Sidney Sherman
Stratford, Sherman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Marlboro, Mass., to Micah and Susanna Dennison (Frost) Sherman, Sidney Sherman (1805-1873) lived in Boston, New York City, and Cincinnati before settling in Newport, KY. There he married Catherine Isabel Cox (1815-1865) in 1835; the couple had eight children. After a Cincinnati meeting in Nov. 1835 supporting the Texas Revolution, Sherman sold his business interests and recruited and equipped 52 men, known as the Kentucky Rifles (or Newport Rifles). They sailed on the steamship Augusta, carrying from Newport a flag depicting Lady Liberty with a sword and a ribbon reading “Liberty or Death.” The troops joined the Texian army at Gonzales on March 6, 1836, and fought in the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, where Col. Sherman commanded the Second Regiment, leading the left wing and opening the attack which led to victory over the Mexican army. He was often credited with the rallying cry “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!” Sherman returned to Kentucky to recruit more soldiers and to bring his family to Texas. They lived near San Jacinto Bay and later at Harrisburg, Richmond and Galveston. He was elected as Harris County’s Representative to the Seventh Congress of the Republic of Texas and served as major general of the militia in the 1840s. He was also an entrepreneur, operating a sawmill and a hotel and organizing the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway Co., first railroad in the state, in the 1850s. Sherman died in Galveston and is buried there at Lakeview Cemetery. The Texas Legislature designated the city of Sherman, seat of Grayson County (1846), and Sherman County in the panhandle (1876) to be named for this prominent Texan. The state of Texas also erected a statue in Galveston for the 1936 Texas Centennial. The “Liberty or Death” flag flown at San Jacinto is now in Austin, displayed at the Capitol building of the state which Sherman helped to create and develop.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Sidney Sherman was a Cincinnati businessman who threw himself into the Texas Revolution, selling off his interests to recruit and equip 52 Kentucky volunteers who sailed for Texas under a homemade "Liberty or Death" flag. He commanded the Second Regiment at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, opening the attack that broke the Mexican army, and was long credited with the cry "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" He went on to serve the Republic of Texas as a legislator and militia general and helped launch the state's first railroad.
Why it matters
Sherman embodies the volunteers from across the young United States who poured into Texas to win its independence, and his name endures on two Texas counties and a city.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
This memorial reaches back to the dramatic birth of the Republic of Texas in the mid-1830s, a moment when a corner of Mexico's northern frontier erupted into revolution and a new nation was made in a matter of months. It was an era that pulled in restless, ambitious people from across the United States — men who saw in Texas a cause, an opportunity, or both. Sidney Sherman was one of them.
He came from the older, settled America. Born in Marlboro, Massachusetts, in 1805, he lived in Boston, New York City, and Cincinnati before settling in Newport, Kentucky, where he married Catherine Isabel Cox in 1835 and eventually raised eight children. He was, by the time Texas called, an established businessman with everything to lose.
The revolution changed that. After a meeting in Cincinnati in November 1835 held to support the Texan cause, Sherman did something few men were willing to do: he sold his business interests and threw his own fortune into a fight in a land he had never seen. That decision places him squarely among the wave of American volunteers whose personal gambles helped decide the fate of Texas.
People & events
Sherman did not simply enlist — he raised a company. He recruited and equipped fifty-two men, the Kentucky Rifles, and they sailed on the steamship Augusta carrying a flag they made themselves: Lady Liberty holding a sword, with a ribbon reading "Liberty or Death." It is one of the most stirring images of the whole revolution, a homemade banner carried by volunteers into someone else's war that they had chosen to make their own.
The troops joined the Texian army at Gonzales on March 6, 1836. Weeks later, at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, Sherman commanded the Second Regiment, led the left wing, and opened the attack that broke the Mexican army in a stunning, lopsided victory. He is often credited with the rallying cry "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" — though, as with many famous battle cries, history is not certain the words were his, and it is fairest to say the credit has long been attached to his name.
His life after the battle was that of a builder of the new republic. He returned to Kentucky to recruit more soldiers and to bring his family to Texas, and they lived near San Jacinto Bay and later at Harrisburg, Richmond, and Galveston. He was elected to represent Harris County in the Seventh Congress of the Republic, served as a major general of the militia in the 1840s, and turned entrepreneur — running a sawmill and a hotel and, in the 1850s, organizing the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway Company, the first railroad in the state.
Its place in the American story
Sherman's story is a window onto a larger truth about the Texas Revolution: it was won in no small part by outsiders. Volunteers poured in from across the young United States, bringing their own money, weapons, and lives to a cause that was not, strictly speaking, theirs. Sherman — a Massachusetts-born, Kentucky-based businessman — embodies that current of American idealism, ambition, and restlessness that spilled across the borders of the 1830s.
San Jacinto itself was one of the most consequential short battles in North American history. In less than a day, it secured Texan independence and set in motion events that would eventually reshape the map of the continent. To have commanded a regiment and opened that attack is to have had a hand in a genuinely pivotal moment.
The honors that followed measure how the state remembered him. The Legislature named both the city of Sherman, seat of Grayson County in 1846, and Sherman County in the Panhandle in 1876 for him. Texas erected a statue in his honor in Galveston for the 1936 Centennial. And the "Liberty or Death" flag his volunteers carried now hangs in the Capitol in Austin — a relic of the republic he helped create, displayed in the seat of the state it became.
If you visit
You will find this memorial not near the battlefield where Sherman made his name, but in Stratford, high in the Texas Panhandle, in the county that carries his name. That distance is itself worth sitting with. A man who fought his war along the coastal bayous of southeast Texas is honored here on the far northern plains, because the state chose to write his name onto the map in a place he likely never set foot.
So let the visit be about legacy rather than location. Standing in the county seat of Sherman County, you are standing inside one of the honors the marker describes — a whole county named for a volunteer who bet everything on Texas independence. It is a reminder that the names on our maps are not neutral; each one is an argument about who mattered.
For travelers drawn to the Texas Revolution, this memorial is a chance to meet one of its leading figures far from the usual shrines. Read it slowly, follow the thread from a Cincinnati meeting hall to a homemade flag to the floor of the republic's Congress, and then look up at the plains around you and consider how far a single decision, made in 1835, was carried across both time and geography.
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
- · Sidney Sherman
- · Catherine Isabel Cox
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
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