While these events were occurring, a general convention of delegates assembled at Washington, on the Brazos, to consider the question whether Texas should continue to struggle for a Republican government of her own. On the 2nd of March the convention unanimously adopted a declaration of independence; and, on the 17th of the same month, a constitution was adopted, and executive officers appointed to perform the duties of the government until the first election under the constitution.
On the morning of the 21st of April, the Texan army, numbering but seven hundred and eighty-three effective men, under General Houston, confronted the Mexican army, numbering one thousand six hundred men on the San Jacinto river. With the exception of two pieces of cannon, not a gun was fired by the Texans until they were within musket range of the enemy's lines, when the war-cry, “Remember the Alamo and Goliad” was raised. Such was the suddenness and fury of the Texans, that the Mexicans, under Santa Anna, threw down their arms and fled in confusion from the incessant shower of bullets that fell upon them, while the Texan cavalry, under Colonel Mirabeau B. Lamar, pursued the fugitives, cutting them down by hundreds. Of their one thousand six hundred men the enemy lost in killed six hundred and thirty, wounded two hundred and eight, while seven hundred and eight were made prisoners. On the day following the battle Santa Anna was captured, disguised in common apparel, with his camp equipage and valuable silver service. The glorious effect of this battle gave to Texas peace, and the rank of an independent Republic among the nations of the earth.
When Ward's battalion arrived in Texas, early in January, 1836, bearing the banner of the “Lone Star” the Texan army had just hoisted their first flag, which consisted of a plain white field with a red sword upon it, held in a soldier's hand. After the independence of Texas and her recognition as a Republic, an interesting account of the origin of the “Lone Star State,” as applied to the young Republic, was published by a gallant officer in the Galveston News, as follows:
The flag of the Lone Star that was first unfurled in Texas was that borne by the Georgia battalion, commanded by the late Lieutenant-Colonel Ward, who, with almost his entire command, was massacred at Goliad in the spring of 1836, in what is known as “ Fannin's Massacre,”
