Brenan, William

William Brenan, soldier and legislator of the Republic of Texas, was born in Ireland. On October 25, 1835, he enlisted as a private in Capt. Samuel O. Pettus’s company of New Orleans Grays. He saw action at the Siege of Béxar and the disastrous battle of Coleto. He survived the infamous Goliad Massacre, however, and was discovered at Goliad by doctors J. H. Barnard and John Shackelford. He thereupon joined Capt. William H. Patton’s company – the so-called Columbia Company – of Col. Sidney Sherman’s Second Regiment, Texas Volunteers, in time to participate in the battle of San Jacinto.

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