Free Republic

On February 23, 1836, the siege and battle at the Alamo began, as 189 men defended the mission from the 1800-strong Mexican Army during the Texas Revolution. The small Texas force, including Jim Bowie, William Travis and Davy Crockett, would hold against the Mexican Army for 13 days and eventually cause as many as 600 Mexican soldiers to be killed or wounded in the battle before falling. The defense of the Alamo would become a rallying cry for Texas, leading to the Mexican Army defeat at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21 and ending the Revolution with Texas...

For all of her secret life as the wife of a soldier in Santa Anna's army, Patty Tristan has tried to adhere to one policy. No camping in the mud. There was no such luck this weekend, when Tristan and more than 200 other people gathered at San Jacinto Battleground State Historical Park to recreate the 1836 victory that gave Texas its independence from Mexico. The battle re-enactment was cancelled after a thunderstorm Saturday morning was capped by a lightning strike to the 570-foot tall monument in the middle of the park. Lightning, static electricity and 100 pounds of black...

Let's state this simply: If it weren't for San Jacinto, The Alamo would not be drawing crowds this weekend. In fact, nobody would remember the Alamo. Yet compared to the Alamo, San Jacinto is the Rodney Dangerfield of battlefield sites. The $100 million epic now at the theaters does conclude by showing Sam Houston's victory over Santa Anna seven weeks after the slaughter in San Antonio. But the movie doesn't bother to mention the venue. If Sam Houston and his men had lost at San Jacinto, the Alamo would be a footnote in Mexican history books. The victory at San...