Urrea Oaks
Refugio, Refugio County, Texas
Marker Inscription
By tradition, camping place in March 1836, during Texas War for Independence, of Gen. Jose Urrea of Mexico. Strategically located, this was Urrea's staging area. Capt. Amon B. King came form Goliad with his Texas volunteers to support the Refugio townsmen, who were taken into the safety of Mission Nuestra Senora Del Refugio. Then Lt. Col. William also arrived on March 13, and the "Battle of Refugio" began. Both King and Ward left protection of the mission, and Urrea won final victories over them, capturing King's command on March 15 and Ward's on March 22. (1973)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In March 1836, as the Texas Revolution raged, Mexican General José Urrea used this strategically placed site as a staging area during his campaign up the coast. Nearby, Texian volunteers under Captain Amon B. King and Lieutenant Colonel William Ward sheltered Refugio's townspeople in the old mission before venturing out to fight. In the resulting Battle of Refugio, Urrea defeated both commands, capturing King's men on March 15 and Ward's on March 22—grim prelude to the Goliad massacre.
Why it matters
The Refugio fighting was part of the desperate Texian struggle for independence in 1836, a conflict whose outcome reshaped the map of North America and set Texas on the road to U.S. statehood.
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Related people
- · José Urrea
- · Amon B. King
- · William Ward
Related events
- · Battle of Refugio
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Yucatan Soldiers' Burial Site
Refugio, TX
During the Texas Revolution in early 1836, General José Urrea drove northeast on Santa Anna's orders, winning quick victories before meeting fierce resistance at Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio. His army—largely Yucatán men pressed into service who spoke little Spanish—suffered heavy losses in the fighting. After the town was taken and looted, the many Mexican dead were dragged into a small ditch that had served as a colonist's fence, and it became their mass grave.
Site of the Home of Captain Ira Westover
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Captain Ira Westover was a committed soldier of the Texas Revolution, taking part in the capture of Goliad in October 1835 and, with just 14 Texans, seizing Fort Lipantitlán from a much larger Mexican force weeks later. He served in the General Council of Texas in 1835 as a representative of the Goliad municipality. Leading a company raised in Refugio as part of Fannin's command, he was among those massacred at Goliad on March 27, 1836.
Mount Calvary Cemetery
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This cemetery began in grief: the burial of soldiers massacred during the Texas Revolution of 1836, among them the men of Capt. Amon King, whose bones lay scattered on the prairie until Refugio citizens gathered them. The site was later forgotten and rediscovered in 1934. Irish colonists of the Power and Hewetson grants rest here too, including empresario James Power, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Site of the Town of Copano
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Copano took its name from the Native people of this coast and served as an important Texas port from the early 1700s into the 1870s. Colonists bound for the interior came ashore here, and in 1835 it sheltered the winter quarters of the army of the Texas Revolution. The town is gone now, its marker moved from the original site on Copano Bay in 1978.