One of your heroes Bruce?
Sam wanted to deport the Mexicans off their own land.
Friday, January 23, 2004
Sam Houston, The Tall Texan
BY PAUL KATZEFF
As a youth, Samuel Houston seemed rudderless.
When he was 14 years old, his father died. At 16 he ran away from home. He made time for only one year of school.
By the time he was a young man, he'd earned a reputation as a carouser and a drunk.
But Houston knew hard work could dig him out of his moral ditch. Within a few short years, he'd grown into a visionary whose actions were pivotal to America's expansion in the West.
He led the military victory that sealed Texas independence from Mexico, and then championed the Lone Star republic's entry to the U.S.
Born near Lexington, Va., Houston became the first president of the Republic of Texas, and later served a separate second term. He also served that state as a U.S. senator, congressman and governor. Earlier he'd served as a congressman and governor of Tennessee.
Houston (1793-1863) held more military and public offices than anyone in American history, noted historian James McPherson.
Houston was seen as a potential candidate for U.S. president as early as age 35, Frank Krystyniak wrote at the Sam Houston State University Web site. And if he'd become president in 1856 or 1860, his political savvy might have prevented the Civil War, noted historian John Hoyt Williams.
Never Stopped Learning
To reverse his bleak, early prospects, Houston began by improving his mind. Despite his lack of formal instruction, in his late teens he read Homer's "Iliad" so often that he memorized most of its 24 books.
And he never stopped learning. In the Army, Houston stuffed into his knapsack the Bible, Shakespeare's works and such books as "Robinson Crusoe."
He also was honest enough to see his own limitations. When he ran away from home, rather than wander aimlessly he settled in with a band of 300 Cherokee Indians, figuring he needed a community to survive. He did this at a time when most American Anglos despised American Indians, wrote biographer Marquis James. In turn, Chief Oo-loo-te-ka raised Houston like a son, giving him valuable guidance. Houston soaked up information on wildlife, trapping and agriculture. He'd later find it all invaluable when talking with frontier families.
After military service, Houston went to Nashville, Tenn. Deciding that law was a good fit, he dived into and completed an 18-month law school course in six months.
He saw politics as a way to make changes, and served two terms in Congress before being elected governor of Tennessee. But in 1829 at age 35 he divorced his 18-year-old wife after three months of marriage. Historians speculate that the causes were his drunkenness and jealousy toward a former rival.
Houston was forced to resign as governor. Within a few years, drinking cost him his second marriage.
Finally recognizing that he had a problem, Houston gave up drinking with his third marriage, to Margaret Lea in 1840.
As he matured, Houston often relied on humor, especially about himself, when talking with others. He knew that making fun of his foibles made others feel more at ease around him. When a friend asked if all his sins had been washed away by his church baptism in a local creek as an adult, Houston said he felt "sorry for the fish if they were," according to biographer Marshall De Bruhl.
Houston sought challenges. In 1832 Houston joined American settlers who moved into Texas, which was a province of Mexico. Tension with the Mexican government led to war in 1836. With his public service record and having fought in the War of 1812, Houston was made commander of rebel forces.
He analyzed his moves carefully before making them. When Mexicans massacred the Alamo garrison 70 miles away, Houston's enraged soldiers demanded to counterattack immediately. Instead, Houston ordered a retreat.
His force almost mutinied. But Houston's assessment of the situation told him it was his only hope for eventual victory.
Mexican Gen. Santa Anna had 5,500 crack troops under his command. Houston had just 400 men, largely untrained and undisciplined. A similarly passionate, outgunned 189 men had ignored Houston's order to evacuate the Alamo. Santa Anna's soldiers had killed them and burned their bodies.
Houston remembered the price he once paid for being hotheaded. He was a young officer under the legendary Gen. Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. In the Battle of Horseshoe Bend he fought recklessly and barely survived three wounds.
So now, rather than charge the stronger Mexicans, he marched his army away, toward Louisiana.
Houston was innovative. He ordered his men to light campfires to fool enemy scouts into thinking he was bivouacking. But he kept his men on the move.
He recruited soldiers along the way, building his force to 900. In swampland north of the Brazos River, he ran drills and waited for Santa Anna to make a mistake.
Houston got his wish when the Mexican dictator-general divided his army. Santa Ana sent part of his force in pursuit of Texas government officials and kept after Houston with a smaller force. He found Houston at the San Jacinto River.
Houston knew that strategy would help his men survive. So when the Mexicans prepared for their customary dawn attack on April 21, 1836, Houston held his men back. Exhausted by their own forced march, Santa Anna's men settled in for the afternoon siesta.
Relying on the element of surprise, Houston deployed infantry and cavalry on three sides. He ordered his men to advance silently. It was 4:30 p.m., an unheard of hour for attack.
In the ferocious fight that ensued, Houston had two horses shot out from under him. A musket ball mashed his ankle.
But in just 18 minutes, half of Santa Anna's 1,250-man force lay dead. Houston lost six dead, 13 wounded.
Taken prisoner, Santa Anna ordered the rest of his army — only 50 miles away — home.
Texas was set free.
Houston worked tirelessly to make his dream of building a democratic nation a reality. He followed the examples of his mentor in nationalism, the charismatic Jackson, and his own father, who'd fought in the Revolution. He lobbied for Texas' annexation as a state.
United It Stands
A slave owner, Houston was flawed. But knowing that strength comes from unity, he worked hard to preserve the Union by steering the South away from secession. Eight years before Abraham Lincoln famously used the biblical allusion, Sam Houston warned other Southern legislators that, "A nation divided against itself cannot stand," according to historian Randolph Campbell.
Houston stuck by his fierce nationalism no matter the cost. When secession came, he was alone among Southern governors in refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy even though it meant he was forced from office.
Together, the U.S. could do great things, Houston predicted.
"A lot of people had sight," Houston's great-great-granddaughter Margaret Rost told the Houston Chronicle last year. "But few had (Houston's) vision." |
