DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about General Moseley Baker — and it's a story worth pullin' over for. Now, Virginia gave him to the world on September the twentieth, 1802. But Texas — Texas is where Moseley Baker made his name.
And what a name it turned out to be. When the moment came at San Jacinto, Baker was right there in the thick of it, commanding Company D of the First Regiment of Texas Volunteers. San Jacinto.
That name alone ought to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up a little. And there was Baker, leading his men through it. But a man like that doesn't just put down his sword and go home.
After the smoke cleared, Baker stepped into the halls of the new Republic of Texas — serving in the First Congress, then coming back again for the Third. Two separate congresses of a brand new nation. That's the kind of staying power you don't stumble into.
And if that weren't enough, he rose to the rank of Brigadier General of Militia. Virginia born, Texas forged. He died in Houston, Texas, on November the fourth, 1848.
His wife, Eliza Ward Baker, followed him not three months later — dying in Houston on February the fourth, 1849. Two people, one city, one grief-heavy winter between them. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936 to make sure neither of them fades from memory.
Seems to me that's the least San Jacinto deserves.
What the marker says
Commanded Co. D. First Regiment of Texas Volunteers at San Jacinto A member of 1st and 3rd Congresses of the Republic and later a Brigadier General of Militia Born in Virginia Sept. 20, 1802 Died in Houston, Texas Nov. 4, 1848 His wife Eliza Ward Baker died in Houston, Texas Feb. 4, 1849 Erected by the State of Texas 1936