The Story of the Yellow

Rose of Texas

 

 
 

Texas history is deep in legend. It is the mixture of fact and fantasy that seems to give the stories character. Nowhere is this more evident than in the story behind the "Yellow Rose of Texas".

Emily Morgan was a mulatto slave girl that belonged to a landowner in Texas at the time of the Texas Revolution. As Santa Anna led his soldiers across Texas to finish crushing the revolt that had led to his victorious battles at Goliad and the Alamo, he saw Emily and claimed her as his own. As a conquering general, this was his right as he saw it. She was a very beautiful girl, and General Santa Anna was so taken with her beauty that he ordered his army to stop and camp on a site near the banks of the San Jacinto River, to have his way with her. This was a very unsound strategic decision as it so happened, but the man was absolutely smitten, and over confident.

As his army lazed about and Santa Anna slept in his tent with the beautiful Emily Morgan in his arms, the Texas army staged a furious assault on the unsuspecting enemy. The resulting battle was a military miracle, which ultimately marked the end of Santa Anna's rule in Texas, and effectively created the sovereign "Republic of Texas". Since that glorious day at San Jacinto when she distracted Santa Anna, Emily Morgan has been immortalized in song as "The Yellow Rose of Texas, the sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew."
 


 

More trivia?? There are two versions of the song and the last verse refers to the short story below...


 

The words to the song of

"The Yellow Rose of Texas"

There's a yellow rose in Texas that I am going to see. No other soldier knows her -- no soldier, only me. She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart, And if I ever find her, we never more shall part.
 

CHORUS:She's the sweetest rose of color this soldier ever knew. Her eyes are bright as diamonds, they sparkle like the dew. You may talk about your dearest May and sing of Rosa Lee, But the Yellow Rose of Texas beats the belles of Tennessee.
 

Where the Rio Grande is flowing and the starry skies are bright, She walks along the river in the quiet summer night. She thinks, if I remember, when we parted long ago, I promised to come back again and not to leave her so.
CHORUS
 

Oh, now I'm going to find her, for my heart is full of woe, And we'll sing the song together that we sang so long ago. We'll play the banjo gaily, and we'll sing the songs of yore, And the Yellow Rose of Texas shall be mine forever more.
CHORUS
 

This is the verse that was added
 

The "Uncle Joe" referred to in the last verse is Confederate General Jospeh E. Johnston, who was relieved of his command by General Hood during the Atlanta campaign in 1864.
 

Oh, now I'm headed southward, for my heart is full of woe. I'm going back to Georgia to find my Uncle Joe. You may talk about your Beauregard and sing of Bobby Lee, But the gallant Hood of Texas, he played hell in Tennessee!
CHORUS
 

During the Mexican War, this song was extremely popular with General John Bell Hood's Texas troops, who substituted the word "soldier" for the original "darkey" and added the final verse as a commentary on their General's disastrous tenure as the commander of the Army of Tennessee.

 

Ft Hood Texas was Named after General Hood.