This Day In Texas History - February 19

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This Day In Texas History - February 19

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1813, the Spanish army under the Spanish Governor Salcedo and his his assistant Herrera abandon La Bahia (Goliad) and retreat to San Antonio.

1818 - Joanna Troutman, designer of an early Texas Lone Star flag, was born on February 19, 1818, in Baldwin County, Georgia, the daughter of Hiram Bainbridge Troutman. In 1835, in response to an appeal for aid to the Texas cause, the Georgia Battalion, commanded by Col. William Ward, traveled to Texas. Joanna Troutman designed and made a flag of white silk, bearing a blue, five-pointed star and two inscriptions: "Liberty or Death" on the obverse and, in Latin, "UBI LIBERTAS HABITAT, IBI NOSTRA PATRIA EST" (Where Liberty dwells, there is our fatherland)" on the reverse. She presented the flag to the battalion, and it was unfurled at Velasco on January 8, 1836, above the American Hotel. It was carried to Goliad, where James W. Fannin, Jr., raised it as the national flag when he heard of the Texas Declaration of Independence. The flag was accidentally torn to shreds, however, and only its remnants flew above the battle. She died on July 23, 1879, at Elmwood and was buried next to her first husband. In 1913 Texas governor Oscar B. Colquitt secured permission to have her remains taken to Texas for interment in the State Cemetery in Austin. A bronze statue by Pompeo L. Coppini was erected there as a monument to her memory; her portrait hangs in the state Capitol.

1836 - Fannin dispatched Duval(Burr H. Duval, commander of the Kentucky Mustangs) with teams and carts to take this artillery and ammunition and ordered Cooke to return with them to Goliad, where Cooke arrived about February 19. A council on February 19, in which Bonham represented Travis, caused Fannin to toy with the idea of moving his headquarters to Bexar or reinforcing the garrison there, but nothing was done. Fannin continued at Goliad, keeping his men busy rebuilding the old presidio, which he renamed Fort Defiance.

1838 - Indian captive Rachel Plummer was reunited with her husband after spending over a year with the Comanches. In May 1836 their settlement was attacked by a large group of Indians at Fort Parker in Limestone county. Five settlers were taken captive: Rachel and her son James Pratt Plummer, Cynthia Ann and John Parker, and Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg. James Pratt was taken from Rachel, and she never saw him again. Rachel became a slave to the Comanches. Rachel was ransomed by Mexican traders north of Santa Fe in June 1837. Several months later, Rachel's brother-in-law escorted her back to Texas, where she was reunited with her husband. In 1838 she published an account of her captivity entitled Rachael Plummer's Narrative of Twenty One Months Servitude as a Prisoner Among the Comanche Indians. This was the first narrative about a captive of Texas Indians published in Texas.

1846 - Having officially entered the Union on December 29th, 1845, The Republic of Texas officially ended on this date. James P Henderson became the first governor of the new State of Texas. In its 10 years of independence, Texas accumulated a large debt. In addition, Mexico never officially recognized Texas as an independent country. So upon entry into the United States, tensions between the US and Mexico reached a boiling point, leading to the Mexican American War. By 1851, the debt accumulated by Texas was paid by act of Congress, in exchange for Texas giving up claims to territory that today is part of five Western States. Texas gave up what is now: the panhandle of Oklahoma; the eastern 2/3 of New Mexico; about half of Colorado; the southwest corner of Kansas, and a sliver of land about 100 miles wide and 200 miles long extending into Wyoming.

1862 - The Seventh Texas Cavalry Regiment was organized in Victoria, Texas, in the summer of 1861. The unit registered nearly 1,000 effectives and was structured into ten companies. The men of the Seventh Cavalry were recruited primarily from the Texas counties of Washington, Bexar, Guadalupe, Williamson, Angelina, Polk, Trinity, Cherokee, Rusk, Walker, Houston, Anderson, and Tarrant. Shortly after being organized, the Seventh Cavalry was mustered into service in the Confederate Army and was assigned to Henry H. Sibley's Brigade, Department of Texas. On January 21, 1862, the unit was attached to the Army of New Mexico. From February 19 to August 7, 1862, the regiment participated in Sibley's campaign, including the major engagements at Valverde and Glorieta Pass. The Seventh Cavalry was among the forces that surrendered under the command of Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith on May 26, 1865. It appears that news of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia prompted the unit to disband on May 27, 1865, at Wild Cat Bluff, Texas.

1868 - William Lee (Will) Wright, famed captain of the Texas Rangers and sheriff of Wilson County, was born in Lockhart, Texas, on February 19, 1868. Wright participated in the transition of the Texas Rangers from their horseback era in the early 1900s to the modern rangers of the Texas Department of Public Safety after 1935. Four rangers-the "Big Four"-had an enormous impact on this change: M. T. (Lone Wolf) Gonzaullas, F. A. (Frank) Hamer, Thomas R. Hickman, and Wright. Wright's belief that there should be less political interference and patronage in ranger affairs became one of the axioms of the new order. Wright took part in ranger operations in an intermittent way for nearly four decades.

