Publications Education Events Southwestern Historical Quarterly The Handbook of Texas Online TSHA Home About Us News Site Search Contact Us Giving Opportunities Links FAQ Join the TSHA
skip to content
TSHA Online Home
Handbook of 
 Texas Online


The Source for All Things Texan Since 1857: Texas Almanac



Used Car Buying Guide
Listings, News, Tips,
Insurance Information,
Reviews and More

Denton Live Music
Listings, Venues, Maps
Updated Daily
DentonLiveMusic.com

format this article to print

HOCKLEY, GEORGE WASHINGTON (1802-1854). George Washington Hockley, chief of staff of the Texas army during the Texas Revolution,qv was born in Philadelphia in 1802. As a young man he moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a clerk in the commissary division of the War Department and met Sam Houston,qv who influenced him to move to Tennessee when Houston became governor there in 1828. Hockley followed Houston to Texas in 1835 and was made chief of staff upon Houston's election as commander-in-chief of the Texas army. At the battle of San Jacintoqv Hockley was in command of the artillery and in charge of the Twin Sisters.qv Later he was one of those who accompanied Antonio López de Santa Anna and Juan N. Almonteqqv to Washington, D.C. The friendship between Hockley and Houston continued after the revolution. Houston appointed him colonel of ordnance on December 22, 1836, and secretary of war on November 13, 1838, and again on December 23, 1841. Houston also sent Hockley with Samuel M. Williamsqv in 1843 to arrange an armistice with Mexico. Hockley made his home in Galveston. He died in Corpus Christi on June 6, 1854, while visiting Henry L. Kinney,qv and was buried in the Old Bayview Cemetery at Corpus Christi, where in 1936 the state erected a monument at his grave.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Zachary T. Fulmore, History and Geography of Texas As Told in County Names (Austin: Steck, 1915; facsimile, 1935). Sam Houston Dixon and Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Heroes of San Jacinto (Houston: Anson Jones Press, 1932).

Carolyn Hyman

 

Support the Handbook of Texas by donating today!
To join the TSHA, visit our membership information page.

Copyright © Texas State Historical Association
Terms of Use  Comment/Contact  Policy Agreement  Last Updated: January 19, 2008
Published by the Texas State Historical Association and distributed
in partnership with Holt, Rinehart and Winston, a Harcourt Education Company