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Sam Houston and other dignitaries dedicate Monument Hill cemetery
On this day in 1848, Sam Houston and other notable Texans gathered a
mile south of La Grange at Monument Hill, the chosen site for a military
cemetery. Those to be buried there had died in the Dawson Massacre and
other conflicts that beset the Republic of Texas as Mexico continued to
contest the fact of Texas independence. Six years earlier, on September
18, 1842, while an army of Texans under Mathew Caldwell defeated the
much larger forces of Mexican general Adrián Woll on Salado Creek near
San Antonio, Capt. Nicholas Dawson and his fifty-eight volunteers fought
a losing battle against 500 irregular Mexican cavalrymen and their two
cannons. The Texans were slaughtered. A few escaped, and fifteen were
carted off to Perote Prison, from where only nine survivors were
eventually released. The dead were buried in shallow graves and, in
1848, moved to Monument Hill. The day was again solemnly commemorated
ninety-one years after the massacre. On September 18, 1933, the
Daughters of the Republic of Texas dedicated a new vault at the site,
which had fallen into disrepair and abuse before they moved to rescue it.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- HOUSTON, SAMUEL
- MONUMENT HILL-KREISCHE BREWERY STATE HISTORIC SITE
- MEXICAN INVASIONS OF 1842
- SALADO CREEK, BATTLE OF
- DAWSON MASSACRE
- DAUGHTERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- French Expedition fizzles in El Paso (1850)
- Town crier of San Antonio dies (1929)
- Two Texas Medal of Honor recipients die in battle (1944)
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