April 1836.

The lowlands east of the Brazos River are soaked and steaming, thick with the smell of gunpowder and swamp.

General Sam Houston rides along a ridge, his horse's flank spattered with mud.

Behind him, 900 Texan soldiers slog eastward through the marsh, hungry and exhausted.

They're running from Antonio Lopez to Santa Ana's forces.

One of the most powerful armies Mexico has ever fielded.

The same army that crushed the Texans stand at the Battle of the Almo, and then

executed the survivors at Goliad. But Houston isn't just retreating. He's watching, waiting,

choosing his ground. In a few days, on the grassy plain near the San Jacinto River, he'll turn his

ragged army around, and in a short, decisive River. He'll turn his ragged army around,

and in a short, decisive engagement, the fate of a nation is sealed.

The Battle of San Jacinto will make Texas independent

and set the stage for everything that comes next.

Annexation, expansion, and less than a decade later, war between the

United States of America and Mexico.

Greetings all, welcome to American History Hit.

I'm your host, Don Wildman.

In 1845, the brand new Republic of Texas was already at a crossroads.

To the east, the United States of America, young, hungry, restless, focus fixed on the expansion towards the Pacific.

To the south, Mexico, proud, wounded, and unwilling to accept that the Lone Star had somehow slipped away.

We all know how it went. Texas chose to join the Union, and within a year, the U.S. and Mexico were at war.

But today, let's reimagine this past. Take another path, one where Texas's brief stint as an independent republic lasted longer. No annexation, no American troops crossing the Rio Grande.

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