Handwritten memorandum on the Capture of Santa Anna. by Antonio López de Santa-Anna - 1836

[Texas Revolution] [Antonio López de Santa Anna] [José Mariá Ortiz Monasterio] Handwritten memorandum on the Capture of Santa Anna. Puebla, June 17, 1836. On one sheet of laid paper folded into four leaves. 31 cm. From the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to the Governor of Puebla. Stains and edge chips. Good.

Written less than a month after the defeat at San Jacinto and the capture of Santa Anna, this very interesting document discusses Santa Anna's capture by the Texans and what the governments needs to do going forward, including collecting funds to defeat the rebel colonists:

"The National Honor having been highly defiled by the perfidious Tejas colonists revolt in that territory, with the intention to separate it from the Mexican Republic and arrogance with the victory they attained last April 21 over the small force commanded in person by Benemérito de la Patria General D. Antonio López de Santa Anna. The time has arrived to avenge the insults made to the whole Nation in the person of the illustrious prisoner, and to reinforce the Mexican army, and to provide it with all means necessary to sustain with shine and luster the good name it has known how to form and preserve in all actions of war it has participated."

"To free our illustrious President and extract him from the power of those ungrateful rebels is a duty of all Mexicans due to the coherence that this action has in the national decorum, and of the Supreme Government, in charge to preserve and defend the integrity of our territory.

The Interim President, firm in these principles, resolved to sustain the Republic's rights that have wanted to usurp those daring foreign adventurers.

The Supreme Government, constrained by the anxieties of the treasury, it has approved to incite the patriotism of you Excellency Governor so you would do the same with the residents of your Department, so they will contribute voluntarily with what their interest as Mexicans tells them to sustain and carry to a successful end this just and national war."

He further instructs the Governor to contact all Ayuntamientos [City Councils] with this same request in order to collect funds, and to send copies of this same document to all of them. They also need to make lists of the contributors.

This is a rare and consequential look at the internal reaction by the Mexican Government to the capture of Santa Anna and the defeat at San Jacinto. It foreshadows Mexico's efforts in the coming years to re-annex Texas and its rebellious colonists.