Breece, Thomas H.

Thomas H. Breece joined a company of New Orleans Grays in New Orleans and marched with his comrades to San Augustine and Nacogdoches, where the battalion was officially organized. Breece was elected captain. His lieutenants were John J. Baugh and George Washington Main. According to a circular printed in Nacogdoches during the time of their visit, the men of Breece’s company were “mostly athletic mechanics, who have abandoned their homes and lucrative employments for the disinterested purpose of sustaining the righteous cause of freedom. Their very appearance must convince every Texian that they will either ‘do or die'”. Breece and his fifty-four-man company served at the Siege of Bexar, December 5–10, 1835, where they took part in the capture of the Veramendi Palace. Sam Houston ordered him, December 21, 1835, from Washington-on-the-Brazos, to proceed “to whatever point you may deem best for the interest of the service & there recruit as many men as you possibly can”. Breece was then to report to Copano or Matagorda by March 1, 1836.