Site of Bivouac and Banquet for The New Orleans' Greys

🏛️The era

In the fall of 1835, Texas was at war. Anglo-American settlers and Tejano allies had taken up arms against the Mexican central government, and in the early months of the Texas Revolution the Texians were besieging San Antonio de Béxar, where Mexican troops were garrisoned. The Texian cause needed men, weapons and supplies, and it looked to the United States for help.

New Orleans was one of the most important cities on the Gulf Coast and had strong commercial ties to Texas. Sympathy for the Texas cause ran high there, and volunteers organized to join the fight. Those who came became known as the New Orleans Greys, a name taken from the gray clothing they wore.

Nacogdoches, in East Texas, was one of the oldest and most important towns in the region. It sat along the old road connecting Louisiana and San Antonio, so volunteers coming overland from the United States often passed through it on their way to the fighting.

👥People & events

Adolphus Sterne was a leading citizen of Nacogdoches, and the marker credits him with leading local efforts to help equip the New Orleans Greys. Supporting a volunteer force took money, gear and organization, and Sterne and his neighbors provided what they could toward a cause they strongly believed in.

In November 1835, one company of Greys made the long overland journey to San Antonio and passed through Nacogdoches. The marker puts their number at between 50 and 100 men. They camped for a few days here near Sterne's home to rest before going on.

The town gave them a warm frontier welcome. There was a banquet featuring bear, raccoon and other meats, which gives you a sense of what the East Texas woods could provide. Speeches and toasts praised the young volunteers who had come so far to fight for Texas. It must have been an exciting, hopeful few days.

The Greys marched on and reached San Antonio before the Siege of Béxar ended in fighting from December 5 to 9, 1835, when Texian forces took the town. The marker closes on a hard fact: most of these volunteers died in later battles of the revolution. The men feasted and toasted here in November mostly did not survive the war.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

The New Orleans Greys show that the Texas Revolution involved more than people already living in Texas. Volunteers came from across the United States, and their participation tied the struggle in Texas to American sentiment and to the westward-looking spirit of the time. Many who died in the revolution had arrived only weeks or months earlier.

The Greys' fate is part of the most solemn chapter of the war. The revolution's later battles in early 1836 were brutal, and the loss of so many of these volunteers made their sacrifice part of how Texans, and Americans generally, remembered the fight for independence.

The story also shows how community support kept the revolution going. Wars are fought by soldiers, but they also depend on townspeople who raise money, gather supplies, and give travelers a meal and a place to rest. The banquet in Nacogdoches is a small but vivid example of that civilian role.

🧭If you visit

Nacogdoches is proud of its long history, and this marker fits well into a walking tour of the town's historic sites. As you stand here, picture a camp of young men in gray resting near Sterne's home, the smoke of a feast rising, and townspeople gathered to cheer them on.

The Sterne family name is still well known in Nacogdoches, so look for other places connected to Adolphus Sterne while you're in town. Walking through the old streets helps you understand why this was a natural stopping point for anyone traveling west through East Texas.

This stop has a bittersweet feel, and it's worth talking about as a family. The celebration here was real and joyful, but most of these men never came home. For a longer road trip, you can follow the Greys' route west toward San Antonio, where their story continued at Béxar and in the battles that followed.