Galveston in the Republic of Texas

After the first Texas Navy was lost in 1837, Galveston kept a naval base with almost nothing in it. The brig Potomac, bought in early 1838, never cruised and served as a receiving ship. The second navy arrived under the Dawson contract between June 1839 and April 1840, six vessels in all, among them the sloop-of-war Austin. The older steamer Zavala was run aground at Galveston to keep it from sinking, then broken up and sold for scrap in 1844. Commodore Moore, meanwhile, raised about $35,000 on his own signature to repair the fleet, because Houston withheld its appropriations.

What the plaque says

Galveston in the Republic of Texas Galveston Island, for centuries a crossroads for Indians, privateers, Spanish and French explorers, for a time was capital of the Republic of Texas. This was during the Texas War for Independence, when Santa Anna was making his 1836 invasion. On March 17, the hastily organized and interim cabinet of President David G. Burnet evacuated Washington-on-the-Brazos, moving to Harrisburg, and then in April to Galveston. Here it remained until after the Texas victory at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. From January 1836 until U. S. annexation in 1846, Galveston was the naval base for the fleet which protected shipping and sought to prevent Mexican invasion of Texas by way of the sea. By September 1837 the 4 ships of the Texas Navy had all been lost. Not until April 1840 was the navy reorganized under President M. B. Lamar. A former U. S. Naval officer, Edwin W. Moore, was made commodore. Afterward, when Moore became involved in a bitter controversy with President Sam Houston, Houston ordered the Navy to be sold. At the sale, the incensed people of Galveston used forceful means to prevent bidding. The ships at annexation were all transferred to the United States Navy. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• 1859 Ashton Villa — 0.3 mi
  A brick Italianate house on Broadway, built with enslaved labor in 1859, whose lawn has held Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration of General Orders, No. 3 every year since 1979.
• The Strand — 0.3 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.
• Moody Mansion — 0.4 mi
  A four-story, 28,000-square-foot house on Broadway, finished in 1895, that W. L. Moody Jr. bought just after the 1900 storm and his family kept until Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 0.4 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.

More markers nearby

• The Rt. Rev. Monsignor James Martin Kirwin — steps away
• Rabbi Henry Cohen — steps away
• George Campbell Childress — steps away
• Texas Bar Association — steps away