George Washington Poe was born 1800 in Ohio. In October 1835 Poe was serving as a volunteer captain in the artillery branch, assigned to mounting the army’s cannons. By November 6 he was with the artillery company engaged in the Siege of Béxar. On December 30, 1835, he was acting adjutant general of Gen. Sam Houston’s army with the rank of captain and was stationed at army headquarters in Columbia. Among his duties was supervising the construction of fortifications at Galveston and Velasco. On January 16, 1836, the General Council commissioned him third lieutenant in the artillery regiment of the yet-unformed regular army, but by January 30 of that year Houston was referring to him as “major,” no doubt his volunteer rank.

On February 2, upon hearing rumors that Houston had been superseded in command by Francis W. Johnson and James W. Fannin, Jr., Poe wrote to Houston that he and his fellow staff officers “do not nor will not know any other General than Sam Houston” and assured him that “there is no other man in Texas capable of leading an army into the field.” Nevertheless, in the vacuum of leadership created by the confusion of command, Poe began to report directly to President Henry Smith, whose orders he vowed to obey even “if they are to march to the devil.” By March 6 Poe had been appointed assistant inspector general of the army and was commanding the 120-man garrison at Velasco, a force that he had personally trained; “a finer looking set of men I never want to have,” he boasted. Momentarily expecting an amphibious assault upon that place, he wrote an urgent appeal to the editor of the Mobile Register outlining the grave peril of the Texas colonists and calling upon United States citizens, “by the sacred ties of country, language, habits and kindred,” to come to their assistance. When the General Council established a regular army for the Republic of Texas on March 10, 1836, Poe was commissioned a captain of artillery. In a letter to Thomas J. Rusk dated March 13, 1836, Poe protested that he should have been made a major, objecting that “I do not like that men by nature intended for farmers & not soldiers & whom education has done nothing for” had been made his superiors. On March 14 Poe left Velasco with his company and a five-gun artillery battery to join Houston, and by March 23 he was with the army at Beason’s Crossing on the Colorado River. Many sources place him at the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. On May 3 Poe was at army headquarters at San Jacinto, and on June 4 he commanded the artillery piece that fired a salute over the remains of Fannin’s command at La Bahía. After serving on court-martial duty through June and July, he was chosen by 116 fellow officers and men to present a petition to Sam Houston to return and take command of the army. Poe was named acting paymaster general on October 12, 1836, and charged with the responsibility for establishing a pay department for the Army of the Republic of Texas, which he based on that of the United States Army. At the funeral of Stephen F. Austin on December 29, 1836, he served as marshal and led the procession. On February 28, 1837, Houston ordered auditor John W. Moody to audit Poe’s accounts as paymaster general and acting quartermaster general; by that time Poe had achieved the rank of colonel. On June 5, 1837, the House of Representatives validated his claims.

Poe died in 1844.

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Lewis M. H. Washington was born 1813 in Georgia. He participated in the Siege of Béxar in December 1835, as a member of James W. Fannin’s staff. In 1838 he delivered the eulogy on Charles Edward Hawkins, late commander of the Independence in the Texas Navy. Before April 1840 Washington and Edwin Ward Moore purchased the vessel Merchant for the Texas Navy. While his family lived in Nashville, Texas, part of Robertson’s Colony, on the Brazos River, Washington spent most of his time in Austin writing sentimental, political, and philosophical articles for several newspapers and taking part in various skirmishes with Mexico. He was captured in Costa Rica by Costa Rican forces and later shot under the orders of General Moro.

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William Tom was born 1792 in Southwest Territory (Tennessee). He participated in the battles of Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans in the War of 1812. In June and July 1835 Tom organized his neighbors for campaigns against the Comanche and Tawakoni Indians. He joined the Volunteer Army of Texas at Gonzales on October 10, 1835, and marched with it to San Antonio, where he participated in the battle of Concepción and the Grass Fight. He was with Ben Milam in the Siege of Béxar and remained in San Antonio under the command of James C. Neill until February 11, 1836, when he returned to Washington-on-the-Brazos in time to assist in the evacuation during the Runaway Scrape. Tom commanded a ranger company on the Sabinal River during the period of the Republic of Texas. Tom died in 1871.

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