Soldier, colonizer and entrepreneur. As a member of the Kentucky militia, he fought for several months in the War of 1812. After moving to Texas in 1818, he engaged in trade with the Comanche Native Americans. In 1819, he began involvement in activities to help Mexico and Texas gain independence from Spain. He subsequently gained Mexican citizenship and became a colonel in the Mexican army in 1824. After Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna overthrew the representative government of Mexico and established a dictatorship, Milam joined the Texas independence movement. He helped capture Goliad, and then marched with forces joining the main army to capture San Antonio. While returning from a scouting mission in the Southwest on December 4, 1835, Milam learned that a majority of the army had decided not to attack San Antonio as planned, but to go into winter quarters. Convinced that this decision would be a disaster for the cause of independence, Milam then made his famous impassioned plea: "Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?" Three hundred volunteered and the attack, which began at dawn on December 5, ended on December 9 with the surrender of General Martin Perfecto de Cos and the Mexican army there. During the siege, Milam was shot in the head by a sniper and died instantly. In 1897, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas erected a monument at Milam's gravesite in what is now Milam Park, once the area of the "Campo Santo" cemetery of San Fernando Cathedral, in San Antonio. The marker was moved in 1976, and the exact location of the grave was forgotten until 1993, when a burial was unearthed that archeologists think is probably Milam's. A new monument, on which the original Milam statue has been placed, now provides the final resting place for Ben Milam. The original monument stands nearby.
Soldier, colonizer and entrepreneur. As a member of the Kentucky militia, he fought for several months in the War of 1812. After moving to Texas in 1818, he engaged in trade with the Comanche Native Americans. In 1819, he began involvement in activities to help Mexico and Texas gain independence from Spain. He subsequently gained Mexican citizenship and became a colonel in the Mexican army in 1824. After Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna overthrew the representative government of Mexico and established a dictatorship, Milam joined the Texas independence movement. He helped capture Goliad, and then marched with forces joining the main army to capture San Antonio. While returning from a scouting mission in the Southwest on December 4, 1835, Milam learned that a majority of the army had decided not to attack San Antonio as planned, but to go into winter quarters. Convinced that this decision would be a disaster for the cause of independence, Milam then made his famous impassioned plea: "Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?" Three hundred volunteered and the attack, which began at dawn on December 5, ended on December 9 with the surrender of General Martin Perfecto de Cos and the Mexican army there. During the siege, Milam was shot in the head by a sniper and died instantly. In 1897, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas erected a monument at Milam's gravesite in what is now Milam Park, once the area of the "Campo Santo" cemetery of San Fernando Cathedral, in San Antonio. The marker was moved in 1976, and the exact location of the grave was forgotten until 1993, when a burial was unearthed that archeologists think is probably Milam's. A new monument, on which the original Milam statue has been placed, now provides the final resting place for Ben Milam. The original monument stands nearby.
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