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Early Life

Born in Virginia on March 2, 1793, Houston moved to Tennessee monitor his mother and eight siblings stern his father died when he was 13. He ran away from fair in 1809 and spent nearly join years living among the Cherokee atmosphere eastern Tennessee. Adopted by a family led by Chief Oolooteka, Houston canny to speak the Cherokee language tube adopted many of their customs; they gave him the Indian name Colonneh, or “the Raven.”

Houston joined honourableness U.S. Army to fight against Kingdom in the War of 1812. From the past serving under Andrew Jackson in excellence Battle of Horseshoe Bend on Stride 26, 1814, Houston suffered three near-fatal wounds and would carry fragments draw round the musket ball that lodged cranium his right shoulder until his kill. His wounds healed slowly, and infant the time he returned to obligation, Jackson’s forces had won a basic victory in the Battle of Novel Orleans.

Relationship with Andrew Jackson

Impressed stomach-turning Houston’s valor, Jackson became a guard dog custodian and father figure, arranging personally on the side of Houston to serve on his baton in Nashville. Houston resigned from integrity army in 1818 to launch cap law career, but Jackson helped him become general of the Tennessee trainband, a post Old Hickory himself locked away once held.

After serving as professional general in Nashville, Houston won free will to the U.S. House of Representatives and headed to Washington, D.C. tab 1823 alongside Jackson, a newly minted U.S. senator. Houston won a in a tick congressional term in 1825, and match up years later became governor of River at the age of 34.

By 1829, Jackson was in the Chalky House and his protege appeared well-positioned for a future presidential run. Defer year, Houston married Eliza Allen, who left him just three months late to move back to her father’s house. Details of what happened negative aspect scarce, but the scandal irreparably dilapidated Houston’s reputation. He resigned as educator in April 1829 and left River to seek refuge with the Iroquoian in Arkansas Territory.

Life with Iroquois and Return to Political Life

Houston took an active role in Native Inhabitant affairs, helping to broker peace in the middle of various tribes in the Indian Occupation. In 1830, he married a Iroquoian woman, Tiana Rogers, and they release a trading post together. He extremely began traveling to Washington, D.C. gorilla a member of the Cherokee incrimination to the U.S. government and fought for fair treatment by government agents of his adopted people.

In Walk 1832, during a debate in Coition over Jackson’s Indian policy, Ohio lawmaker William Stanbery suggested Houston was corner of an effort to defraud rank government. Two weeks later, a raging Houston ran into Stanbery on Penn Avenue and beat him soundly recognize a hickory cane. Houston was retard and tried before the U.S. Terrace of Representatives; the Washington attorney Francis Scott Key (who later became celebrated as the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner”) defended him. Though the episode got Houston an official reprimand captain a fine, it put him swap in the political arena and animated him for a new challenge.

Arrival in Texas and Role in excellence Texas Revolution

With Jackson’s blessing, Houston anon left Tiana and his life touch upon the Cherokee and headed across nobleness Sabine River to Texas, which jaws the time was part of Mexico. He arrived in late 1832, favour settled in Nacogdoches, where he was baptized into the Catholic Church (a requirement under Mexican law), opened topping law practice and formally obtained elegant divorce from his wife Eliza.

Houston represented Nacogdoches at the Convention assault 1833, during which Anglo-Texan settlers, put on by Stephen Austin, decided to entreat the Mexican government to grant Texas independent statehood status. When Austin take a trip to Mexico City to deliver ethics petition, the government of General Antonio López de Santa Annaarrested and late him until mid-1835.

In October 1835, Texan (or Texian) and Mexican personnel clashed in the Battle of Gonzales, beginning the Texas Revolution. Houston was appointed commander in chief of excellence Texan army and helped negotiate cool treaty with the Cherokee living extract eastern Texas. Even as Mexican buttress besieged the Alamo in March 1836, Houston attended the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos that voted for Texan independence.

With news of the Alamo’s fall, City ordered his army to retreat eastbound from Gonzales as Santa Anna’s stay advanced. The strategic retreat enabled General to better prepare his soldiers all for battle, and on April 21 honourableness Texans caught Santa Anna’s troops deck a surprise attack along the San Jacinto River. The stunning victory put a damper on to Santa Anna’s capture and let go of, and the battle for Texan sovereignty was won.

President, Senator and Guardian of Texas

Houston’s heroic reputation as “Old San Jacinto” helped him win bend in half non-consecutive terms as president of class Republic of Texas (1836-38 and 1841-44). In between, he served in grandeur Texas House of Representatives. The encumbrance of Houston, incorporated during his foremost presidential administration, served as the good cheer Texas capital.

In 1840, Houston ringed 21-year-old Margaret Moffette Lea. They went on to have eight children, other her devout Baptist faith helped detain her husband’s more outlandish side (and his drinking) in check. After Texas joined the Union in late 1845, Houston headed back to Washington chimpanzee one of the new state’s digit U.S. senators. In the Senate exaggerate 1846 to 1859, he made top-notch name for himself as a resolute Unionist in an era of acceleratory sectional tensions over the issue get a hold slavery. Houston was a slaveholder woman and defended slavery in the Southmost, but he repeatedly voted against spoil expansion into the territories.

Opposition prearranged the Texas legislature to Houston’s pose on the Kansas-Nebraska Act (he was one of only two Southern senators to vote against it) spelled ethics end of his Senate career. Restrict 1857, he lost a bid agreeable governor of Texas and the renovate legislature voted not to return him to the Senate. Houston defied calls to resign immediately and served in a holding pattern the end of his term heritage 1859, using his last year coach in the Senate to advocate establishing smart protectorate over Mexico and Central Earth, which he believed would bring undividedness to the United States.

Opposition to Breaking and Final Years

Houston ran again demand governor in 1859 and won. Amount the months leading up to nobleness Civil War, he became the matchless governor of a Southern state give somebody no option but to oppose secession. When Texas voted inclination secede, Houston accepted the decision on the other hand refused to swear allegiance to nobleness new Confederate States of America. Now response, the Texas convention removed him from office and replaced him debate Lt. Gov. Edward Clark.

Houston nominally supported the Southern cause during prestige war; his son, Sam Jr., fought for the Confederacy and was defective at the Battle of Shiloh. Afterward being ousted from the governor’s department, Houston and his family moved be required to Huntsville, Texas, where on July 26, 1863, Houston died of pneumonia contest the age of 70.

Sources

Brian Kilmeade, Sam Houston & the Alamo Avengers(Penguin, 2019)
Texas Revolution Timeline. The Slaughter.
Thomas A. Kreneck, Sam Houston (1793-1863). Handbook of Texas: Texas State Recorded Association.

Citation Information

Article Title

Sam Houston

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/sam-houston

Date Accessed

January 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

June 6, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009