In 1898 Wright joined the Texas Rangers and ultimately became part of the company commanded by John M. Rogers. In 1902 he left the rangers and was elected sheriff of Wilson County. He was later elected president of the Texas Sheriffs' Association. He served in this post for fifteen years. In 1917 Governor William P. Hobby appointed Wright a ranger captain. He served in this capacity, except for a period of time between 1925 and 1927, until the end of the administration of Governor Ross S. Sterling in the early 1930s. Wright, called el capitán diablo (the devil captain), and the rangers under his command guarded the border during World War I, intervened in the railroad strikes of 1922, chased liquor smugglers, and brought law and order to such oil boom towns as Wink. Wright rejoined the rangers in 1935, served during the era of the Department of Public Safety, and left the service in 1939. So many relatives of Wright joined the Texas Rangers that they came be called, as one writer noted, "The Wright Family Rangers." Wright married Mary Ann (Molly) Brown in 1892; they had one daughter and six sons, two of whom were Texas Rangers. Milam H. Wright, a brother, also became a well-known ranger. Will Wright died on March 7, 1942, in Floresville.

1873 - While serving as representative for District Twenty-six—comprised of Bastrop and Fayette counties—to the Thirteenth Texas Legislature, Louis Franke was robbed and fatally injured at the state capitol in Austin. He is buried in Black Jack Springs.

1945 - In the Fifth Marine Division, Jack Lummus was among the first wave of marines that landed on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. Andrew Jackson Lummus, Jr., referred to as Jack, was born on October 22, 1915, in Ennis, Texas. As a rifle platoon leader, Lummus’s actions on March 8 against stubborn Japanese defenders on the island’s west coast, the Nishi Ridge, earned him the Medal of Honor. After a failed initial attempt to break through enemy lines, Lummus called for tank support to provide added firepower. After personally guiding the tanks into position in rugged terrain and ignoring hostile fire, he directed his men against the enemy. Moving forward in front of his men, Lummus with his carbine spotted an enemy pillbox that he quickly destroyed with several fragmentation grenades.

At the same time, Lummus was wounded in the shoulder and knocked off his feet from an enemy grenade, from a second pillbox. After regaining his composure, he destroyed the second pillbox and returned to his platoon. Urging his men forward and with little concern for his own fate, he saw a third enemy pillbox that he quickly destroyed. He continued to urge his men to move forward firing his carbine into enemy foxholes and spider traps. The one-man attack ended, however, when Lummus stepped on a mine that ripped off the lower half of his body. Somehow, Lummus pulled himself up and continued to give orders; “Don’t stop now! Keep going!” Inspired by their leader, the platoon continued to move forward, and by nightfall the Japanese line of defense had been broken.

Jack Lummus was one of the twenty-seven marines awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroics on Iwo Jima. In 1986 the United States Navy honored the Texas hero with the naming of a new maritime prepositioning ship—the USNS 1st LT Jack Lummus. On December 22, 1986, the Jack Lummus Memorial Park was dedicated in Ennis. Also in Ennis, the Jack Lummus Intermediate School is named in honor of the Lone Star hero. :patriot: :txflag:

1945 - Harlon Henry Block, marine, the first of four sons of Edward Frederick and Ada Belle Block, was born on November 6, 1924, at Yorktown, Texas. After graduating from Weslaco High School, he entered the marines, on February 18, 1943, in San Antonio. He completed basic training in San Diego, California, attended parachute training school, and was assigned to the First Marine Parachute Regiment. As a member of this unit he experienced his first combat duty during the Bougainville campaign. He subsequently appeared in one of the most famous battle photographs ever taken: the raising of the flag atop Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. After his parachute regiment was disbanded, on February 29, 1944, he was transferred to Company E, Second Battalion, Twenty-eighth Marines, Fifth Marine Division. This company landed on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.

Mount Suribachi, the 550-foot-high extinct volcano on the southern end of the island, was assaulted by the Twenty-eighth Marines on February 20. By mid-morning of February 23 they had reached the top of Suribachi and defeated the last Japanese defenders. Six marines raised a small flag to signal their victory to their fellow soldiers below. Later, a second, larger flag (ninety-six by fifty-six inches) was raised. Corporal Block helped with the second flag by stooping and guiding the base of the pole into the volcanic ash while the other five men heaved the flag upward. As the flag rose Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal snapped the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph. Corporal Block, however, never saw the famous picture. He was killed in action on March 1, 1945, when his unit advanced in the direction of Nishi Ridge. He was buried in the Fifth Marine Division Cemetery near the base of Mount Suribachi. :patriot: :txflag:
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