BURROUGHS, GEORGE H. (?-?). George H. Burroughs, merchant and soldier, was a native of Warren, Massachusetts. In August 1836 he organized a company of cavalry in Zanesville, Ohio, to help the Texans in their ongoing hostilities with Mexico. En route, at Portland, Kentucky, Burroughs's company merged with contingents from Ohio and Pennsylvania. At New Orleans a fourth company, from Norfolk, Virginia, joined the group for the journey to Texas. The contingent arrived at Matagorda in November 1836 and marched to Camp Independence on the Lavaca River. The ladies of Zanesville, Ohio, had presented a battalion standard to Burroughs. The flag was composed of a field of light blue silk, a border of white silk and fringe, and a dark blue center with a gold five-pointed star superimposed. Above the star the American eagle grasped a streamer bearing the legend "Hero of San Jacinto." Burroughs resigned his commission four months after arriving in Texas and by August 1837 was back in Ohio. In 1838 he received a second-class headright certificate for land in Milam, Upshur, and Wise counties. In 1856 an act of the legislature ordered the General Land Office to issue Burroughs a certificate for 852 acres of land.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Austin Daily Democratic Statesman, December 18, 1874. Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel, comp., Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 (10 vols., Austin: Gammel, 1898). Muster Rolls, Texas General Land Office, Austin.
