Benjamin Milam
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Rush "Ben" Milam (October 20, 1788 – December 7, 1835) was a leading figure in the Texas Revolution
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was an armed conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836...
. Milam County, Texas was named in his honor. He was born in Kentucky.
Early life
Milam was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, on October 20, 1788. He was the fifth of the six children of Moses Milam and his wife, Elizabeth Pattie Boyd.Milam had little or no formal schooling. He enlisted as a private in the 8th Regiment of the Kentucky Militia, but eventually was elected a lieutenant. He served in the War of 1812.
Early Years in Texas
In 1818, after learning of the trading opportunities with the Indians of the upper Red RiverRed River (Mississippi watershed)
The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major tributary of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers in the southern United States of America. The river gains its name from the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name...
, Milam traveled to Coahuila y Texas to trade with the Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
s. While there, he met David G. Burnet
David G. Burnet
David Gouverneur Burnet was an early politician within the Republic of Texas, serving as interim President of Texas , second Vice President of the Republic of Texas , and Secretary of State for the new state of Texas after it was annexed to the United States of America.Burnet was born in Newark,...
, who at the time was living with the Indians in an attempt to get over his tuberculosis. In New Orleans in 1819, Milam met José Félix Trespalacios
José Félix Trespalacios
José Félix Trespalacios was the first governor of Coahuila y Texas as part of the United Mexican States.Trespalacios was a member of the militia in Chihuahua but then in 1814 was charged with organizing rebellion and was sentenced to death. His sentence was reduced to ten years in prison, but he...
and James Long
James Long (filibuster)
James Long led the unsuccessful filibuster Long Expedition to Texas.-Biography:...
, who were planning an expedition to help the revolutionaries in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
gain their independence from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Milam joined Trespalacios and was commissioned a colonel by him.
In Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta is a Mexican balneario resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas.The 2010 census reported Puerto Vallarta's population as 255,725 making it the sixth-largest city in the state of Jalisco...
and Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Trespalacios and Milam met the same reception Long had previously received. The non-revolutionaries had them jailed. While in prison, Long was mysteriously killed (reportedly shot by a guard), and Milam blamed Tresplacios. Milam was again imprisoned for threatening to kill Tresplacios. Milam and his friends were sent to Mexico City where Agustín de Iturbide
Agustín de Iturbide
Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Aramburu , also known as Augustine I of Mexico, was a Mexican army general who built a successful political and military coalition that was able to march into Mexico City on 27 September 1821, decisively ending the Mexican War of Independence...
ordered all of them shot. Milam and the others were imprisoned until the fall of 1822, when they were released, thanks to the influence of Joel R. Poinsett, U.S. Commissioner of Observation to Mexico. Poinsett secured their freedom and, with the exception of Milam, all were returned to the United States on the sloop-of-war
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
USS John Adams (1799)
USS John Adams (1799)
The first John Adams was originally built as a frigate in 1799, converted to a corvette in 1809 and later converted back to a frigate in 1830 for use in the United States Navy...
.
By the spring of 1824 Milam had returned to Mexico, which was adopting the 1824 Constitution of Mexico
1824 Constitution of Mexico
The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1824 was enacted on October 4 of 1824, after the overthrow of the Mexican Empire of Agustin de Iturbide. In the new constitution, the republic took the name of United Mexican States, and was defined as a representative federal republic, with...
and a
republican form of government. Milam was granted Mexican citizenship and commissioned a colonel in the Mexican army.
Texas Revolution
From 1800 to 1820, Milam was Arthur Wavell's partner in a silver mine operation in Nuevo León. The two also obtained empresario grants in Texas. In 1829, Milam intended to organize a new mining company in partnership with David Burnet, but failed due to a lack of funds. In 1835, Milam went to MonclovaMonclova
On the other hand, temperatures during late spring and summer can have bouts of extreme heat, with evenings above 40°C for many consecutive days. In recent decades the hottest records have climbed as high as 43°C on July 13, 2005 and 45°C on May 4, 1984. However nighttime low temperatures are...
, the capital of Coahuila y Texas to urge the new governor, Agustín Viesca, to send a land commissioner to Texas to provide the settlers with land titles. However, before Milam could leave the city, word arrived that Antonio López de Santa Anna
Antonio López de Santa Anna
Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón , often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, known as "the Napoleon of the West," was a Mexican political leader, general, and president who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government...
had overthrown the representative government of Mexico and established a dictatorship. Governor Viesca fled with Milam, but both were captured and imprisoned at Monterey. Milam eventually escaped, thanks to sympathetic jailers who gave him a horse and let him escape.
