Ellis Benson
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Ellis Benson (1813-1896), a veteran of the Texas revolution and participant in the battle of San Jacinto, was born in Vermont. Before immigrating to Texas, he fought in the Black Hawk War (1832) in Illinois. By 1835, Benson was in New Orleans, where Captain Amasa Turner recruited his services for the Texas Army. Arriving in Texas in January 1836, Benson served under Capt. Turner in Company B, First Regiment of regular infantry. The unit received orders to march to San Antonio, but after the fall of the Alamo, was reassigned to join the main army under General Sam Houston at Beason’s Ferry (near present day Columbus) on the Colorado River. The army marched towards Harrisburg and fought in the battle of San Jacinto, the final military event of the revolution. During the fight, Benson handled one of the "Twin Sisters," cannons donated by the city of Cincinnati which were vital in securing victory in the battle. Following the war, Benson continued to serve in the military. Under Capt. Reuben Ross, he aided in patrolling south Texas during Mexico’s struggles with civil war and was wounded during the Battle of Alcantra in 1839. Afterwards, Benson settled in Houston and worked as a carpenter. In 1848, he married Elizabeth Ritchie (1819-1894), a native of Germany; the couple had one daughter. Benson was elected as county constable in 1858 and was twice elected as county coroner. He also served two years in Company K, 20th Texas Infantry, Confederate States Army, during the civil war, working on railroad equipment. Today he is remembered as a patriot and leader, contributing and serving during times of war and peace. (2008)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Vermont-born Ellis Benson fought in the Black Hawk War before Captain Amasa Turner recruited him in New Orleans for the Texas Army in 1835. Arriving in early 1836, he marched with Sam Houston's army and helped work one of the 'Twin Sisters' cannons that proved decisive at the Battle of San Jacinto. He kept soldiering afterward — wounded on the south Texas frontier in 1839 — before settling in Houston as a carpenter and local officeholder.
Why it matters
His life traces a citizen-soldier's path across three conflicts and embodies the ordinary volunteers who won Texas independence at San Jacinto.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1830s, the vast territory that would become Texas was the raw northern frontier of Mexico, and it was filling fast with restless newcomers — many of them, like Ellis Benson, born far away in the older states of the Union. Benson came into the world in Vermont in 1813, a child of the young American republic, and by the time he reached adulthood the country's energy was pushing relentlessly westward.
That westward push ran straight through conflict. The frontier of the 1830s was a place where the lines between soldier, settler, and adventurer blurred. A young man could fight in one war on the northern prairies and, a few years later, find himself shouldering a musket in another struggle a thousand miles south.
When the Texas Revolution broke out, the settlers' rebellion against the Mexican government drew volunteers from across the United States. New Orleans, the great port at the mouth of the Mississippi, became a gathering point where recruiters signed up men willing to march west and fight for a cause that was not, by birth, their own. It was into this current that Benson stepped.
People & events
Benson's story is one of a life measured out in wars. Before he ever saw Texas, he had already served in the Black Hawk War of 1832 in Illinois — the brief, tragic frontier conflict that swept up thousands of young volunteers. By 1835 he had drifted to New Orleans, and there Captain Amasa Turner recruited him for the Texas Army.
He arrived in January 1836 and joined Company B of the First Regiment of regular infantry under Turner. His unit was first ordered toward San Antonio, but after the fall of the Alamo it was redirected to join the main army gathering under General Sam Houston on the Colorado River. From there the army marched toward Harrisburg and the decisive fight to come.
At the Battle of San Jacinto, Benson served one of the "Twin Sisters," the pair of cannons that the city of Cincinnati had donated to the Texan cause. Those guns were among the few pieces of artillery the rebels had, and they proved vital in the swift, stunning victory. Benson kept soldiering long after — riding with Captain Reuben Ross to patrol south Texas during Mexico's civil unrest, taking a wound at the Battle of Alcantra in 1839. In peacetime he settled in Houston as a carpenter, married Elizabeth Ritchie in 1848, and won election as county constable and, twice, as coroner, even serving again during the Civil War.
Its place in the American story
Ellis Benson's life is a thread that ties the frontier of the American Midwest to the birth of Texas and, eventually, to the story of the United States itself. The volunteers who fought at San Jacinto were, overwhelmingly, ordinary men — carpenters, farmers, and drifters — rather than professional soldiers, and Benson was exactly that kind of man.
The victory he helped win was one of the most consequential in North American history. It secured Texas independence, set in motion the events that would bring Texas into the Union, and reshaped the map of the continent. The everyday people who manned the guns and marched the muddy roads made that outcome possible.
Benson's later decades — his elections to local office, his work as a tradesman — show the other half of the frontier story: the soldiers who won a country then stayed to build its communities. His life bridges the age of revolution and the settled civic life that followed.
If you visit
This is a memorial marker in Houston, so come expecting reflection rather than a grand monument. Stand a moment and consider the sheer distance a single life could cover in the nineteenth century — from a boyhood in Vermont to a battlefield on the Texas coastal plain.
Let the marker do what it does best: put a name and a face to the abstraction of "the men who won independence." Benson was one soldier among Houston's army, and knowing that one of the cannon crews had a Vermont carpenter in it makes the whole event feel human-sized.
If you're building a Texas history road trip, this makes a natural pairing with the San Jacinto Battleground itself, southeast of the city, where the fight Benson survived actually took place. Reading his marker first, then walking that broader field, connects the individual to the event in a way neither does alone.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Ellis Benson
- · Amasa Turner
- · Sam Houston
- · Elizabeth Ritchie
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
- · Texas Revolution
- · Black Hawk War
Themes & tags
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