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Early Republic

Captain Alfred H. Wyly

Hempsted, Waller County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Captain Alfred H. Wyly who commanded a volunteer company at the Battle of San Jacinto April 21, 1836. Died at Hempsted May 11, 1867.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Alfred H. Wyly led a volunteer company at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, the eighteen-minute rout that secured Texas independence from Mexico. Volunteer captains like Wyly raised and commanded the citizen-soldiers who made up Sam Houston's army, ordinary settlers who left their farms to fight. Wyly lived on in the young republic and state until his death at Hempstead in 1867.

Why it matters

San Jacinto was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution, and this marker preserves the memory of one of the volunteer officers who won it.

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Related people

  • ยท Alfred H. Wyly

Related events

  • ยท Battle of San Jacinto

Themes & tags

Military & WartimeMemorial

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In This Vicinity_Plantation of Charles Donoho

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In the tense weeks after the fall of the Alamo and Goliad, Sam Houston's Texas Army was in full retreat across the Brazos country during the so-called 'Runaway Scrape.' On April 14โ€“15, 1836, the army camped near here on Charles Donoho's plantation before marching toward Harrisburg โ€” the final maneuver that would end days later in the decisive victory at San Jacinto. This unassuming farmland briefly held the fate of an independent Texas.

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In the anxious weeks after the fall of the Alamo and the Goliad massacre in the spring of 1836, Sam Houston's outnumbered Texian army fell back east and made camp along the Brazos. Here Houston drilled his raw recruits, absorbed fresh reinforcements and supplies, and took delivery of the "Twin Sisters" cannon that would soon see action. From this staging ground he crossed the river and marched to the decisive victory at San Jacinto on April 21.

Francis Jarvis Cooke

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North Carolina-born Francis Jarvis Cooke fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, joining the volunteer army that won Texas its independence, and lived until 1903. He is remembered here alongside his Tennessee-born wife, Emily Stockton Cooke, whose long life stretched into 1908. Their joined memory ties a veteran of the republic's founding fight to the family that carried on after him.