Historian disputes cl aim Santa Anna had battlefield tryst  By Bob Tutt, © 1997 Houston Chronicle

Even if Sam Houston says it's so, the story that a beautiful mulatto girl distracted Santa Anna and helped make the Mexicans lose the pivotal Battle of San Jacinto still doesn't ring true.

That's the reaction of  Texas historian Stephen L. Hardin to a discovery announced this past weekend at the annual meeting of the Texas State Historical Association in Austin.

Historical researcher James Lutzweiler reported finding that Houston is the alleged source for a story that Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was dallying with a woman in his tent instead of attending to his duties when Texan forces sprang the surprise attack that triggered their victory at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.

The woman in question was Emily D. West, an indentured servant supposedly captured at the New Washington settlement near what is now La Porte.

Scholars say she has been mistakenly identified as the woman saluted in the song The Yellow Rose of Texas.

Lutzweiler delved into the archived papers of William Bollaert, a British traveler to Texas in 1842-44. A book based on his papers appeared in 1956. It created a sensation because it contained a footnote making the first published mention of West's alleged role in Texas history.

Hardin, a professor at Victoria College, argued, "Let's remember that Sam Houston was on the other side of the battlefield and wasn't privy to what was going on in that tent."

Additionally, he said, Santa Anna in all probability would have been so exhausted from the military actions he had overseen the previous day and a half, he would have been in no shape for hanky-panky.

Santa Anna "and the men in his immediate contingent," he said, "had marched from New Washington the day before the battle, had had a skirmish with the Texans that afternoon, then had been up all night erecting barricades.

"On the day of the battle, they were standing in ranks all day expecting an attack. By that afternoon all the Mexican soldiers and their general were utterly exhausted. Then as the sun dips lower after 3 o'clock, they decided no attack is coming and relaxed their guard."

Furthermore, Hardin argued, "My view is that if Santa Anna had been having a tryst and that had been a factor in their losing the battle, his critics surely would have used that information against him."

"Lutzweiler thinks it (the sexual episode) possible and probable," he said. "I think it impossible and improbable."

Lutzweiler, a graduate student at North Carolina State University, found that Bollaert quoted from what he said was a letter Houston had written but that Bollaert didn't say when the letter was dated or to whom it was addressed.

Historian James E. Crisp of North Carolina State, presided over the historical association's session dealing with West. He said the identification of Houston as the alleged source of the story about her opens up a host of new opportunities and clues for research about her.

"This is not the end of the story,"Crisp said. "This is just the beginning of a very exciting quest."

J.C. Martin, director the San Jacinto Museum of History here, said he is excited by the possibility for more "original research into early Texas history."

James C. McNutt, director of the North Carolina Museum of History, acted as a commentator for the session. "The story of Emily West and the Yellow Rose of Texas," he said, involves a number of racial and gender issues "that are under the table."

Thus, he said, it's "becoming the story of what we are doing with it. Why do we laugh, and where will it go? ... We're going to have to find out sometime why this thread takes all this energy from us, why we are curious and why it is important in Texas history that we have these stories?"

10/03/97

See Also:

The Sweetest Little Rosebud' We Never Knew
The mystery of Yellow Rose of Texas is still unsolved.

In Search of the Yellow Rose of Texas
Texas history is full of legend and lore. One such tale is the "Yellow Rose of Texas" - a legend commemorated in song. Mark Whitelaw examines the legend and the song.