R Clayton McKee | Photo Galleries | 2011 San Jacinto Festival and Battle Re-Enactment | "Remember The Alamo! Remember Goliad!"

The battle didn't take long. The Texians had no cannonballs; the Twin Sisters were loaded with musket balls, broken horseshoes, rocks, and scrap metal, transforming the cannons into giant shotguns, truly fearsome weapons at close (200 yard) range. The cannons were brought up to the line and fired, throwing the Mexican encampment into panicked confusion. The Texians charged, screaming, firing, and swinging clubbed rifles and swords. The Mexicans woke to some kind of vision of hell come a' calling, and in 18 minutes it was all over. In that brief space of time, nearly 1400 Mexicans were killed or wounded, at a cost of between 9 and 12 Texians killed and around 30 wounded. Santa Anna, "The Napoleon of the West," jumped on his horse and ran for it, but as Erastus "Deaf" Smith, on orders from Houston, had destroyed Vince's Bridge across the river, he had nowhere to go. He was captured early the next morning, hiding in the weeds dressed in a common soldado's uniform.

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