Kissam seems to have been one of Burke's men who enlisted in the company when it was organized at Mobile, and continued with it until its destruction at Goliad, March 27, 1836. He signed the Convention Memorial at Refugio, about Feb. 5, 1836.
 

An item preserved by Frank Templeton from the Nashville Union of Nov. 24, 1835, mentions that John F. Beck, John M. Hays ... James McDonnell ... and John Kornicky, (the latter a Polander) left Nashville for Texas on board the steamer Native. His first recorded appearance in Texas is on the muster roll of Captain Llewellyn's Company. On the Land Office copies of Fannin's rolls his name appears as "J. Korticky," but that this was meant for "Kornicky" appears from the fact that Dr. Shackelford calls him "Cornika" and describes him as a Polish engineer.

He probably returned from San Patricio about Feb. 15th, with Grant's artillery and Cooke's Command, since Ehrenberg says, [Bartholomae, p. 148] that they then began to fortify, and