Twin Sisters (cannons)
The earliest and most credible primary source of their name, origin, and role comes from a letter by President of the Republic of Texas, David G. Burnet 92 days after the Battle of San Jacinto.
Gentlemen: Two beautiful pieces of "hollow-ware," lately presented to us, through your agency, by the citizens of Cincinnati, as a free-will offering to the cause of human liberty, were received very opportunely, and have become conspicuous in our struggle for independence.
To you, gentlemen, and to the citizens of Cincinnati, who have manifested so generous a sympathy in our cause, I beg leave to tender the warmest thanks of a people who are contending for their liberties and their lives, against a numerous nation of semi-savages, whose cruelty is equalled only by their want of spirit and military prowess.
Should our enemy have the temerity to renew his attempt to subjugate our delightful country, the voices of the TWIN SISTERS of Cincinnati, will yet send their reverberations beyond the Rio Grande, and carry unusual terror into many a Mexican hamlet.
Texas has no desire to extend her conquests beyond her own natural and appropriate limits, but if the war must be prosecuted against us, after abundant evidence of its futility has been exhibited to the enemy and the world, other land than our own must sustain a portion of its ravages.
1) on Tuesday, August 30, 1836:[10] ...Should our enemy have the temerity to renew his attempt to subjugate our delightful country, the voices of the TWIN SISTERS of Cincinnati, will yet send their reverberations beyond the Rio Grande, and carry unusual terror into many a Mexican hamlet... An exposition of the most repeated provenance comes from Elizabeth Mars (née Rice) Stapp in a letter to the editor of The Houston Daily Post on August 24, 1897 — 61 years after the Battle of San Jacinto.
To the Editor of The Post, Carranchua Bay, Jackson County, Texas, August 24 — Some time ago you said in your paper that you would like to know where the Twin Sisters were and how they received their names.
Captain Allan went to Mexico with his company in, I think, the latter part of 1836, was a brave man and was made Colonel, and when he returned to New Orleans the ladies presented him with a sword and gave him a public dinner.
Among the theories include: On April 7, 1895, Andrew Jackson Houston gifted Santa Anna's dagger, a war trophy from the Battle of San Jacinto, to Cincinnatians.
Fearful of interception, quartermaster general Colonel Almanzon Huston ordered the Twin Sisters to Galveston Island via the schooner Pennsylvania.
Secretary of War David Thomas then ordered the steamboat Ohio under command of Captain Aaron Burns to retrieve them via the Buffalo Bayou for relocation to Harrisburg.
The Ohio arrived at New Washington on April 6 where the schooner Flash, under the command of Captain Luke Falval and supervision of Secretary of the Navy Robert Potter, were waiting with the Twin Sisters.
They are received by Lieutenant Colonel James C. Neill, who assigns a company of nine soldiers to each cannon: On April 20, the Twin Sisters are engaged in combat for the first time during a skirmish near San Jacinto.
On April 21 at 4:30p CST, the Twin Sisters, positioned in the center of the formation, initiated the Battle of San Jacinto with the first volley into Mexican forces.
