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In
1893, the Galveston Daily News printed a reporter’s interview with
Charles Cronea, a Jean
Lafitte pirate who fought at the Battle
of San Jacinto, where Texas won its independence from Mexico.
Cronea, a native of Marseilles, France, slipped aboard a French
frigate, and came to America as a cabin boy and, after working on
ships along the Gulf Coast, he joined a company of men and wound
up at San
Jacinto.
“It was fine fighting,” he said, “and we gave the Mexicans hell.
We just killed them until we got tired. We killed thirty greasers
(Mexicans) around one cannon; they could fire it only once.”
Santa Anna’s men soon
began crying out, “We no Alamo,” referring to the battle in San
Antonio that became the battle cry at San
Jacinto.
One of the men in Cronea’s company captured Santa
Anna, who had hidden in a creek bed. “None of us recognized
him, or we would have shot him right there. When some of the prisoners
recognized him, we wanted to kill him, but the officers wouldn’t
let us.”
Cronea said “if Santa Anna had not been a Mason, his hide wouldn’t
held shucks. But both Santa
Anna and Sam
Houston were both high Masons, and Houston and the other Masons
got him off in a disguise.”
Cronea said seven Texas soldiers followed Santa
Anna from San
Jacinto. “If we had overtaken him, he wouldn’t have made it
back to Mexico.”
Following the brief battle
at San Jacinto, Cronea went to Bolivar and began farming. He
later moved to Plaquemine Parish in Louisiana, where he cast his
first ballot for Andrew Jackson.
Cronea lived among his descendants and during his latter years he
was revered at an oracle. People often came to him for advice and,
regardless of his frequent profanity, the people listened to him.
He died at Roll Over Pass in Chambers
County and was buried there.
Bob Bowman's East Texas
January 16, 2011 Column.
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers
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