DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it — and it's one worth tellin' right. This is Captain James Burleson, out of Bastrop County, Texas. Now, you want to talk about a life that bent time in interesting directions, friend, you have come to the right marker.
James Burleson was born on May 4, 1758. That date alone is a story — a man old enough to have watched a whole country get invented from scratch. And sure enough, he was there for the making of it, in his own way.
When the War of 1812 came rolling through, General Andrew Jackson himself chose James Burleson as commissary. That is not a small thing. That is the kind of trust that gets whispered about around fires.
And riding alongside him, keepin' the books, was his son Edward. Father and son, shoulder to shoulder, answering to Old Hickory. Together they fought in the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815 — one of the most storied engagements in American history, and James Burleson was standing in the middle of it.
Now here's where the story takes a turn that'll make you stop and look twice. By 1835, James Burleson is an old man by any reckoning. And yet, there he is again — in Texas, in the thick of it, in the Grass Fight of 1835.
Only this time, something had flipped. That son of his, Edward — the one who'd tagged along as a young bookkeeper back in the War of 1812 — Edward was now a general in the Army of Texas. And James?
James served under him. The father, who once led while his son kept the ledger, now fell in under that same son's command. There is something quietly magnificent about a man who can do that without flinching.
James Burleson died on January 3, 1836 — just months after that final fight. He had crossed a continent and two wars, served a president and then served his own child, and when it was time, he laid it all down. The marker remembers him.
And out here on the road, so do we.
What the marker says
Chosen commissary by General Andrew Jackson, War of 1812. Edward Burleson, his son, accompanied him as bookkeeper. Participated in the Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815. Served under his son, Edward, Army of Texas in the Grass Fight, 1835. Born May 4, 1758; died January 3, 1836.