The Strangest Adoption in the History of the West

The little-known and bizarre border saga of Santa Anna’s gringo son.

- Ron Soodalter

No more unusual story has emerged from Texas’s long and bitter struggle for independence than that of John Christopher Columbus Hill. The account of a boy’s fortitude and defiance in the face of almost certain death is all the more remarkable for being absolutely true.

Barely 13 when he first took up his rifle to face Mexico’s Army, Hill went on to graduate with a doctorate from one of Mexico’s most prestigious colleges, as the adopted son of Texas’s most implacable foe—Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

The Christmas Day Mistake

Universally seen by Texians as the butcher of Goliad and the Alamo, Santa Anna, in 1842, made his bid to reclaim Texas for Mexico. The ink had dried on the treaty guaranteeing Texas independence six years earlier, yet, just a year after declaring himself dictator, Santa Anna set out to re-establish Mexican domain.

In response to the Mexican occupation of San Antonio and the seizure of Laredo, President of the Republic of Texas Sam Houston sent out a force of 700 volunteers, including two Texas Ranger companies. Joining the Rangers were Rutersville settler and San Jacinto veteran Asa Hill and two of his sons, Jeffrey and 13-year-old John. The Hill family had moved to Texas from Georgia in 1835, the year John turned seven.

Young and slight though he was, John had insisted on enlisting in the expedition. He carried the prized rifle that another sibling, James, had used to good effect at the Battle of San Jacinto while fighting alongside his father. “Brother John, this is not to be surrendered,” James had told him when he handed over the rifle.

As John rode away from the family cabin for what would prove the last time for many years, the teenager could not have predicted the extraordinary course his life would follow.