Robert D. McAnelly
Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Star and Wreath Born in Kentucky, 1806; came to Texas in 1835; joined the Texas Army on its way to San Antonio; one of the storming party who entered Bexar, December 5, 1835; died in Guadalupe County, Texas, 1888. Erected by the State of Texas, 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
McAnelly stands for the ordinary volunteers whose fight for Bexar helped set Texas on the road to independence and, eventually, statehood in the American Union.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the autumn of 1835, Texas was moving toward open revolt against Mexico's central government. American settlers had poured into the province during the previous decade, and tension over self-government, trade, and Mexico's turn toward centralized rule was boiling over. When fighting broke out that fall, volunteers quickly formed an army and marched on San Antonio de Béxar, the main Mexican stronghold in Texas.
For weeks the Texans besieged the town without a decisive result, and many grew restless or went home. Then, in early December, a group of volunteers decided to stop waiting and attack.
Robert D. McAnelly arrived in Texas in the middle of all this. He came in 1835, the very year the revolution began, and soon found himself in the army headed for San Antonio.
People & events
McAnelly was born in Kentucky in 1806, one of many young men from the American South and border states who came to Texas looking for land and opportunity. Not long after he arrived, he joined the Texas forces on their march to San Antonio.
On December 5, 1835, he was part of the storming party that entered Béxar. The attack is closely tied to Ben Milam, who rallied volunteers to go into the town. What followed was hard, close fighting from house to house through the town's stone and adobe buildings. Milam himself was killed during the fighting. Within days, the Mexican garrison under General Martín Perfecto de Cos surrendered, and Texas forces held San Antonio.
McAnelly survived the war and stayed in Texas for more than fifty years. He died in Guadalupe County in 1888. In 1962 the State of Texas honored him with this marker, which carries the star and wreath used on many of the state's memorials to veterans of the revolution.
Its place in the American story
The capture of Béxar was one of the Texas Revolution's first major victories. It drove Mexican forces out of San Antonio for a time and set the stage for what came next, including the siege of the Alamo early in 1836 and the decisive battle at San Jacinto that April.
Men like McAnelly were the backbone of that fight. They were not famous commanders. They were ordinary volunteers, many only recently arrived, who chose to stake their lives on the outcome. Their story is part of how Texas became an independent republic and, in 1845, a state in the American Union.
Because McAnelly lived until 1888, his life spans a remarkable stretch of history: Mexican Texas, the Republic, statehood, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. One person's lifetime held the whole making of modern Texas.
If you visit
Memorial markers like this one are quiet places, so take a moment to read the stone and notice the star and wreath that marks McAnelly as a veteran of the revolution. These state markers went up across Texas in the 1930s and 1960s to honor the men who fought for independence.
Seguin itself is part of the story. The town is named for Juan Seguín, a Tejano leader who fought on the Texan side during the revolution. That's a good reminder that the struggle for Texas was never only an Anglo story.
Seguin sits along the Guadalupe River between San Antonio and Austin, so it fits easily into a drive through the revolution's heartland. Continue on to San Antonio to see the ground where McAnelly fought, and look for the Alamo and the city's old Spanish missions.
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
- · Robert D. McAnelly
Related events
- · Storming of Bexar
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
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