Emily Morgan - Morgan's Point Cemetery, Morgan's Point, TX - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

Legend has it that Emily Morgan, Mulatto servant of Col James Morgan, actually “won” the Battle of San Jacinto for Texas by catching Gen. Santa Anna's eye when he sacked and burned Morgan's Plantation on April 19, 1836. According to the legend, Santa Ana took Emily with him at that time and at the moment of the Texans’ attack on the afternoon of April 21, 1836, she kept the Mexican general so occupied to his tent that he was unable to rally and command his troops to prevent defeat. Emily is supposedly also be immortalized as the subject of a ballad the Yellow Rose of Texas.

The first mention of Emily in any writing was by a William Bollaert, in 1842, who wrote that he heard from an officer who have been at San Jacinto, that the battle was lost because of “the influence of a Mulatto girl (Emily), belonging to Colonel Morgan, who was closeted in the tent was General Santa Anna…”

Emily D. West, a free black woman, was known to be at the San Jacinto battlefield, but there is no verified record that places her in the tent of General Santa Anna. Historian point to the fact that eyewitnesses who had no reason to be sympathetic to Santa Anna make no mention of the supposed dalliance in the tent incident.

It is known that Emily West arrived in Texas with free papers in December of 1835 and she was at Col. Morgan's plantation (New Washington) on April 16 when Col. Juan Almonte and a company of Mexican dragoons arrived. She accompanied these troops to the plains of San Jacinto on April 20. She escaped during the battle on the next day but lost her free papers. After the death of Lorenzo de Zavala, vice-president of the provisional Texas government, Mrs. Zavala and Emily left Texas and returned to New York. There is no evidence that she ever came back to Texas.

Texas Independence Community
Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986
La Porte
“The Door”... of Free Texas!

Sponsored by: Beta Sigma Phi

Group that erected the marker: City of La Porte - Sponsored by Beta Signa Phi Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Morgan's Point Cemetery Morgan's Point, TX USA 77571 URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   03/25/2020 Raven visited it