It’s April 22, 1836. Yesterday, in just eighteen minutes, the Texas Army defeated Santa Anna’s forces on the Field of San Jacinto. But the Mexican general was not among the dead or the captured.
Where could he be?
This morning, General Houston sent scouting parties out to round up any soldados who managed to evade capture the previous day.
Many years later, Sion Bostick wrote down what happened that day:
"When we were about eight miles from the battlefield, about one o’clock, we saw the head and shoulders of a man above the tall sedge grass, walking through the prairie. As soon as we saw him we started towards him at a gallop.
When he discovered us, he squatted in the grass; but we soon came to the place. As we rode up we aimed our guns at him and told him to surrender. He held up his hands, and spoke in Spanish, but I could not understand him. He was dressed like a common soldier. Under the uniform he had on a fine shirt.
As we went back to camp the prisoner rode behind Robinson a while and then rode behind Sylvester. I was the youngest and smallest of the party, and I would not agree to let him ride behind me. I wanted to shoot him…
When we got to camp, the Mexican soldiers, then prisoners, saluted him and said, “el presidente.” All three of us who had captured him were angry at ourselves for not killing him out on the prairie, to be consumed by the wolves and buzzards.
We took him to General Houston, who was wounded and lying under a big oak tree."
Santa Anna dressed as a private.
Deaf Smith listens in.
William Henry Huddle knew Sion Bostick. He knew many of the men he painted in this scene and discussed the event with them. He had previously painted portraits of several. For those he did not personally know, he worked from oil paintings and early photographs to produce correct likenesses.
The scene includes Deaf Smith (Houston’s trusted scout), Surgeon general Alexander Ewing tending to the general’s shattered ankle, Thomas Rusk, Ned Burleson, future President Mirabeau B. Lamar, Ben McCullough, and even the Twin Sisters cannons at far right.
Huddle completed The Surrender of Santa Anna in 1886. The State of Texas purchased it in 1891 to hang in the new granite capitol. It still hangs in the South Foyer.
This is a pivotal moment in Texas history. Imagine what might have happened if Santa Anna had made it back to the remainder of his army at Fort Bend.
