Colonel Nathaniel Benton
Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Col. Nathaniel Benton, born in Tennessee 1814, came to Texas in 1835, served in the army, 1836, Texas Ranger, 1858, Confederate Officer, 1861, died in 1872. His wife, Jane Harris Benton, born in 1836, died in 1862. 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Nathaniel Benton came from Tennessee to Texas in 1835 and threw himself into the frontier's every fight: the Texas army in 1836, the Texas Rangers in 1858, and a Confederate command in 1861. His life traced the arc of Anglo Texas from revolution through the Civil War. He died in Seguin in 1872, a decade after his wife Jane.
Why it matters
Benton's career embodies a generation of Texans whose service ran from independence to the Confederacy, binding the young republic's frontier struggles to the sectional war that followed.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Nathaniel Benton
- · Jane Harris Benton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
La Vernia
La Vernia, TX
Founded about 1846–47 by Claiborne Rector, who built a stage stop and blacksmith shop to serve travelers on the Chihuahua Road, this Wilson County settlement grew up along one of early Texas's major trails—still traced by Main Street today. First called 'Post Oak,' it was renamed for the green oaks of the area when mail service began in 1856. Settled largely by Southerners seeking fertile land, it became a Civil War recruiting and officer-training center.
William B. Fleming
Belmont, TX
Born in Georgia in 1830, William B. Fleming came to Texas before 1850 and rode with the Texas Rangers' mounted volunteers before serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Settling afterward in Gonzales County, he built a black-walnut log cabin along the Guadalupe River and turned to horse breeding. His stallion "Old Billy" founded the celebrated line of "Billy" quarter horses prized by cowboys, rodeo riders, and racers.
Guadalupe County, C.S.A.
Seguin, TX
This marker recounts Guadalupe County's Confederate years, opening with the tense February 1861 standoff at the U.S. Arsenal in San Antonio, where local volunteers under Ben McCulloch forced the surrender without a shot. The county voted overwhelmingly for secession, its newspapers renamed to declare their loyalties, and its men trained at nearby Camp Clark, with Company D of the 4th Texas Infantry fighting through the war in Hood's Texas Brigade. The reverse honors the Tennessee-born McCulloch brothers, Ben killed at Pea Ridge and Henry defending the Texas frontier as a Confederate general.
Juan Seguin
Seguin, TX
Nearly a century after Tejano hero Juan Seguín died in exile, the people of Seguin brought his remains home in 1974, and on July 4, 1976, the city reinterred him in a hillside plot overlooking the Guadalupe River Valley he knew well. His grave, near an old road and river ford he would have recognized, lies beneath a marble slab within the city park system.