To the Memory of Walter Paye Lane
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Hero of San Jacinto - Indian fighter - Commander of Texas Rangers in Mexican War - Brigadier General in the Confederate army - Born, February 18, 1817 - Died, January 22, 1892. With honor untarnished he rests from his labors. Marked by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Walter Paye Lane's long fighting life spanned nearly every armed struggle of nineteenth-century Texas. He won distinction as a young man at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, later rode as a commander of Texas Rangers during the Mexican War, and served as a Confederate brigadier general in the Civil War. Born in 1817 and dying in 1892, he was honored with this state marker in Marshall in 1936.
Why it matters
Lane's career threads together the Texas Revolution, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War in a single life, personifying the martial generation that fought Texas from a Mexican province into a Confederate state.
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Related people
- Β· Walter Paye Lane
Themes & tags
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