaign. His mother, the former Jayne Cowen of Des Moines, Iowa, was the first woman Borger School board member.
In Wednesday comments, Craddick related the state's revolutionary struggle to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and other conflicts. "Texas Independence Day stands as a testament to the American desire of free men to live in liberty," he said.
"As we remember those who gave their lives for this cause, our thoughts are with those still fighting for freedom everywhere. Texas continues to serve as a strong example of the victory of democracy over dictatorship and the rule of law over the rule of tyranny."
McDonald said Seguin is the most famous Hispanic from that war, but the Alamo garrison included Juan Abamillo, Juan Antonio Badillo, Carlos Espalier, Gregorio Esparza, Antonio Fuentes, Damacio Jimenez, Jose Toribio Losoya and Andres Nava.
He said Seguin's non-commissioned officers at San Jacinto were Manuel Flores, Nepomuceño Flores, Antonio Menchaca and Ambrosio Rodriguez. The surnames of others who fought were Arocha, Arreola, Carmoña, Castillo, Cruz, Curvier, Enriquez, Herrera, Jimenez, Lavjiña, Leal, Lopez, Maldonado, Mancha, Montoya, Navarro, Peña, Ramirez, Tarin and Varciñas.
There are some Hawaiian Natives who would take issue with that statement........
"to have been a sovereign nation that willingly joined the Union."
There, happy now?
http://www.uic.edu/depts/owa/history/liliuokalani.html
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OK but don't dare name the MLS Soccer team "Houston 1836". It may piss off some Mexicans.
bttt
California was a republic for all of three weeks, after which it was conquered by the United States as a spoil of war. It was never recognized by any non-North American power - whereas Texas was a sovereign (if broke) nation for almost a decade, had its own Army and (very successful) Navy, and had relations with Britain and France, among other countries.
"The Reading of the Texas Declaration of Independence," by Charles and Fanny Normann Collection of the Joe Fultz estate.
...
t has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation. It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God. It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments.
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