Santa Anna: The Girl He Left Behind

A story is told that while the Mexican Army was preparing for the siege at the Alamo in 1836 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna caught sight of a beautiful young maiden as she was doing her laundry on the banks of the San Antonio River. His excellency expressed a strong desire for her company for a short-term amorous adventure; however her mother insisted that a marriage must take place first. Marriage? No problem! The resourceful dictator had one of his officers dress up like a priest and Santa Anna and the maiden were “married.”

After a short honeymoon, his bride was put on a stagecoach bound for Mexico City. Unbeknownst to the bride and her mother there was already a first lady residing in the palace at the capital. Nothing was ever heard from the new bride and its assumed she was unceremoniously dropped off somewhere along the way to Mexico City.

El Presidente’s sexual propensity for pretty young ladies would come back to bite him a few weeks later at San Jacinto, if the story is true, when a young beauty named Emily Morgan was sharing his bed and diverting his attention away from Sam Houston’s avenging army.

With shouts of “Remember the Alamo” and “Remember Goliad,” the outnumbered Texans completely annihilated his army in the most one-sided victory in American history.

I’m not sure what happened to Miss Emily as many of the events surrounding the War for Independence is mixed with fact and legend but she is heralded as a true Texas hero and a large hotel is named for her in downtown San Antonio not far from the Alamo.