Haskell, Charles Ready (1817–1836)

Charles Ready Haskell, soldier in the Texas Revolution, was born near Nashville, Tennessee, on September 12, 1817, the son of Joshua Haskell. News of the Texas revolt against Mexico induced him to quit school and join other Tennessee volunteers, who were eventually mustered with Capt. Benjamin L. Lawrence's "Mustang" Company, which was originally composed of the United States Independent Cavalry Company of Tennessee and the mounted troops of James Tarleton's Louisville Volunteers. Haskell was with Lawrence's company when the Mustangs were recruited in Bexar as the cavalry unit for the expedition to Matamoros organized by Francis W. Johnson and James Grant. Haskell and others of his company resigned from the force at Goliad in January 1836. James Walker Fannin reorganized what was left of this company upon his arrival at La Bahía and merged it with Capt. Burr H. Duval's Permanent Volunteers, renamed Duval's Mustangs. After the battle of Coleto, Haskell was killed in the Goliad Massacre on March 27, 1836. His heirs received 3,840 acres for his service in the Texas army and his sacrifice for the cause (see GOLIAD CAMPAIGN OF 1836). The Texas state legislature named Haskell County in his honor on February 1, 1858, at the suggestion of John Henry Brown, a historian and statesman.