Sion Record Bostick
San Saba, San Saba County, Texas
Marker Inscription
About 276 yards to the west is grave of Sion Record Bostick (December 7, 1819 - October 15, 1902) A member of the party of young Texans who captured the escaping Mexican General Santa Anna after Battle of San Jacinto, during the Texas War for Independence. Migrated from Alabama in 1828. Served in Texas army at Gonzales and Bexar (San Antonio), 1835; at San Jacinto, 1836; and 1840 stand against Comanches, at Plum Creek. An American soldier in Mexican War, 1846; a Confederate in Hood's Brigade in the Civil War, 1860s. Married Susan Townsend; after her death, Mary Indiana Rhodes. Had several children. Became a leader in veterans reunions. He is buried in San Saba Cemetery. Recorded 1973
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Sion Record Bostick lived the whole sweep of early Texas history. As a teenager he was among the party of young Texans who captured the fleeing General Santa Anna after the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. He went on to fight Comanches at Plum Creek, serve in the Mexican War, and enlist with Hood's Brigade during the Civil War before becoming a fixture at veterans' reunions.
Why it matters
Bostick's life embodies the frontier generation that won Texas independence and then carried its rifles through every American conflict of the mid-19th century.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Sion Record Bostick came to Texas from Alabama in 1828 as a boy. At the time, Texas was still part of Mexico, and Anglo-American settlers were arriving in growing numbers under Mexico's colonization policies. Over the next several years tensions over governance, trade, slavery and Mexican authority rose steadily. In 1835 they broke into open conflict.
The Texas Revolution began at Gonzales in the autumn of 1835 and continued through the siege of San Antonio de Bexar that winter. It ended at San Jacinto in April 1836, when Sam Houston's army routed Santa Anna's forces. The Republic of Texas that followed was a fragile, frontier nation, often in conflict with the Comanche and other Native peoples whose homelands it claimed.
Bostick's long life then ran through Texas annexation by the United States, the war with Mexico, the Civil War and the decades of remembrance that followed. Few individual lives touch so many chapters of nineteenth-century Texas.
People & events
Bostick was still a teenager when he took up arms. He served at Gonzales and at Bexar in 1835, and he was with the Texas army at San Jacinto in 1836. After the battle, the Mexican commander, General Antonio López de Santa Anna, slipped away from the field. Bostick belonged to the party of young Texans who found and captured him. By widely told accounts, the general was disguised in plain clothes and was not immediately recognized. His capture let the Texans force an end to the war on their terms.
The fighting did not stop there for Bostick. In 1840 he took part in the stand at Plum Creek, where Texans met a large Comanche force returning from a major raid toward the coast. In 1846 he served as an American soldier in the war with Mexico. During the Civil War he fought as a Confederate in Hood's Brigade, the Texas unit known for its hard service in the Eastern theater.
After the wars came family and memory. Bostick married Susan Townsend and, after her death, Mary Indiana Rhodes, and he raised several children. In later life he became a leader in veterans' reunions, one of a shrinking circle of men who could say they had been there at San Jacinto. He died in 1902 and lies in San Saba Cemetery.
Its place in the American story
Bostick's life reads almost like a timeline of how Texas, and then the United States, took shape in the nineteenth century. Texas independence led to annexation, annexation helped set off the war with Mexico, and that war's vast territorial gains sharpened the sectional conflict over slavery that ended in civil war. Bostick was present in uniform at nearly every step.
His story also shows the violence of westward expansion from more than one side. Battles like Plum Creek were part of a long, bitter struggle between Texan settlers and the Comanche over land and power on the southern plains. Honest remembrance of men like Bostick includes that wider and more painful context.
In his later years, veterans' reunions helped shape how Texans remembered their revolution, and the stories Bostick and others told became part of the state's founding lore. The capture of Santa Anna, in particular, has remained one of the most retold moments in Texas history.
If you visit
The marker tells you the grave lies a short distance to the west, in San Saba Cemetery. If you walk over to find it, remember that this is an active burying ground. Move quietly, stay on paths where they exist and leave graves and markers undisturbed.
Standing at the grave of a man who helped capture Santa Anna is a remarkable way to feel the closeness of Texas history. A single lifetime connects the Revolution to the edge of the twentieth century. San Saba itself is a pleasant Hill Country town set among pecan orchards and river bottoms.
For a Texas Revolution road trip, you might pair this stop with Gonzales, San Antonio or the San Jacinto battleground near Houston. Seeing where Bostick's story began and where it ended gives the whole arc of his life some real shape.
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
- · Sion Record Bostick
- · General Santa Anna
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
- · Battle of Plum Creek
Themes & tags
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