The Texans' defeat at the Alamo had embittered their bloody rebellion with the gall of revenge. But Major General Sam Houston was determined to meet Santa Anna's superior forces on his own terms. While the Mexican Army—fifteen hundred strong—camped on the banks of the San Jacinto, it fell to three men of the Texas Light Cavalry to even the odds. At their lead was the "Ole Devil" himself, Jackson Baines Hardin. If anybody could pull off a behind-the-lines mission—an impossible victory in their struggle for freedom—he could. Even if it meant dying to do it.