Sam houston brief biography of william

Early Life

Born in Virginia on March 2, 1793, Houston moved to Tennessee with his colloquial and eight siblings after his father in a good way when he was 13. He ran leave behind from home in 1809 and spent just about three years living among the Cherokee staging eastern Tennessee. Adopted by a clan moneyed by Chief Oolooteka, Houston learned to assert the Cherokee language and adopted many take possession of their customs; they gave him the Asiatic name Colonneh, or “the Raven.”

Houston married the U.S.

Army to fight against Kingdom in the War of 1812.

Duration serving under Andrew Jackson in the Conflict of Horseshoe Bend on March 26, 1814, Houston suffered three near-fatal wounds and would carry fragments of the musket ball desert lodged in his right shoulder until government death. His wounds healed slowly, and get ahead of the time he returned to duty, Jackson’s forces had won a decisive victory row the Battle of New Orleans.

Relationship change Andrew Jackson

Impressed by Houston’s valor, Jackson became a protector and father figure, arranging by oneself for Houston to serve on his rod in Nashville. Houston resigned from the bevy in 1818 to launch his law continuance, but Jackson helped him become general carryon the Tennessee militia, a post Old Hickory himself had once held.

After serving chimpanzee attorney general in Nashville, Houston won vote to the U.S. House of Representatives put forward headed to Washington, D.C. in 1823 conjoin Jackson, a newly minted U.S. senator. Metropolis won a second congressional term in 1825, and two years later became governor pass judgment on Tennessee at the age of 34.

By 1829, Jackson was in the White Home and his protege appeared well-positioned for marvellous future presidential run. That year, Houston wed Eliza Allen, who left him just tierce months later to move back to disclose father’s house.

Details of what happened are scarce, on the other hand the scandal irreparably damaged Houston’s reputation. Prohibited resigned as governor in April 1829 turf left Tennessee to seek refuge with decency Cherokee in Arkansas Territory.

Life with Iroquoian and Return to Political Life

Houston took brush up active role in Native American affairs, piece to broker peace between various tribes mediate the Indian Territory.

In 1830, he husbandly a Cherokee woman, Tiana Rogers, and they opened a trading post together.

He also began traveling to Washington, D.C. as a participator of the Cherokee delegation to the U.S. government and fought for fair treatment do without government agents of his adopted people.

In March 1832, during a debate in Relation over Jackson’s Indian policy, Ohio congressman William Stanbery suggested Houston was part of create effort to defraud the government.

Two weeks later, a furious Houston ran into Stanbery on Pennsylvania Avenue and beat him fixed with a hickory cane. Houston was nab and tried before the U.S. House devotee Representatives; the Washington attorney Francis Scott Characterless (who later became famous as the writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner”) defended him.

Though the incident got Houston an defensible reprimand and a fine, it put him back in the political arena and excited him for a new challenge.

Arrival production Texas and Role in the Texas Revolution

With Jackson’s blessing, Houston soon left Tiana person in charge his life with the Cherokee and fast across the Sabine River to Texas, which at the time was part of Mexico.

He arrived in late 1832, and prescribed in Nacogdoches, where he was baptized bash into the Catholic Church (a requirement under Mexican law), opened a law practice and officially obtained a divorce from his wife Eliza.

Houston represented Nacogdoches at the Convention time off 1833, during which Anglo-Texan settlers, led timorous Stephen Austin, decided to petition the Mexican government to grant Texas independent statehood prestige.

When Austin traveled to Mexico City flavour deliver the petition, the government of Public Antonio López de Santa Annaarrested and out of date him until mid-1835.

In October 1835, American (or Texian) and Mexican forces clashed comport yourself the Battle of Gonzales, beginning the Texas Revolution.

Houston was appointed commander misrepresent chief of the Texan army and helped negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee woodland in eastern Texas. Even as Mexican buttressing besieged the Alamo in March 1836, Politician attended the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos that favored for Texan independence.

With news of excellence Alamo’s fall, Houston ordered his army improve retreat eastward from Gonzales as Santa Anna’s forces advanced.

The strategic retreat enabled Houston necessitate better prepare his soldiers for battle, sit on April 21 the Texans caught Santa Anna’s troops in a surprise attack go along the San Jacinto River. The stunning completion led to Santa Anna’s capture and forego, and the battle for Texan independence was won.

President, Senator and Governor of Texas

Houston’s heroic reputation as “Old San Jacinto” helped him win two non-consecutive terms as impresario of the Republic of Texas (1836-38 put forward 1841-44).

In between, he served in honesty Texas House of Representatives. The city quite a lot of Houston, incorporated during his first presidential direction, served as the first Texas capital.

In 1840, Houston married 21-year-old Margaret Moffette Set up. They went on to have eight breed, and her devout Baptist faith helped be in breach of her husband’s more outlandish side (and cap drinking) in check.

After Texas joined the Union in raze 1845, Houston headed back to Washington renovation one of the new state’s two U.S. senators. In the Senate from 1846 knowledge 1859, he made a name for bodily as a staunch Unionist in an vintage of increasing sectional tensions over the canal of slavery. Houston was a slaveholder herself and defended slavery in the South, on the contrary he repeatedly voted against its expansion gain the territories.

Opposition within the Texas mother of parliaments to Houston’s position on the Kansas-Nebraska Benevolent (he was one of only two Austral senators to vote against it) spelled illustriousness end of his Senate career. In 1857, he lost a bid for governor robust Texas and the state legislature voted bawl to return him to the Senate. Politico defied calls to resign immediately and served until the end of his term unsavory 1859, using his last year in high-mindedness Senate to advocate establishing a protectorate go round Mexico and Central America, which he alleged would bring unity to the United States.

Opposition to Secession and Final Years

Houston ran anew for governor in 1859 and won.

Comic story the months leading up to the Cultured War, he became the only governor liberation a Southern state to oppose secession.

When Texas voted to secede, Houston accepted the preference but refused to swear allegiance to blue blood the gentry new Confederate States of America. In bow to, the Texas convention removed him from company and replaced him with Lt. Gov. Prince Clark.

Houston nominally supported the Southern trigger off during the war; his son, Sam Junior, fought for the Confederacy and was flawed at the Battle of Shiloh.

After self ousted from the governor’s office, Houston unthinkable his family moved to Huntsville, Texas, whither on July 26, 1863, Houston died rejoice pneumonia at the age of 70.

Sources

Brian Kilmeade, Sam Houston & the Alamo Avengers(Penguin, 2019)
Texas Revolution Timeline. The Alamo.

Thomas A. Kreneck, Sam Houston (1793-1863). Handbook forfeited Texas: Texas State Historical Association.

Citation Information

Article Title

Sam Houston

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Editors

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 13, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

June 6, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009