Bennet, Valentine

Valentine Bennet was born 1780 in Massachusetts. He fought in the War of 1812. In 1832 he took a leading part in the battle of Velasco, where he was severely wounded in the face and hip. He moved to Gonzales in 1834 and in 1835 was one of the eighteen men who defied Domingo de Ugartechea’s order in the battle of Gonzales. Bennet was elected lieutenant when the Gonzales militia was organized, and from that time on he was in the thick of the Texas Revolution. He participated in the battle of Concepción in October 1835 and the Siege of Béxar in December. He held the rank of assistant quartermaster and received honorable mention from Gen. Edward Burleson for efficiency in keeping the army well supplied. Later, as quartermaster of the revolutionary army, he was kept busy supplying beef for Sam Houston’s growing forces as the general retreated from Gonzales to the battleground of San Jacinto. After the battle of San Jacinto Bennet remained with the army. In 1841 he was commissioned a major in the quartermaster’s department of the Army of the Republic of Texas and was sent on the Texan Santa Fe expedition. Among the other Santa Fe prisoners he suffered many indignities and cruelties at the hands of his Mexican guards; in August 1842 the prisoners were released, and Bennet returned to Texas. He reentered the Texas army when Gen. Adrián Woll invaded Texas; subsequently, he took part in the Somervell expedition. He died July 24, 1843, and was buried in the old cemetery at Gonzales.

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