Manuel Tarín was born 1811 in San Antonio de Béxar, the oldest son of Vizente Tarín, an officer in the Second Flying Company of San Carlos de Parras (Alamo de Parras Company. Manuel became a private in the reorganized Alamo de Parras Company, serving under Lt. Col. José Francisco Ruiz by 1830. That year the Alamo de Parras Company was ordered to build and occupy Fort Tenoxtitlán, a remote frontier garrison on the Brazos River. Over a two-year period sporadic payroll shipments, isolation, and eventually starvation prompted numerous desertions from the post. Tarín deserted twice and each time was arrested and restored to duty with little more than a reprimand. He returned to San Antonio with the Alamo Company in September 1832. His continued discontent with the Mexican military was further demonstrated in the spring of 1833, when he was apprehended with his brother, José Vizente Tarín, and another accomplice attempting to steal guns from the Alamo arsenal. Tarín, like many other Tejano dissidents, ultimately aligned himself with the growing Texas army. He participated in the Siege of Béxar in 1835 under Stephen F. Austin’s command. By February 22, 1836, he had mustered into Juan N. Seguín’s company of Tejanos. Although he was present with Seguín at San Jacinto, illness prevented him from participating in the final battle. He served for the duration of the war and left the army in the rank of corporal in July 1837. He died sometime after 1849.

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Thomas Jefferson Smith was born 1808 in Virginia. He entered Texas in 1835 as a member of the Georgia Battalion and saw action during the Siege of Béxar. Afterward he was attached to James Walker Fannin’s Goliad command. As a member of William Ward’s contingent Smith, a private in Uriah I. Bullock’s company, fought at the battle of Refugio. He retreated from Refugio with others in Ward’s command but was later captured near Victoria. He was one of sixteen men detained by the Mexicans at Victoria on March 23 to build a boat and was thus spared from the Goliad Massacre. He was, however, twice wounded, by a bullet in the hand during the battle of Refugio, and by a bayonet in the buttock while a prisoner. Late in April 1836 he escaped from the Mexicans and on June 15 was honorably discharged by Thomas Jefferson Rusk. He died on February 16, 1890, and was buried in Morton Cemetery, Richmond.

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Francis Moore joined the Texas army, probably in October 1835, and participated in the Siege of Béxar.

John Sharp was one of the signers of a petition calling for a general convention of the people of Texas to “quiet the present excitement” against Mexican rule. He served at the Siege of Béxar, and on November 28, 1835, he and seven other citizens of Brazoria County petitioned the provisional government of Texas to fortify the east end of Galveston Island, the mouth of the Brazos River, and the entrance to Matagorda Bay against Mexican naval forces. To pay for these installations and their garrisons, the committee suggested the opening of customhouses at those ports of entry. On March 24, 1836, Sharp was elected first lieutenant of Capt. Robert J. Calder’s Company K of Col. Edward Burleson’s First Regiment, Texas Volunteers, and he immediately returned to Brazoria, apparently as a recruiting officer. There on March 27 he wrote his assurances to his fellow citizens that Sam Houston’s army would not retreat from the Colorado River but would march west, pushing the Mexican army before it. “Let but the men of Texas turn out, with arms in their hands, resolved to be free or die,” he wrote, “and their families will be as safe here as on the other side of the Sabine.” Sharp returned to the army in time to serve at the battle of San Jacinto. In 1837 Sharp was aboard the schooner Julius Caesar when it was captured by a Mexican naval squadron, and he was imprisoned for a time with William H. Wharton at Matamoros. He died in Velasco on August 17, 1840.

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