Many call Andrew Jackson the Father of Texas.
Born in the British Carolinas in 1767, he joined the rebels there as a
courier at the tender age of thirteen. He lost most of his family during the American Revolutionary War, developed a life-long hatred of the British, and immigrated to Virginian Kentucky along with other American patriots at war's end.
He became a man of some prominence in the region, and was elected to Congress on Kentucky's admission to the Union as a separate state. He resigned from Congress to join the fight in the War of 1804, and stayed in the
military to fight Indians in the Northwest Territory and Missouri for a time. After amassing quite a reputation as a soldier and Indian-fighter, he considered returning to Congress when the new nation of Mexico announced large land grants for foreigners willing to bring in settlers.
Jackson brought a number of Kentuckians with him to Mexican Texas. Jackson himself had a large plantation and imported slaves from the Province of Louisiana to work the land. Soon, however, Jackson found himself back as a fighter when he was approached by Texans to lead the efforts
against raiding Indians in the areas, especially the
Comanche. The combination of Jackson's leadership and the weakening of the Comanche by outbreaks of small pox allowed the Texans to push the Comanche out of Mexican Texas almost entirely.
When Mexico descended into civil war in 1825, the Anglophone population in
Texas declared independence, joined by some Spanish speaking Texans as well. The Texans again turned to Jackson, making him General of the Army of Texas.
Jackson launched what many historians call a brilliant campaign against the disorganized Mexican army sent to quell the Texans, throwing them back across the
Nueces River. Jackson also sent a small but well organized force under Brown along the Pecos River to it's source, and then west to seize Santa Fe, capital of New Mexico. Within two years, Mexico was forced to recognize Texan independence and control of Texas and New Mexico, though they disputed the Texan claim to California.
A monument commemorating Jackson as commanding General of the Army of Texas