George Owens

The regiment Owens joined began in turmoil. The Ninth Cavalry was organized in haste in Louisiana in 1866 under white officers, many of whom refused to serve with Black soldiers, and it had no Black officers until the late 1880s. On April 9, 1867, a mutiny broke out at San Antonio and was put down with difficulty. The regiment then guarded the road to El Paso and stretches of the Rio Grande, and in 1870 Sergeant Emanuel Stance won its first Medal of Honor. It left Texas for New Mexico in 1875.

What the plaque says

George Owens After the War Department issued General Order 329 in October 1863, African Americans had the opportunity to fight in the Union Army. George Owens, born enslaved in 1843 in Kentucky, took this opportunity. Owens enlisted in the Union Army on June 28, 1864, most likely after his owner freed him. From 1864 to 1866, George Owens served in Company F of the 116th Colored Infantry. In 1865, the 116th participated in the Appomattox Campaign, a series of battles that led to the defeat of the Confederacy. When the Civil War ended, Congress authorized the creation of the 9th Cavalry, one of the new African American regiments. On October 7, 1866, Owens left the 116th and joined the 9th Cavalry. These men, called Buffalo Soldiers by Plains Native Americans, served in west and southwest Texas. Owens and his fellow soldiers served during the Indian Wars (1866-1891), major frontier campaigns against Native Americans used to continue westward expansion. These campaigns, however, contributed to the harmful, violent process of Native American removal in the 19th century. Soon after Owens joined, Troop F of the 9th Cavalry was sent to Fort Davis. While serving, the 9th rebuilt forts and protected stagecoaches, railroad crews and trains, and surveying parties from hostile forces. Many soldiers in the 9th Cavalry received the Medal of Honor, making it the most honored African American unit. Owens was discharged from the 9th Cavalry in the early 1870s. After his service, he settled in Corpus Christi and died soon after on June 4, 1879. Along with approximately 180,000 other African Americans, George Owens served in the Union Army and fought for his and other enslaved people's freedom. Additionally, his service in the 9th Cavalry highlights African Americans' historical significance in United States military history. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mirador de la Flor — 0.6 mi
  Corpus Christi's bayfront memorial to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Tejano singer from this city, killed in 1995 at twenty-three, visited by about thirty thousand people a year.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 0.7 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.
• Texas State Aquarium — 1.0 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 1.1 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.

More markers nearby

• Thomas S. Parker — steps away
• Explosion of the Steamship Dayton — steps away
• James Downing — steps away
• Old Bayview Cemetery — steps away