Texan Army Crossing of Buffalo Bayou (San Jacinto)
Harrisburg, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
3000 ft. north at this site the Texas army under command of General Sam Houston crossed Buffalo Bayou on April 19, 1836 on a raft built from Isaac Batterson's house and began the march which terminated with the victory at San Jacinto April 21, 1836.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On April 19, 1836, the Texas army under General Sam Houston crossed Buffalo Bayou near this spot on a raft built from the dismantled house of settler Isaac Batterson. From this crossing the troops began the final march that ended two days later in the decisive victory at San Jacinto, winning Texas independence.
Why it matters
This quiet bayou crossing was the last leg of the campaign that secured Texan independence at San Jacinto, one of the most consequential battles in the story of the American Southwest.
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Related people
- · Sam Houston
- · Isaac Batterson
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Near Site of Isaac Batterson Home
Galena Park, TX
On April 19, 1836, as Sam Houston's army raced toward destiny, soldiers tore up the flooring of Isaac Batterson's house to build rafts and ferry the troops across rain-swollen Buffalo Bayou. Some 248 men, many of them ill, were left behind at the Batterson place while the rest marched on to triumph at San Jacinto two days later. Batterson, a New York transplant, had bought the land in 1835 and named his settlement "Clinton" for his old home — the community that would one day become Galena Park.
City of Pasadena
Pasadena, TX
The ground beneath modern Pasadena passed from Native lands to pioneer ranches to a space-age industrial city, but its most dramatic hour came in 1836, when the armies of Sam Houston and Santa Anna crossed here on the way to San Jacinto. Scout Erastus Deaf Smith destroyed a bridge on the Vince ranch to cut off the Mexican army's retreat, and after the battle a fleeing Santa Anna was captured about a mile from this spot. Later known for its strawberry fields and Land of Flowers boosterism, the town founded in 1895 grew into a hub of oil and chemical industry.
Sherman, Gen. Sidney, Home of
Houston, TX
This was the homesite of General Sidney Sherman (1805–1873), who commanded the left wing of the Texas army at the Battle of San Jacinto. He later served in the Texas Congress from 1842 to 1843 and built the first railroad in Texas. The original house burned in 1853, and the State of Texas marked the site in 1936 for the independence centennial.
Old Harrisburg
Houston, TX
Founded in 1826 by John R. Harris on land he had settled three years earlier, Harrisburg became a busy port and site of Texas's first steam saw and grist mills. For three tense weeks in 1836 it served as capital of the fledgling Republic of Texas under President David G. Burnet—until Santa Anna's troops burned the town in pursuit of the fleeing government. Rebuilt after San Jacinto, it launched Texas's first railroad in 1852, grew into a Confederate rail center, and was absorbed by Houston in 1926.