All Downhill For Hero After Battle Of San Jacinto

The daughter of a long dead and all but forgotten hero of the Texas Revolution unveiled a statue of her tragic father at a Galveston intersection on Oct. 23, 1938.

San Jacinto should have ensured success and immortality, but Sidney Sherman knew only pain and disappointment. The most powerful politician of his day ruined his reputation, and three suspicious fires left a promising career in ashes. Yet his public ordeal could not compare with the private anguish of burying four children and a wife.

Sherman proudly admired the fruit of four years labor since leaving New York City in 1831. Nevertheless, the Cincinnati businessman was willing to risk everything to fight for freedom in a foreign land.

On March 6, 1836, Sherman and 50 volunteers from Ohio and Kentucky reached Gonzales, where reinforcements were supposed to be ready for an Alamo rescue mission. But no relief column was waiting, and the stunned officer refused to lead his men into certain annihilation.

Five days later, Gen. Sam Houston showed up and forged the chain of command that included Sherman as lieutenant colonel. When confirmation came that night of the massacre in San Antonio, the commander gave the order for a full-scale retreat which Sherman and many others found hard to swallow.

At the Colorado River, the outspoken newcomer pleaded for permission to cross the tributary and surprise a Mexican force twice the size of his own contingent. Harsh words were exchanged, when Houston pulled rank and insisted Sherman resume the withdrawal.

Word of the slaughter at Goliad sapped the already anemic morale of the rebels and set mutinous tongues to wagging. Sherman was the popular choice of the dispirited soldiers to replace their do-nothing general, a fact duly noted by Houston who would always despise his rumored successor as a back-stabbing traitor.

As the two sides jockeyed for position the day before the climax at San Jacinto, Sherman proposed a preemptive strike against Santa Anna