DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. September 18, 1842. Remember that date.
Because on that day, right here along the Salado, a fight broke out that the marker calls decisive in Texas history — and friend, that word is not thrown around lightly. Colonel Mathew Caldwell and Captain John C. Hays were commanding a force of Texas volunteers.
On the other side? The Mexican Army under General Adrian Woll — the very same General Woll who had already captured San Antonio. Already.
The city was gone before the battle even started. So understand what was at stake when these volunteers dug in. It wasn't just about taking San Antonio back.
Down the road sat Austin — the capital of the Republic of Texas itself. And Woll had every reason to keep marchin'. Now here's where the story gets its teeth.
Caldwell and Hays held. The volunteers held. And when the smoke cleared on September 18th, 1842, the Mexican Army had been checked.
Not slowed. Checked. The last Mexican invasion of Texas, the marker says — the last one — stopped right here.
Austin was spared. The Republic of Texas was spared. And the cost of all that?
One man lost. One. You sit with that number a moment.
One. Against an army that had already taken a city. The State of Texas saw fit to erect this marker in 1936, more than ninety years after the fight — and honestly, some things earn the wait.
What the marker says
Decisive in Texas history, was fought here September 18, 1842. Col. Mathew Caldwell and Capt. John C. Hays, commanding a force of Texas volunteers, opposed the Mexican Army under General Adrian Woll that had captured San Antonio, and with the loss of only one man, checked the last Mexican invasion of Texas and thereby prevented the capture of Austin, capital of the Republic of Texas. Erected by the State of Texas 1936