Sam Houston

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it — Sam Houston, Walker County, and I'll do my best to do it justice. March 2, 1793. Rockbridge County, Virginia.

A boy is born to Samuel and Elizabeth Houston, and nobody in that county could have guessed what that child was going to cost Mexico. His name was Sam Houston, and the world was not going to leave him alone for a single quiet decade. When he was still young, his mother — widowed now — moved the family to Tennessee, back in 1807.

And Tennessee suited him well enough, for a while. He taught school. Kept a store.

Found his way into the U.S. Congress. Rose all the way to governor of the state of Tennessee.

That is a full life right there for most men. Sam Houston was not most men. In 1813, he had joined the U.S.

Army under a general named Andrew Jackson. That friendship — that particular bond between those two men — was going to last a lifetime and pull strings on two different frontiers. Some friendships are just kindling.

That one was load-bearing timber. Then came 1829, and a blow that the marker records with a kind of quiet devastation: his young bride left him. Houston resigned as governor and went westward.

The marker doesn't editorialize. It doesn't have to. A man gives up the governorship and walks toward the sunset — you feel the weight of that without being told to.

By 1833 he had settled in Nacogdoches, Texas. And Texas, as it turns out, had been waiting on somebody exactly like Sam Houston. He became a leader in the cause of Texas independence from Mexico.

On March 4, 1836 — two days after his own forty-third birthday, though the marker doesn't make that connection and neither will I — he was elected to command the Army of the Republic. What followed is the move that military historians still argue about over their coffee: a retrograde movement. A strategic withdrawal.

To the untrained eye, it looked like retreat. To Houston, it was the shape of a trap. That movement led directly to the victory of San Jacinto, which won Texas its independence.

Not a bad piece of work for a man who'd been a shopkeeper in Tennessee not long before. He served as President of the Republic of Texas — twice. First from 1836 to 1838.

Then again from 1841 to 1844. After annexation, he became a senator. In 1859 he was elected governor of the state of Texas.

The man had now been governor of two different states. Two. That is a sentence you can just let sit.

But 1861 came, and with it, secession. And here is where Sam Houston drew his line in the dirt. He declined to take the oath of office in the Confederacy.

After a quarter-century of service to his state, he retired rather than take that oath. He did not, however, stand in the way when the Confederate army came calling for his young son — Sam Houston, Jr. — and he did not oppose that enlistment. The marker is careful about that, and so am I.

The Civil War was still going when Sam Houston died. July 26, 1863. At his home — they called it Steamboat House, there in Huntsville.

His family was with him at the end. And the last words he spoke were to his wife Margaret. Two words.

One name. "Texas — Margaret, Texas —" Some men spend their whole lives looking for something worth saying at the end. Sam Houston found it in two words and a name, in a house called Steamboat House, on a July afternoon in 1863. That's the story the marker tells.

And I'd say it tells itself pretty well.

What the marker says

Born March 2, 1793, in Rockbridge County, Va.; son of Samuel and Elizabeth Houston. Moved to Tennessee in 1807 with widowed mother and her family. In 1813 joined U.S. Army under Gen. Andrew Jackson, with whom he formed lifetime friendship and political ties. In Tennessee, taught school, kept a store, served in U.S. Congress, was state governor. In 1829, after his young bride left him, resigned as governor and went westward. Settling in 1833 in Nacogdoches, became a leader in cause of Texas independence from Mexico. Elected March 4, 1836, to command the Army of the Republic, engineered retrograde movement that led to victory of San Jacinto, which won Texas independence. President of the Republic, 1836-1838 and 1841-1844, he was senator after annexation. In 1859 he was elected governor, and served until secession. In 1861 he declined to take oath of office in Confederacy, retiring instead after a quarter-century of service to his state. However, he did not oppose Confederate army enlistment of his young son, Sam Houston, Jr. While the Civil War continued, he died on July 26, 1863, at his home, "Steamboat House," Huntsville. With him was his family, to hear his last words to his wife: "Texas--, Margaret, Texas--".