HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Captain Andrew Caddell

Belton, Bell County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Fought at San Jacinto as a private. Later commanded a company of volunteers. Born in North Carolina October 12, 1795 died October 15, 1869. His wife Rhoda Doty Caddell. Born January 27, 1801. Died March 18, 1880.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Andrew Caddell was a North Carolina-born soldier who marched with the Texian army in the 1836 revolution, standing in the ranks as a private at the Battle of San Jacinto that won Texas its independence. He later rose to command a company of volunteers, part of the generation of frontier settlers who fought for and then built the young Republic of Texas. He and his wife Rhoda made their lives in the Bell County country, where this marker records their years.

Why it matters

The ordinary privates at San Jacinto, not just the generals, decided the fate of a continent's borders, and markers like this keep the memory of Texas's founding fighters rooted in the towns they helped settle.

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Related people

  • ยท Andrew Caddell
  • ยท Rhoda Doty Caddell

Related events

  • ยท Battle of San Jacinto

Themes & tags

Military & WartimeWestward ExpansionFrontier HistoryMemorial

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Fort Griffin

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Settlement along the Lampasas River began in 1847, and Bell County was created in 1850, taking its name from Peter Hansbrough Bellโ€”a San Jacinto veteran, Mexican War officer, and governor of Texas. The county seat soon moved from Nolanville to Belton, and by 1860 nearly 4,800 people lived there. When the Civil War came, the county sent a dozen troop companies and supplied its cause with flour mills, a hat factory, tanneries, and workshops.

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In November 1836, some twenty Rangers under Lt. George B. Erath built this Republic of Texas outpost, raising seven or eight cabins, a blockhouse, and a picket stockade around a half-acre near a spring. Rations were spare โ€” an ear of corn a day, plus game, honey, and a little coffee. The Rangers withdrew by mid-1837, and settlers and hunters later used the site before its remains were cleared in the 1840s.