By chance, he encountered a company of Texas soldiers commanded by George Collinsworth, from whom he learned of the movement in Texas for independence. Milam joined them, helping to capture Goliad. He wrote: "I assisted Mexico to gain her independence. I have endured heat and cold, hunger and thirst; I have borne losses and suffered persecutions; I have been a tenant of every prison between this and Mexico. But the events of this night have compensated me for all my losses and all my sufferings."
He then marched with them to join the main army in capturing San Antonio. On November 18 Stephen F. Austin
Stephen F. Austin
Stephen Fuller Austin was born in Virginia and raised in southeastern Missouri. He was known as the Father of Texas, led the second, but first legal and ultimately successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families from the United States. The capital of Texas, Austin in Travis County,...
resigned command of the Texan forces at San Antonio to fulfill his mission to the United States as a commissioner. Edward Burleson
Edward Burleson
Edward Burleson was a soldier, general, and statesman in the state of Missouri, the Republic of Texas, and later the U.S. state of Texas....
was elected on November 24 by the volunteers to take Austin's place.
While returning from a scouting mission in the southwest on December 4, 1835, Milam learned that a majority of the army had decided not to attack San Antonio as planned, but to go instead into winter quarters. Burleson and his council of officers were reluctant to attack, and the next day at 3 pm, Milam went to Burleson’s tent to ask permission to call for volunteers to storm the city. Burleson had little choice but to go along with Milam's plan. Milam was convinced that putting off the final assault on San Antonio would be a disaster for the cause of independence. He then made his famous impassioned plea: "Who will go with old Ben Milam into Bexar?" Three hundred volunteered to attack at dawn on December 5.
The Siege of Bexar
Plans were quickly made. The men would form at an abandoned mill, Molino Blanco or Zambrano's mill, at 3 a.m., while Burleson was to hold the rest as a reserve. At the same time, Captain James C. Neil was to open fire with two cannons on the AlamoAlamo
The Battle of the Alamo was a battle fought during the Texas Revolution.Alamo may also refer to:-Places:*Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas*Alamo, California*Alamo, Georgia*Alamo Township, Michigan*Alamo, Nevada*Alamo, New Mexico...
to distract the Mexican soldiers.
On December 7, 1835 Milam, standing with Frank Johnson and Henry Karnes near the Veramendi house, was shot in the head by a Mexican rifleman and killed instantly. He fell into the arms of Samuel Maverick
Samuel Maverick
Samuel Augustus Maverick was a Texas lawyer, politician, land baron and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence...
. He had been trying to observe the San Fernando church
Cathedral of San Fernando
The Cathedral of San Fernando is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church located in San Antonio, Texas, in the United States. It is the mother church of the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the seat of its archbishop. The cathedral is also known as the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria y...
tower with a field telescope given to him by Stephen Austin. Robert Morris was chosen to take over Milam’s command of the first division.
The Mexican Army lost more than 400 killed, deserted or wounded in the ensuing battle. Texan losses were only 20 to 30 killed. The siege ended on December 9, 1835 when Martín Perfecto de Cos
Martín Perfecto de Cos
Martín Perfecto de Cos was a 19th-century Mexican general. He was married to Lucinda López de Santa Anna, sister of Antonio López de Santa Anna.-Background:Cós was born in Vera Cruz in the year 1800, the son of an attorney...
sent a subordinate to negotiate a truce with the Texans. Morris gave Cos and his troops six days to leave the Alamo. Burleson provided the Mexican Army with such supplies as he could spare, and the Mexican wounded were allowed to remain behind to be treated by Texan doctors.
Memorials
- In 1897 the Daughters of the Republic Of Texas placed a marker on Milam grave site at Milam Park, San Antonio; the marker was moved in 1976 & the location of the grave was forgotten until it was found again in 1993.
- On July 17, 1938, a statue of Milam was unveiled at the Milam County Courthouse, in Cameron, TexasCameron, TexasCameron is a city in Milam County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,634 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Milam County.-Geography:Cameron is located at . It is situated at the junction of U.S...
.
External links
- Benjamin Milam from the Handbook of TexasHandbook of TexasThe Handbook of Texas is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography, history, and historical persons published by the Texas State Historical Association .-History:...
Online - Benjamin Milam at Find A Grave
- http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/adp/archives/documents/benmilam.html