The Lynchburg Volunteers
Baytown, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the 1820s, most area residents were loyal citizens of Mexico until Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna Abrogated the constitution of 1824. As hostilities between Mexico City and newly-arrived Texian settlers escalated, many in east and southeast Texas began to support the idea of a Texas that was separate from the Mexican Republic. After the conflicts at Anahuac in 1832 and again in 1835, many Texian groups formed military companies for what they viewed as defense of their rights. As Texians began to mobilize, Lynchburg resident and farmer William Scott (1784-1837) offered to arm and equip anyone who would fight for the cause of Texas independence. On September 15, 1835, the Lynchburg Volunteers were organized, with William Scott elected as Captain, Peter J. Duncan (1799-1870) as first lieutenant and James S. McGahey (1805-1885) as Second Lieutenant. Around 30 men joined the company at Scott’s home, which served as headquarters where they trained at Scott’s point pleasant plantation. The company reported for service at San Felipe a few weeks later and was then sent to join Colonel James Fannin’s men at Béxar. As part of the newly-formed Texian Army of the people, they took part in the Grass Fight and the Battle of Concepción and were present throughout the siege and battles around Béxar in October through December 1835. Some of these men continued Texas’ fight for independence at the Battle of San Jacinto and afterwards remained in the area as patriot citizens, continuing their endeavors in farming, medicine, law, politics, education and more. The Lynchburg Volunteers are remembered as brave and dedicated individuals and among the First Volunteer Responders to the call for Texan Independence. (2017)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As Texian settlers broke with Mexico after Santa Anna scrapped the Constitution of 1824, Lynchburg farmer William Scott offered to arm anyone willing to fight for Texas independence. On September 15, 1835, the Lynchburg Volunteers organized at his Point Pleasant plantation and marched to join the Army of the People, taking part in the Grass Fight, the Battle of Concepción, and the siege of Béxar, with some men going on to San Jacinto.
Why it matters
These roughly thirty neighbors were among the first volunteers to answer the call for Texas independence, embodying the citizen-soldier response that launched the Texas Revolution.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1820s, the people living along the San Jacinto and Buffalo Bayou were, for the most part, loyal citizens of Mexico. Anglo-American settlers had been welcomed into the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas under generous terms, and for a decade most were content to build farms and communities under Mexican law. Loyalty, not rebellion, was the default.
That changed as the government in Mexico City changed. When President Antonio López de Santa Anna set aside the Constitution of 1824 — the federalist charter under which many colonists had come — the ground shifted beneath them. Across east and southeast Texas, settlers who had thought of themselves as Mexican citizens began to imagine a Texas separate from the Republic, and to see armed organization as the defense of rights they believed were being stripped away.
The drift toward war was not sudden but cumulative. Clashes at Anahuac in 1832 and again in 1835 hardened attitudes and convinced many Texians that words had run out. As settlers began to mobilize, ordinary farmers and townsmen started forming their own military companies — citizen-soldiers preparing for a fight they now believed was coming.
People & events
The catalyst here was a farmer's generosity. William Scott (1784–1837), a Lynchburg resident, offered to arm and equip anyone who would fight for the cause of Texas independence — an extraordinary private commitment at a moment when there was as yet no army to join. On September 15, 1835, that offer became a company: the Lynchburg Volunteers organized, with Scott elected Captain, Peter J. Duncan (1799–1870) as first lieutenant, and James S. McGahey (1805–1885) as second lieutenant.
Around thirty men gathered at Scott's home to enlist, and his Point Pleasant plantation became their headquarters and training ground. They did not linger. Reporting for service at San Felipe a few weeks later, they were sent on to join Colonel James Fannin's men at Béxar, folding into the newly formed Texian Army of the People — a volunteer force assembled out of exactly these kinds of local companies.
Their war was the opening campaign of the Revolution. They took part in the Grass Fight and the Battle of Concepción and were present through the long siege and the fighting around Béxar from October into December of 1835 — the campaign that drove the Mexican garrison out of San Antonio by year's end. Some of these same men carried the fight forward to the Battle of San Jacinto, and afterward stayed on as citizens of the country they had helped create, returning to lives in farming, medicine, law, politics, and education.
Its place in the American story
The Lynchburg Volunteers embody the idea at the very root of the Texas Revolution — and of the broader American revolutionary tradition — that free men would arm themselves and answer a call without waiting for a state to command them. They are remembered as among the first volunteer responders to the cause, and that phrase captures something essential: the revolution began not with a standing army but with neighbors organizing around a farmer's kitchen and a shared conviction.
Their path also shows how a rebellion assembles itself. Independent local companies like this one converged into the Army of the People, an improvised force that nonetheless managed to win the 1835 Béxar campaign against a professional garrison. The victories at Concepción and in the siege that followed proved the settlers could fight and win — the necessary prelude to everything that came after.
There is a poignancy in what happened next. Those who survived did not become professional soldiers; they went back to being farmers, doctors, lawyers, and teachers, folding their military service into ordinary citizenship. That return to civilian life is the citizen-soldier ideal completed — the willingness to fight when needed and to lay it down when the need has passed.
If you visit
This is a memorial, so come to it in a reflective frame of mind. There is no battlefield here to walk; what you are honoring is a moment of decision — thirty or so neighbors choosing, in September 1835, to organize and march toward a war whose outcome no one could know.
Let the names on the marker do their work. Scott, Duncan, and McGahey were not distant generals but local men, and the company mustered at a plantation in this very area before heading west toward Béxar. Standing here, you're at the starting line of their campaign rather than its famous finish, which gives the place a particular quiet weight.
For travelers tracing the roots of the Texas Revolution, this makes a rewarding stop that fills in the story before the more celebrated sites. Read the marker slowly, think about how far these men traveled and how ordinary their lives were before and after, and you'll leave with a fuller sense of how the revolution actually began — with volunteers, not armies.
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
- · William Scott
- · Peter J. Duncan
- · James S. McGahey
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
- · Grass Fight
- · Battle of Concepción
- · Siege of Béxar
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
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