Antonio López de Santa Anna
Antonio de Padua
María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón worked hard to justify
such a grandiose name. But he left his mark on Mexico—and Texas. During a
twenty-two-year period, the self-styled "Napoleon of
the West," served
as president eleven times. Born in Jalapa, Veracruz, in New Spain, on 21 February 1794, he was 42 years of
age in 1836. During his Texas Campaign he demonstrated both laudable brilliance
and deplorable folly. Supremely ambitious,
at least he knew it. He once observed, “If I were made God, I should wish to be
something more.”
Domingo de Ugartechea
In
1835, Colonel Ugartechea was the Mexican military commandant headquartered at
San Antonio de Béxar. As such, he dispatched dragoons to Gonzales to confiscate
a cannon, an edict that ignited the Texas Revolution. On October 28, at the
battle of Concepción, 90 Texans overwhelmed the 275 Mexican soldiers he
commanded. The 44-year-old Ugartechea served throughout the siege and storming
of Béxar and, in December, retreated with General Cos. But he returned to Texas
for the 1836 campaign, when he commanded reserve troops stationed at Copano,
Victoria, and Goliad. Following the devastating defeat at San Jacinto, he
retreated to Matamoros.