Swisher, James Gibson

James Gibson Swisher was born 1794 in Tennessee. In the War of 1812 he served as a private in Capt. David Mason’s company of Tennessee militia and in Capt. John Donelson’s company of United States Mounted Rangers. Swisher participated in the two battles of New Orleans. He was elected captain of a military company organized in Washington Municipality at the beginning of the Texas Revolution. His Texas military service began on October 8, 1835 and his company participated in the Siege of Béxar in December 1835. Gen. Edward Burleson appointed Swisher one of the three commissioners to negotiate the surrender of Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos on December 11, 1835. Swisher remained with the revolutionary army until he was elected one of four delegates from Washington Municipality to the Convention of 1836 on February 1, 1836. At the convention he participated in debates and urged payment of land bounties to reward military service as well as careful examination of all bounty claims. He accompanied his family in the Runaway Scrape and assisted in the evacuation of Washington-on-the-Brazos. Swisher later served in Capt. William W. Hill’s company of rangers on the frontier from July to October 1836. He died in Austin in 1862.

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