Isaac D. Hamilton (1804-1859) was a
Texas Revolutionary soldier and survivor of the
Goliad Massacre. A native of
Alabama, Hamilton joined Dr.
Jack Shackelford
Jack Shackelford (March 20, 1790 – January 22, 1857) was an American doctor, politician and soldier. He raised and led a unit in Courtland, Alabama called the Red Rovers or the Alabama Red Rovers to fight in the Texas Revolution. He was on ...
's
Red Rovers
The Red Rovers, commonly referred to as the Alabama Red Rovers, was a military volunteer company organized in Courtland, Alabama to support the Texas Revolution. Raised by doctor and planter Jack Shackelford in November 1835, the unit took its na ...
in 1835 and fought in the
Battle of Coleto where he was badly wounded. Hamilton escaped the massacre of 425 men on March 27, 1836, along with three other members of the Red Rovers, including
Dillard Cooper
Dillard Cooper (1814-1896) was an American farmer and Texas Revolutionary soldier who survived the Goliad massacre. Born in South Carolina, Cooper married his first wife, Lucinda, and moved first to Tennessee and then to Courtland, Alabama.
I ...
. Hamilton's wounds made travel painful and slow and, at his own insistence, the other three left him behind. Hamilton was recaptured and was in transit to be executed when two Mexican women helped him make his escape. He linked back up with
Texian forces and eventually made his way back to Alabama.
Hamilton would spend the next two decades attempting to gain title to a
league of land (4,428.4
acres) that had been promised Texas Revolutionaries for their service, first from the
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...
then from the State of
Texas. Hamilton was finally granted land near present-day
Beaumont but, having never recovered fully from his wounds, died after making the trip to Texas before the land could even be surveyed. He is buried in the Old Moulton Cemetery in
Moulton,
Lavaca County, Texas.
References
People of the Texas Revolution
1804 births
1859 deaths
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