HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Captain John Campbell Hunt

Smithville, Bastrop County, Texas

Marker Inscription

A San Jacinto veteran, later a captain in the Army of Texas. Born in Alabama December 18, 1811, died September 17, 1840.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

John Campbell Hunt was born in Alabama in 1811 and came to Texas in time to fight at San Jacinto, the 1836 battle that won Texas its independence. He rose to captain in the Army of the young Republic of Texas before his death in 1840, at just 28. His grave marks one of the ordinary soldiers whose service turned a rebellion into a nation.

Why it matters

His life links a roadside Texas town to San Jacinto, the decisive fight that created the Republic of Texas and set the stage for the American Southwest.

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Related people

  • ยท John Campbell Hunt

Related events

  • ยท Battle of San Jacinto

Themes & tags

Military & WartimeWestward ExpansionFrontier HistoryMemorial

Nearby & related markers

Stephen Scallorn

Smithville, TX

Stephen Scallorn was one of the ordinary families whose migration built the Republic of Texas. A Maryland-born frontier physician who had preached and doctored across Kentucky and Tennessee, he followed his son's glowing accounts of Texas after San Jacinto and settled near Plum Creek in the late 1830s, helping plant one of the region's early Baptist congregations. His long life spanned the whole arc of the Republic and early statehood โ€” and cost him two sons, killed with Dawson's men in the border fighting of 1842.

Robert Love Reding

Bastrop, TX

Robert Love Reding, born in Tennessee in 1810, joined the Army of Texas and took part in the capture of Goliad on October 9, 1835, one of the opening actions of the Texas Revolution. He was also a signer of the Goliad Declaration of Independence, an early call for Texas separation from Mexico. He died in 1849, and this marker in Bastrop County honors his part in the fight for Texas independence.