Santa Anna's Captivity

Cartoon depicting Santa Anna and General Martín Perfecto de Cós’s surrender to Houston. Produced in 1836.

Future Texas President Mirabeau Lamar stated his case for Santa Anna’s continued captivity in May 1836.

Letter from Santa Anna to Andrew Jackson, July 4, 1836.

The day after the Battle of San Jacinto, Texan soldiers brought seemingly another common Mexican soldier into a prisoner-of-war camp. Immediately Mexican officers began standing and saluting. Santa Anna was now in custody.

The question remained: What to do with him? Many in the Texan camp, and indeed within the Texas government, desired his execution. Others, though, realized he was more valuable alive than dead. As commander of his army, he held the authority to order his troops from Texas. As Mexico’s president (albeit on leave), he could establish a peace treaty. On May 14, he did just that: Santa Anna and the Republic of Texas agreed to the Treaty of Velasco.

Santa Anna, meanwhile, remained a prisoner. In July, the Texas Republic attempted to ship him home to Vera Cruz—but a mutiny at the port caused officials to keep him in custody for his own safety. After keeping Santa Anna in a cell with ball and chain for the next several months, finally Texas officials hatched a plan: they would send him with a diplomatic delegation to Washington, D.C. There he was to meet with President Andrew Jackson.

Further reading:

Callcott, Wilfrid Hardy. Santa Anna; the Story of an Enigma Who Once Was Mexico. Hamden, Conn: Archon Books, 1964.

Durham, Kenneth Reuben. Santa Anna: Prisoner of War in Texas. Paris, Tex: Wright Press, 1986.

Fowler, Will. Santa Anna of Mexico. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.

Hanighen, Frank Cleary. Santa Anna, the Napoleon of the West. Coward-McCann, inc., 1934.

Henson, M. S. “Politics and the Treatment of the Mexican Prisoners After the Battle of San Jacinto.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 94, no. 2 (1990): 189–230.

Jones, Oakah L. Santa Anna. Twayne’s Rulers and Statesmen of the World Series 6. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1968.

McKeehan, Wallace L. “Santa Anna’s Captivity.” Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas, n.d. http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/dewitt.htm.

Winders, Richard Bruce. Crisis in the Southwest: The United States, Mexico, and the Struggle Over Texas. The American Crisis Series no. 6. Wilmington, Del: SR Books, 2002.