DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the word here, and I'm just gonna do it justice. Now, Nacogdoches has seen some things. Some real things.
And this particular patch of ground — this spot right here — it saw one of those moments that you don't forget, even if history sometimes moves too fast to linger on it. The year was 1835. Texas was fighting for its independence, and men were answering the call from all over — including a volunteer force out of Louisiana known as the New Orleans' Greys.
One company of those Greys was making their way overland to San Antonio, and their road ran straight through Nacogdoches. Now, a man named Adolphus Sterne had been leading the citizens of Nacogdoches in helping outfit this force. So when that company rolled in — somewhere between fifty and a hundred men — they weren't strangers riding through.
They were expected. They were honored. Right here, near Sterne's home, those men made camp for a few days.
And the people of Nacogdoches, they didn't just offer them a handshake and a good-luck. They threw them a banquet. Bear meat.
Raccoon. Other meat to fill out the spread. There were toasts raised and speeches given, and for a few days, this ground was warm with something that felt like hope and fellowship and maybe just a little bit of courage borrowed from one group and passed to another.
Then the Greys moved on. They reached San Antonio before the Siege of Bexar — which came December fifth through the ninth, 1835. They made it.
They were there. But here's where the pacing slows down, and you let the quiet in. Most of those volunteers — the men who camped on this ground, who ate bear and raccoon, who were praised in toasts right here — most of them died in later battles of the revolution.
So what you're standin' near isn't just a campsite. It's one of the last places those men were celebrated before the war took them. The banquet was real.
The toasts were real. And the ground remembers.
What the marker says
Led by Adolphus Sterne, citizens of Nacogdoches helped outfit a volunteer force, the New Orleans' Greys, to fight in the Texas War for Independence. One company of Greys traveled overland to San Antonio by way of Nacogdoches in Nov. 1835. The 50-100 men camped for a few days at this site near Sterne's home. They were honored with a banquet of bear, raccoon, and other meat, and were praised in toasts and speeches. The Greys reached San Antonio before the Siege of Bexar, Dec. 5-9, 1835. Most of the volunteers died in later battles of the revolution.