Battle of the Knobs
Decatur, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On November 10, 1837, a company of eighteen Republic of Texas soldiers led by Lt. A. B. Benthuysen engaged in a battle with approximately 150 Indians near this site. Ten Texas soldiers were killed in the battle, and the Indian casualties were estimated at fifty. The Texans killed were Alexander Bostwick, Jesse Blair, James Christian, Joseph Cooper, J. Josslin, A. H. Miles, William Nicholson, Wesley Nicholson, William Sanders, and Lewis F. Sheuster. The geologic feature known as the Knobs serves as a memorial to the soldiers who were left on the battlefield.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On November 10, 1837, eighteen Republic of Texas soldiers under Lt. A. B. Benthuysen clashed near this site with roughly 150 Native American fighters. Ten of the Texans were killed—their names recorded on the marker—while Indian losses were estimated at fifty. The rugged geologic feature called the Knobs now stands as a natural memorial to the soldiers left on the field.
Why it matters
The battle marks the violent frontier warfare between the young Republic of Texas and the Indigenous peoples defending their lands, a struggle that shaped who would control North Texas.
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Related people
- · Lt. A. B. Benthuysen
Related events
- · Battle of the Knobs
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
John B. Denton
Denton, TX
Born in Tennessee in 1806, John B. Denton came to Texas in 1836 and worked as a Methodist circuit-riding preacher and pioneer lawyer. He was killed on May 24, 1841, in the Village Creek fight against Native people in what is now Tarrant County—an expedition led by Gen. Edward H. Tarrant, for whom that county is named. Both the city and county of Denton later took his name.
Randolph (Uncle Ran) Vesey
Decatur, TX
Born into slavery near Savannah, Georgia, in 1832, Randolph Vesey served as body servant to Confederate General William Lewis Cabell during the Civil War. In 1868, living on the Montague-Wise County line, he was captured by Indians and taken to Kansas, then ransomed by the Black frontier scout Brit Johnson with horses donated by Texas friends. A gifted violinist, Vesey played at local dances, married Missouri 'Zoe' Light, and raised two children.
Gose Trees
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These bois d'arc trees are a remnant of a spiny hedge planted in 1861 around the log cabin of Stephen M. Gose, a Missouri emigrant who came to Texas in 1859 and served as justice of the peace, blacksmith, and Methodist leader. The dense, thorny growth was meant as a living barrier against raids on the exposed frontier. The surviving trees stand as a quiet witness to the dangers of frontier homesteading.
Captain George Stevens
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George W. Stevens came to Wise County in 1855 and became a leader in defending the exposed Texas frontier, serving in a frontier cavalry company and as county sheriff during the turbulent 1860s. In 1874 he was named captain of Company B of the Texas Rangers' Frontier Battalion, leading some seventy-five men — mostly Wise County neighbors — in the last campaigns against Comanche and Kiowa raiders, and he was severely wounded in a fight at Buffalo Springs. He later helped chase the notorious Sam Bass gang before his death in 1893.