Thomas William “Peg Leg” Ward, second commissioner of the General Land Office, three-time mayor of Austin, and United States consul to Panama, was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 20, 1807. In October 1835 he joined the New Orleans Greys and left for San Antonio de Béxar, and, on December 5 participated as an artillery officer in the attack that climaxed the Siege of Béxar. That morning a cannon ball smashed his right leg, necessitating its immediate amputation. He was fitted with a wooden leg and resumed his military duties, serving as a recruiter in New Orleans for Gen. Thomas Jefferson Green’s new brigade. In late May he returned to Texas as second-in-command of Green’s brigade, but by then hostilities had ended. Ward died in Austin on November 25, 1872 and was buried in the State Cemetery. In 1887 Ward County was named for him.

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David Hess Garner was born in Louisiana in 1807. In 1835, Capt. David Garner organized a company of volunteers. Armed with flintlock muskets and Bowie knives, his group of nineteen men, including his brother Jacob, set out for San Antonio. They arrived at the camp above Béxar on November 16, 1835. On December 4 Garner and his men were mustered into the company of James Chessher and Willis H. Landrum. Garner participated in the Siege of Béxar under Gen. Benjamin R. Milam. He was discharged from the army on December 13, 1835.

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Albert G. Gholson was born in Kentucky May 25, 1818. He joined the Texas army in 1835 and served successively under Capt. Carey White and Capt. Thomas Hudson Barron. Gholson participated in the battles of Gonzales and Concepción, and the Siege of Bexar. He is said to have participated in the battle of San Jacinto as well, but his name does not appear on the muster rolls of the companies involved. In 1837 Gholson served as first lieutenant in Capt. Tom Barron’s ranging company. Two years later he participated in an Indian battle near Morgans Point in Falls County. He died on June 10, 1860.

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Wilbur H. Cherry was born in Oswego, New York, on January 4, 1820, and at the age of fifteen ran away from home to join in the Texas Revolution. On November 21, 1835, he joined Capt. Andrew Briscoe’s company of Liberty Volunteers and subsequently participated in the Siege of Bexar. After the Texas Revolution Cherry joined the Army of the Republic of Texas, on December 24, 1839; he received a bounty payment of thirty dollars for enlisting as a private in Second Lt. R. W. Lee’s Company F of Col. Edward Burleson’s First Regiment, Infantry. He served briefly in Capt. Benjamin Y. Gillen’s Company I and on May 19, 1840, transferred into Capt. Adam Clendenin’s Company A at Galveston. Cherry died in Galveston on June 12, 1873.

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