Houston, Sam (1793–1863), antebellum Texas leader.Born in Virginia, Sam Houston moved to Tennessee in 1807. A youthful runaway, he lived with the Cherokees from 1809 to 1812 and in 1813 enlisted in the U.S. Army. He left the army in 1818, moved to Middle Tennessee, became a lawyer, and launched a political career. A Jacksonian Democrat, Houston served in Congress from 1823 to 1827, when he was elected governor of Tennessee. He abruptly resigned the governorship in April 1829, following the breakup of his marriage, and went into exile with the Cherokees in present‐day Oklahoma.
Three years later, Houston traveled to Texas as an agent of the United States to the Comanches. Although little involved in planning the 1835–1836 Texas revolution against Mexico, Houston became commander‐in‐chief of the Texan forces. After initial setbacks suffered by units not under his immediate command, including the fall of the Alamo in March 1836, Houston's army won Texas independence at the Battle of San Jacinto (21 April 1836), defeating the Mexican commander Santa Anna. Houston was president of the Texas Republic in 1836–1838 and again in 1841–1844. Following the U.S. annexation of Texas in 1845, which he actively supported, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1846 to 1859.
During the 1850s, Houston's staunch unionism reduced his popularity in Texas. He won the governorship in 1859 but was removed from office when the
Civil War began in 1861 owing to his opposition to Texas's secession and his refusal to swear loyalty to the Confederacy. He retired to Huntsville, where he died. Sam Houston, more than any other individual, had brought Texas into the Union that he loved.
See also
Alamo, Battle of the;
Confederate States of America;
Democratic Party;
Jackson, Andrew;
Mexican War;
Texas Republic and Annexation.
Bibliography
Llerena B. Friend , Sam Houston: The Great Designer, 1954.
Randolph B. Campbell , Sam Houston and the American Southwest, 1993.
Randolph B. Campbell
