ROMANTIC TEXAS LEGENDS AND LORE

Photos and article by Eleanor S. Morris

One of Texas's most romantic songs has its roots in the history of the Lone Star State.

Texans love a good story, whether it's legend or lore, and the story of Texas Independence is full of both. It began with the challenge to the Mexicans to "come and take it!," the "It" in question being the cannon the Mexicans carelessly left in what was to become rebel hands. It ends, successfully, with the charmingly romantic tale of Emily Morgan, the "Yellow Rose of Texas."

The first battle of the Texas War of Independence from Mexico began in 1835 in a small town in south Texas, a town by the name of Gonzales. The Mexicans were demanding the return of a cannon they had left in Gonzales. What they got was a challenge, and the town flag still bears the challenge: "Come and Take It." The Mexicans tried, but had no luck in taking it; they were defeated in the ensuing battle.

While everyone has heard of the Battle of the Alamo in April of 1836, not everyone knows of the battle just before that, the Battle of Goliad. The Texians, as they were called then, fought valiantly against overwhelming odds, and when they finally surrendered, they were massacred by Mexican General Santa Anna, against all the rules of war. The massacre, and the following loss of the Alamo, again to wave after wave of charging Mexican soldiers, only made the outnumbered Texians more determined than ever to win independence. "Remember the Alamo!" became the Texians war cry.

Enter Emily Morgan.

Six weeks after the battle of the Alamo, the Mexican army moved camp to a prairie south of Houston called San Jacinto. On the way, Santa Anna took captive a young slave woman who had caught his eye. Her name was Emily Morgan, and unknown to the general, who possibly discussed military strategies while she was in his private quarters, she was loyal to her country. She passed back vital information to the Texians, who were waiting nearby to attack.

Whether fact or fiction, the legend goes that Emily Morgan's ability to occupy Santa Anna's attention is what made it possible for the Texians to catch the huge Mexican army off guard. Santa Anna was closeted with her in his tent when the cry "The enemy! They come! They come!" was sounded. Too late the general responded, the army was defeated, the general taken prisoner, and at San Jacinto the Republic of Texas was born.

And the legend of Emily Morgan lives on in story and song:

The yellow rose of Texas
That I am going to see
No other cowboy loves her
Half as much as me.
She cried so when I left her
It almost broke my heart
And if I ever find her
We never more shall part.
You can talk about your Clementine
And speak of Rosalie
But the yellow rose of Texas
Is the only girl for me!