Blas María Herrera, courier, soldier, and scout, often called the “Paul Revere” of the Texas Revolution, was born on February 2, 1802, in San Antonio de Béxar. He spent his first years in the Ruiz home on the southwest corner of Military Plaza in San Antonio. He is listed as a sergeant on an 1820 roster of local militia. During the Siege of Bexar in late 1835, Herrera served under the command of Capt. Juan Nepomuceno Seguín and was a member of the assaulting force on December 5–9, 1835. Early in 1836 Seguín sent him to Laredo to keep surveillance on Mexican troop movements and to report any advance on San Antonio. About the middle of February, Herrera brought the information that Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna’s troops were approaching the city. Herrera’s next assignment was to escort and protect José Antonio Navarro and José Francisco Ruiz during their trip to Washington-on-the-Brazos, where they signed the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836. He died on July 9, 1878.

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John Ingram was born 1808 in Kentucky. On January 4, 1827, Ingram signed a petition with many others of Austin’s colony condemning the instigators of the Córdova rebellion as “traitors” and “infamous characters” and in 1832 declined the inducement of his friend Aylett C. Buckner to join in the attack on the Mexican fort at Velasco. In September 1835, however, he enlisted with Col. John H. Moore’s command and in October 1835 fought against Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos’s cavalry at the battle of Gonzales. In early December, as a member of Capt. Michael R. Goheen’s company, he served with great distinction at the Siege of Béxar. He reenlisted on March 15, 1836, and served until April 1 in the company led by Philip Haddox Coe. On March 21, 1836, he and three other men volunteered to guard the Atascosito Crossing of the Colorado River to prevent the Mexican army from crossing below Sam Houston’s army. Ingram led this party through the night and returned the next day to report to Houston. On April 1 he joined Capt. William W. Hill’s Company H of Col. Edward Burleson’s First Regiment, Texas Volunteers; he remained with this unit until May 29 or 30, when the company disbanded. Although Houston instructed a Maj. John Ingram, in an order dated April 5, 1836, to recruit volunteers for the army, at the battle of San Jacinto Ingram served as a private in Company H.

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