The Day of San Jacinto.
1959 · Austin
by Tolbert, Frank X.
Austin: Jenkins Publishing Company, The Pemberton Press, (1959). Octavo, navy blue cloth (hardcover), 269 pp. Very Good, with light soiling to covers, in a Good, mylar protected dust jacket with edgwear that includes light chipping, and sunning to the spine. From dust jacket: Texas had no business winning the Texas Revolution, and more particularly, the battle of San Jacinto. But the Mexicans deserved to win even less. Sam Houston had the quality of leadership, but he had little to lead. And he had a civilian populance wihtout patience for anything but immediate victories, and a government more interested in self-preservation than in constructive planning. And the solid people, with money and slaves and influence, were too comfortable to want to disturb the status quo. They just wished the whole jumbled mess would somehow go away. The story of San Jacinto has been told many times, accurately and inaccurately, sketchily and completely, dully and more dully. Only in the sources -- Santa Anna’s account, Ramon Caro’s astringent Verdadera Idea, Sam Houston’s battle reports, or Robert Coleman’s Houston Displayed -- has this lusty campaign heretofore been narrated so lustily. But now Tolbert has told a story that is good Texas, and he has told it to be read... (Inventory #: 4149bd)