DUANE
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Duane's take
The way I tell it, I'm following the official record on this one; so let me take you back to a November day in 1837 that Wise County has never quite forgotten. November 10th, 1837. A company of eighteen soldiers, eighteen men, riding under the flag of the Republic of Texas, led by Lieutenant A.
B. Benthuysen. Now, you want to talk about long odds, you go right ahead and do that math.
Eighteen men, out here in this raw, unsettled country, when suddenly they found themselves face to face with approximately one hundred and fifty Indians near this very site. One hundred and fifty. I don't know what was said, I don't know what the sky looked like that morning, and the marker doesn't tell me.
What it does tell me is what happened next. The battle was joined. And when it was over, ten of those eighteen Texas soldiers were dead on the field.
Ten men. The marker names every one of them, and they deserve to be named out loud. Alexander Bostwick.
Jesse Blair. James Christian. Joseph Cooper.
J. Josslin. A.
H. Miles. William Nicholson.
Wesley Nicholson. William Sanders. And Lewis F.
Sheuster. The Indian casualties were estimated at fifty. But here's the thing that stays with you.
Those ten Texans, they were left on the battlefield. Right here, near these geological formations that folks have always called the Knobs. And over time, those Knobs became something more than just a feature on a map.
They became a memorial. The land itself holding the memory of the men who fell on it. Eighteen men rode out.
Eight came back. And the Knobs are still standing watch.
What the marker says
On November 10, 1837, a company of eighteen Republic of Texas soldiers led by Lt. A. B. Benthuysen engaged in a battle with approximately 150 Indians near this site. Ten Texas soldiers were killed in the battle, and the Indian casualties were estimated at fifty. The Texans killed were Alexander Bostwick, Jesse Blair, James Christian, Joseph Cooper, J. Josslin, A. H. Miles, William Nicholson, Wesley Nicholson, William Sanders, and Lewis F. Sheuster. The geologic feature known as the Knobs serves as a memorial to the soldiers who were left on the battlefield.