from sea to shining sea

today is the anniversary of an event almost as important (at least in terms of land acquired) as the louisiana purchase in American history. on this day 170 years ago, the battle of san jacinto was fought, and the texan army, led by sam houston, did what texans do best: kick ass and take names. or, in this case, prisoners. in houston's force of about 900 men, 9 were killed and 30 injured. the mexican side, led by santa anna, didn't fare so well: 630 dead, 208 injured, and 730* captured--including santa anna himself, although not till a day later.

texas went on to join the Union, bringing with it land that included the present-day states of arizona, new mexico, nevada, california, utah, and parts of colorado, wyoming, kansas and oklahoma. not too shabby for a days work, if i do say so myself.

*i don't think that number can be right. even if we assume (safely, i would think) that all of the wounded were captured, santa anna was only supposed to have a force of about 1200. so unless we captured some dead people too, it looks like this total would put the total numbers at about 150 more than the total size of the mexican army involved.