Happy And/Or Terrible San Jacinto Day!

Depending on where you loyalties lie, San Jacinto Day might be a cause for celebration or rueful commiseration  - but, either way, it’s a cause for drinking. So today is ok by us. 

The Battle of Jacinto, for those who are interested in facts they will immediately forget, is the celebration of the Battle of San Jacinto, which occurred on April 21, 1836. A reenactment of the event is held each year on the original battleground, much to the delight of small children and nerds.

During the battle, the Texas Army, led by General Sam Houston, defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna’s Mexican forces in eighteen minutes. Hundreds of Mexican soldiers were killed or captured. Nine Texans died. 

Legend has it that, during the opening shots of the battle, Santa Anna was busy ”entertaining” a mulatto woman named Emily Morgan.”The Yellow Rose of Texas” was written about Miss Morgan, although many historians dismiss this anecdote. But, really, who could not be proud of a song whose lyrics went something like that:

There’s a yellow rose in Texas that I am going to see,

No other darkey knows her, no darkey only me;

She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart,

And if I ever find her we never more will part.

(Chorus)

And the yellow rose of Texas shall be mine for evermore.

We’ll play the banjo gaily, and we’ll sing the songs of yore,

Oh! now I’m going to find her, for my heart is full of woe,

(Chorus)

She’s the sweetest rose of color this darkey ever knew,

Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew,

You may talk about your Dearest May, and sing of Rosa Lee,

But the yellow rose of Texas beats the belles of Tennessee.

And we’ll sing the song together, that we sung so long ago;

(Chorus)

Where the Rio Grande is flowing, and the starry skies are bright,

She walks along the river in the quiet summer night;

She thinks if I remember, when we parted long ago,

I promis’d to come back again, and not to leave her so.

 So. Who’s drunk?

San Jacinto Day [Wiki]