Loose Ends at the Battle of San Jacinto--A Series--The Texian Flag

                

Col. Sidney Sherman, Soldier and Statesman of early Texas.  The first steam locomotive in Texas was named "General Sherman," after this man, not after the yankee general, as many assumed.

      One of the company commanders at San Jacinto, Colonel Sidney Sherman, was born in Massachusetts in 1805, orphaned at age twelve, worked his way to New York City, then on to Cincinnati, and finally across the Ohio River to Newport, Kentucky.  He built a prosperous business there and married a twenty-year-old Southern Belle, Catherine Isabel Cox, in April, 1835.  

      Sherman, along with other Cincinnati friends and acquaintenances, suffered from "Texas Fever."  Cincinnati was a hotbed of Texas sympathisers, filled with men who saw possibilities for untold wealth in the Mexican territory.

      A rally for the Texas Revolution was held there in November, 1835.  Sherman attended and pledged his support for the young, would-be republic.  The citizens of Cincinnati, at the urging of Mayor Isaac Burnet, voted to donate the “Twin Sisters,” two small cannon, to the Texians.  Sidney Sherman asked for volunteers to join him for an expedition to help the Texas patriots secure their freedom.

     Such volunteer groups sprang up all over the South, stirred by the letters of William Barret Travis, Sam Houston, and others commissioned by the Texas government to enlist volunteers.   The Texas rebellion became “the” war for this generation of young Southerners.  Too young for the Revolutionary War or the War of 1812, these young men longed for the romance of a conflict to prove their merit.  The Texas Revolution, viewed as a righteous fight of American patriots against Mexican despots, was made to order for their needs.     

      Sherman's new bride must have approved of his marching off to Texas, for he sold his business and used the money to arm and outfit fifty-two young adventurers, known variously as the “Newport Volunteers,” “ Kentucky Riflemen,” or “Sherman’s Newport Volunteers.” 

     In late December, 1835, at a going-away party for his troops, Sherman’s new bride presented him with a battle flag made by the “Ladies of Newport” for the Volunteers.  This flag depicted Miss Liberty, with her perfectly shaped left breast exposed, holding a sword with the banner, “Liberty or Death.”  Private James A. Sylvester added a lady’s long glove to the flagstaff as a talisman.  The glove had been presented to him by a lovely Southern Belle at the off-to-war dance in Cincinnati.  The flag, with the lady’s glove, was proudly carried to Texas by the Newport Volunteers.

     The Alabama Red Rovers, the Mobile Grays, and several groups from New Orleans were already on the road to Texas. Sherman’s group hurried to get there while there were still enough Mexicans to go around.

      Sherman's Newport Volunteers went directly to San Felipe, planning to move on to San Antonio and join Travis at the Alamo.  The acting governor, Henry Smith, saved their lives when he directed them instead to Gonzales to report to General Houston for orders.  Though disappointed and spoiling for a fight, they obeyed the governor.

      Sherman and his troops joined the Texian army at Gonzales in late February, 1836,  to await the arrival of General Houston.  Houston merged them with the First Volunteer Regiment, under the command of Col. Edward Burleson, and placed Lt. Col. Sherman second in Command.  By the time they reached San Jacinto, the army had grown so large that a Second Volunteer Regiment was formed.  Despite his lack of military experience, Sherman was made a full colonel and put in charge of the new regiment.

     Sam Houston knew the importance of symbolism to the morale of an army, and especially to his ragged little group.   As he prepared for the most important battle of his life, he searched desperately for any symbol to rally his troops.  TheTexian army had no flag, no marching band, nothing to signify and maintain unity. 

     Sherman’s original fifty-two troops had the only real uniforms, so Houston put them near the center of his skirmish line, along with the rest of Burleson’s First Volunteer Regiment.  He noticed the Newport Volunteer's flag and insisted it be moved to the center.  Lady Liberty, with her perky breast displayed prominently, and the lovely Cincinnati Belle’s long glove hanging from the shaft, took front and center, between the Twin Sisters. 

Miss Liberty as carried by the Heros of San Jacinto and sewn by the Ladies of Newport, Kentucky.  This is the reverse side of the flag as it is displayed behind the Speaker's platform in the Texas House of Representatives.




 

      Houston’s call for music was answered by a free black man with a drum and a German boy who played a fife.  Two others joined them with unknown instruments, perhaps a fiddle or something homemade, and to Houston's delight, they played the only song all four of them knew—a ribald saloon ditty considered risqué at the time—Come to the Bower. 

     With nine hundred men lined up in a skirmish line 1,000 yards long, a flag in the center and a makeshift band to keep time, Houston's troops were ready for battle.  At three-thirty in the afternoon, Houston mounted his great white horse Saracen, drew his sword and started his troops across a mile of pastureland for an eighteen-minute battle that would change the history of the world.

To Be Continued….