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You are here: Home / Biographies / Franks, L.B.

Franks, L.B.

November 12, 2014 by tcloud Leave a Comment

L. B. Franks was commander of the Texan artillery during the Siege of Bexar. On November 27, 1835, Gen. Edward Burleson, commander of the Texas forces, appointed Franks lieutenant colonel of the Texan artillery – comprising two cannons and fifteen gunners – and, due to the illness of James C. Neill, Franks served as artillery commander at the siege of Bexar, December 5–9, 1835. His one twelve-pounder, however, became unmounted, and the artillery did little effective service in the fight. Although fearful that the enemy had received a large-caliber mortar that would be damaging to the assaulting troops, Franks advised that the Texans not retreat but press home their attack on the Alamo. His irritation at Burleson’s aide-de-camp, Peter W. Grayson, for failing to forward reinforcements to the troops assaulting the Mexican fortifications caused him, on the third day of the battle, to send an intemperate note to Grayson, who thereupon withdrew from the army. Later that month Grayson and Franks met at San Felipe, and as a result of the meeting Franks published an apology to Grayson acknowledging that his note “was an unjust and wanton attack upon his feelings and character,” for which Franks asked Grayson’s pardon. The note, however, also drew the wrath of General Burleson, who, when Grayson was running for the presidency in 1838, attacked Franks as having held “a temporary but undeserved standing in the army.” Franks considered the attack mere “electioneering.”

On March 8, 1836, Franks wrote from the Nashville (Robertson) colony informing the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos that he had formed a volunteer company of thirty men to take the field against Indian raiders on the northern frontier. With this force, mounted at his own expense, Franks pursued the raiders to the headwaters of the Little River. There he hoped to induce them to attack his force, which he disguised to resemble an immigrant wagon train. His letter was referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. On April 23 George P. Digges reported to Sam Houston that he had organized two spy companies, one under Franks, which was to patrol between Robbins’ Ferry and Gonzales.

Handbook of Texas Online

Filed Under: Biographies, Siege of Bexar, Siege of Bexar Participants Tagged With: Siege of Bexar, Soldier, veteran

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Alamo Siege of Bexar Siege of Bexar Descendants Soldier veteran

Austin, William Tennant

William Tennant Austin, soldier and civil servant of the Republic of Texas, was born on January 30, 1809, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Susan (Rogers) and John Punderson Austin. On December 12, 1830 Stephen F. Austin had located land on Buffalo Bayou for William, who had established a mercantile trade before the end of […]

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Martin Baty Lewis (1806–1884), soldier and county official, was born in Clark County, Indiana, on January 13, 1806, the eldest son of Sally (Lemasters) and Samuel S. Lewis, who also served at the Siege of Bexar. He married Nancy Moore 1825 in Indiana and they had eleven children. He emigrated to Texas in January 1830, […]

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