Hardin, William Barnett

William Barnett Hardin, a participant in the Siege of Béxar and unofficial advisor to the Alabama-Coushatta Indians, was born 1806 in Tennessee. In November 1835 Hardin volunteered for service in an East Texas army unit for duty in the Texas war for independence from Mexico. He began his military service as a sergeant in Capt. Martin B. Lewis’s company, recruited from the territory of present Jasper, Tyler, and Polk counties. This company assembled near the Neches River and on November 16, 1835, began the long horseback trip to join the revolutionary army assembled outside San Antonio de Béxar. Sergeant Hardin entered San Antonio on December 6, 1835, and participated in the bitter house-to-house fighting that occurred during the next few days. On December 9 he received a leg wound that left him slightly crippled for the remainder of his life. He continued his army service for several months after the capture of San Antonio, and by September 1836 he was promoted to first lieutenant. He died on July 28, 1885, and was buried in the Holshousen Cemetery on the Coushatta Trace west of Moscow.