George Washington Lonis
Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Star and Wreath Came to Texas in 1830; participated in the Texans' campaign against Bexar, 1835; wounded in the Battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836; died in Guadalupe County, 1860. Erected by the State of Texas, 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
George Washington Lonis came to Texas in 1830 and joined the Texans' 1835 campaign against Bexar during the opening months of the revolution. The following spring he was wounded at the Battle of San Jacinto, the victory that secured Texas independence. He lived on in Guadalupe County until his death in 1860, and the State of Texas honored his service with this marker in 1962.
Why it matters
Lonis represents the volunteer soldiers whose sacrifices in the campaigns of 1835–36 turned a rebellion into an independent Texas.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
George Washington Lonis arrived in Texas in 1830, when it was still part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Thousands of Anglo-American settlers had come in during the 1820s, drawn by cheap land and generous colonization policies. By 1830 that welcome was cooling. A Mexican law passed that year tried to restrict further immigration from the United States, and tension between settlers and the central government kept rising.
Over the next five years, disputes over customs duties, troops, slavery, and the turn of Mexico's national government toward centralized rule led to open conflict. In the fall of 1835 the first shots were fired, and volunteers from across Texas picked up their rifles. Many were ordinary farmers and newcomers like Lonis, not professional soldiers.
The struggle that followed was short and decisive. Within about six months it went from skirmishes to an independent republic, and men like Lonis were there for its key moments.
People & events
In late 1835, Lonis joined the Texan army moving on San Antonio de Béxar, the most important Mexican stronghold in Texas. The campaign dragged through weeks of siege as the volunteers grew cold, restless, and short of supplies. In December, part of the force stormed into town and fought house to house until the Mexican garrison surrendered. It was the Texans' first major victory of the revolution.
The following spring brought disaster and then triumph. After the fall of the Alamo and the killings at Goliad, Sam Houston's army retreated east with Santa Anna's forces following. On April 21, 1836, at San Jacinto, the Texans attacked a surprised Mexican camp. The fighting was over in minutes, and the victory secured Texas independence.
Lonis was among the relatively few Texans wounded that day. He survived and lived for more than two decades in the new country he had helped create, eventually settling in Guadalupe County, where he died in 1860. In 1962 the State of Texas placed this marker, part of a long-running effort to honor veterans of the revolution.
Its place in the American story
The Texas Revolution reshaped the map of North America. The Republic of Texas lasted almost a decade before joining the United States in 1845, and annexation helped spark the U.S.-Mexican War. That war ended with Mexico ceding a huge territory that became much of the American Southwest. The road from San Jacinto ran on to California.
Lonis's life also reflects a national pattern. In the early 1800s many Americans moved westward, often across international borders, in search of land and opportunity. Their arrival in Mexican Texas, and the conflicts that followed, were part of a wider story of expansion that has been admired, criticized, and debated ever since.
Markers like this one also keep alive the memory of the rank and file. Famous names dominate the story of 1836, but the revolution was fought by men whose names now survive mainly in muster rolls and markers like this.
If you visit
This marker in Seguin is a quiet, personal memorial, one person's life summarized in a few lines of metal. Take a moment with the dates: an arrival, two campaigns, a wound, and a death a quarter century later. They outline a life lived through Texas's most dramatic years.
Seguin itself is a good place to think about the revolution. The town is named for Juan Seguín, a Tejano who fought for Texas independence, a reminder that the struggle was never only an Anglo story. The Guadalupe River and the town's historic streets make for a pleasant stop.
If you are tracing the revolution, Seguin sits between San Antonio, where the siege of Béxar and the Alamo took place, and the routes east toward San Jacinto. Visiting both ends of that journey gives you a vivid sense of the ground soldiers like Lonis covered.
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
- · George Washington Lonis
Related events
- · Siege of Bexar
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Robert D. McAnelly
Seguin, TX
Born in Kentucky in 1806, Robert D. McAnelly came to Texas in 1835 and joined the army marching on San Antonio. He was among the storming party that entered Bexar on December 5, 1835, one of the opening blows of the Texas Revolution against Mexican rule. He lived out his days in Guadalupe County, dying there in 1888, and the State of Texas raised this marker to him in 1962.
Andrew Jackson Sowell
Seguin, TX
Andrew Jackson Sowell came to Texas as a teenager and joined the fight for its independence. As one of the couriers sent out from the Alamo, he slipped away before the fortress fell in March 1836, carrying pleas for the reinforcements and supplies that never came in time. He lived on for decades afterward, and the State of Texas placed this Star-and-Wreath marker at his grave in 1956.
John N. Sowell
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John N. Sowell came to Texas around 1829 and served in the Army of Texas in 1836, the year of the revolution that won the region its independence. He belonged to a fighting family: his brother was the noted frontiersman Andrew Jackson Sowell, and their father took part in the Battle of Gonzales, the opening clash of the Texas Revolution.
Elijah Valentine Dale
Seguin, TX
This marker honors Elijah Valentine Dale, a veteran of the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto—the decisive fight in which Texian forces under Sam Houston secured independence from Mexico in a stunning eighteen-minute rout. Born in Georgia in 1807, Dale was among the settlers who tied their fortunes to the young Republic of Texas, and he lived on into the 1890s in Seguin alongside his Ohio-born wife, Jane. Their shared gravestone quietly binds a family's story to the founding of a nation-state.