Sam Houston's copy of Secretary of War Thomas J. Rusk's Official Report of the Battle of San Jacinto

Page 2

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Rusk - San Jacinto - Page 2

cavalry changing their position on the right, A charge was
made on the left of our camp by this infantry, which was promp
=tly repelled by a few shots from our artillery, which forced them to
retire, We have the satisfaction of stating that only two of our men
were wounded one very slightly and the other (Col. Niel of the
artillery) not fatally, The attack ceased the enemy retired and
formed in two pieces skirts of timber and remained in that position
occasionally opening their cannon upon us until just before Sun
Set when they attempted to draw off their forces their artillery
and cavalry were removed to other points Col. Sherman with
sixty of our cavalry charged upon theirs, consisting of upwards
of an hundred, Killing and wounding several, their infantry
came to the assistance of their cavalry and opened upon ours us
an incessant firing for ten or fifteen minutes which our men sus
tained with unprecedented firmness, Too much praise cannot
be bestowed upon those who were engaged in this charge for
never was one of equal peril made with more courage and
terminated with less loss, two of our men were severely wound
=ed but none killed, this terminated the movements of the
day, Early next morning about nine oclock the enemy
received a reinforcement of five hundred men under the
command of Gen. Martin Perfect de Cos which increased their
Strength to fourteen or fifteen hundred men, It was supposed
that an attack upon our encampment would now be made
and havin a good position, we stationed our artillery and
disposed of the forces so as to receive the enemy to the best
advantage, At three o clock however the foe instead of

 

Page last modified: March 28, 2016