Mexican Tricolor Guidon, ca. 1836

A guidon is a small banner or streamer carried during battle as a guide for marking troop placement, identification, and signaling. Made of silk and linen, this swallow-tail guidon’s design is based on the second Mexican flag adopted in 1824. The well-equipped Mexican Army was 15 years old when the Texans revolted, and although differing in size and shape, all its troop flags paid homage to the Mexican national flag with green, white, and red strips, and eagle. Recruited quickly and from many cities and states, the Texas regimental flags were different from each other.  The Texian army did not fight under a cohesive symbol.

This guidon was carried into battle by men of the Permanente Tampico and Guanajuato Territorial regiments. The Tampico regiment guarded Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Upon the Mexican Army’s defeat at San Jacinto, the flag was taken from outside Santa Anna’s tent by a member of General Sam Houston’s staff, Percy Henry Brewster. Brewster was a Texas Army volunteer from South Carolina. After working for Houston, he found continued success as a prominent Texas statesman, Confederate Colonel, and San Antonio attorney.