Benjamin Rush Milam

The Trespalacios expedition nearly ended Milam's career in a Mexican jail. In Veracruz and Mexico City he and José Félix Trespalacios met a hostile reception and were imprisoned. When James Long was shot by a guard, Milam was convinced Trespalacios had plotted it, and he and friends planned to kill him; the plot was found out, and only Joel R. Poinsett's influence freed them. Milam later became a Mexican citizen and colonel, went into silver mining in Nuevo León with Arthur G. Wavell, and cleared the Red River raft to bring his steamboat, the Alps, upriver.

What the plaque says

Benjamin Rush Milam (Front) Benjamin Rush Milam (Right) Preeminent Hero of Texas a man of rare initiative and courage. Of a modest and willing personality a devoted friend. Born in Frankford Kentucky in 1788 a soldier in the War of 1812. (Back) Trader with the Texas Comanche Indians in 1818 was a Colonel in the long Trespalacios expedition in 1820. Texas Colonizer 1826 to 1835. First navigator of the upper Red River in 1831. (Left) Assisted in the capture of Goliad October ninth 1835. Planned the attack on San Antonio and was killed on December seventh 1835 while commanding the Texas Forces which later captured the town . (back) Elected by the State of Texas 1936 with funds appropriated by the Federal Government to commemorate one hundred years of Texas Independence.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spanish Governor's Palace — 0.3 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 0.4 mi
  The Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.
• San Antonio River Walk — 0.7 mi
  A Depression-era park one level below downtown, built because San Antonio refused to pave its river after the 1921 flood, and designed by an architect the project later fired.

More markers nearby

• Emma Tenayuca — steps away
• Moses Austin — 0.3 mi
• Bexar County under Nine Governments — 0.3 mi
• Barbed Wire — 0.3 mi