Sam Houston Oak - Gonzales County, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 29° 28.564 W 097° 18.489
14R E 664037 N 3261924
Tree is on private property. It is clearly visible from the fenced gate. Please be respectful and don't climb over the gate onto the private property.
Waymark Code: WMWCWT
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/15/2017
Views: 4
Texas Escapes
The ancient tree shades a wide area just east of Peach Creek, 8.5 miles from Gonzales. In the vicinity of the tree on March 14, 1836, Sam Houston and several hundred Texas citizen-soldiers spent one of the worst nights of their lives, albeit a very short night.
The day before, Houston had dispatched from Gonzales three of his best scouts, Erastus "Deaf" Smith, Henry Karnes and Robert Handy, on a dangerous mission. They had orders to ride to Bexar to learn how Col. William B. Travis and the other defenders of the Alamo were doing. With Smith in charge, the scouts made it only 20 miles west of town before they rode up on Susannah Dickinson, her infant daughter Angelina and Joe, Travis' slave.
The word Karnes carried threw Gonzales into a panic. Twenty-five of Houston's soldiers deserted, an enraged Houston ordering their arrest. Houston's next order, made shortly after Smith and the survivors arrived about 11 p.m., was to torch the town and retreat.
Led by Houston, 374 citizen-soldiers marched eastward all night, crossing Peach Creek at Bartholomew D. McClure's plantation. In the pre-dawn darkness, the general called a stop for breakfast and rest.
A gray granite historical marker placed nearby in 1936 says the oak that was there when all this happened briefly served as the "headquarters" of Houston's army. While that is technically true, Houston did not linger. Two hours after arriving, the weary general, longer days ahead of him, commanded the soldiers to fall in and continue their eastward march.