Site of the Battle of Fredonia
San Augustine, San Augustine County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Climax of first Anglo-American rebellion in East Texas. In 1826 colonizer Hayden Edwards defied expulsion orders of Mexico and founded Republic of Fredonia - raising flag of "Independence, Liberty and Justice." When Ayish Bayou settlers refused to join, he ordered their banishment. Fredonians, from log fort at this site, were ordered to take Ayish Bayou on Jan. 21, 1827. That day, however, without a shot, Stephen Prather's nine Anglos and sixty native Americans took the fort and 200 soldiers. At news of this, Edwards fled to the U.S., ending the Fredonia Rebellion. (1966)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1826, colonizer Hayden Edwards defied Mexican expulsion orders, declared the Republic of Fredonia, and raised a flag of "Independence, Liberty and Justice." When settlers along the Ayish Bayou refused to join him, he ordered them banished — and on January 21, 1827, a small force of Anglo settlers and sixty Native American allies seized the Fredonian fort here without firing a shot, capturing 200 men. News of the rout sent Edwards fleeing to the United States, collapsing the rebellion.
Why it matters
The short-lived Fredonia Rebellion was the first Anglo-American revolt in Texas, an early tremor of the tensions that would erupt in the Texas Revolution a decade later.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Hayden Edwards
- · Stephen Prather
Related events
- · Fredonia Rebellion
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sam Houston in San Augustine
San Augustine, TX
Sam Houston made San Augustine his own for three decades, opening a law practice on this site and using 'The Redlands' as a base for business, residence, and refuge. He is said to have recovered here from the Battle of San Jacinto and issued his battle report from the town; after his presidency of the Republic, its voters sent him to the Texas House. His divorce, his marriage to Margaret Lea, and much of his personal drama unfolded amid a community that championed him early.
San Augustine
San Augustine, TX
San Augustine stood as an eastern gate into Texas in country claimed by both France and Spain, where Spain chartered El Camino Real past this site in 1691 and founded nearby Mission Dolores de los Ais in 1717. Anglo families arrived in the 1790s and after, building a water mill by 1824 and a cotton gin by 1826, and in 1827 townsmen put down the Fredonian uprising at the Battle of Ayish Bayou. The town sent delegates to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence and fielded companies in the War for Independence, later producing governors, cabinet officers, and diplomats of the Republic and state.
Hillcrest
San Augustine, TX
Raised in 1872 and enlarged to twelve rooms in 1878, this house was built almost entirely from the land around it — hand-hewn timbers, locally cut heart-pine floors and ceilings, and brick fired at the old Ayish Bayou kiln. Its seven fireplaces are dressed with marble mantels imported from France, carried inland by boats up the Sabine River. The blend of local craft and worldly finish speaks to a prosperous Reconstruction-era East Texas.
Price-Sossaman-Slaughter Cemetery
San Augustine, TX
Only a single 1852 tombstone still marks this San Augustine family graveyard, that of James H.C. Price, son of prosperous planter and merchant Elijah Price. Like many early Texas families, the Prices buried their dead near the family home, and marriages into the Slaughter and Sossaman families brought their members to rest here as well. The cemetery preserves the memory of several of the community's founding households.