Norman B. WOODS^[1]

1805 - 1843  (38 years)

• Name	Norman B. WOODS
  Born	13 Oct 1805	Troy, Lincoln, Missouri
  Gender	Male
  Military Event	Dawson Massacre - captured at Salado Creek
  Military Flag	Y
  Died	16 Dec 1843	Perote Prison, Perote, Veracruz, Mexico
  Buried	Perote Prison Moat, Perote, Veracruz, Mexico
  Person ID	I19324	Main
  Last Modified	15 Jun 2009

  
  

  Father	Zadock WOODS,   b. 18 Sep 1773, Brookfield, Worcester, Massachusetts ,   d. 18 Sep 1842, Bexar County, Texas  (Age 69 years)
  Mother	Minerva COTTLE,   b. 28 Jul 1776, Woodstock, Windsor, Vermont ,   d. 28 Mar 1839, Woods Fort, Fayette, Texas  (Age 62 years)
  Married	1797	Woodstock, Windsor, Vermont
  Family ID	F4314	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 13 Oct 1805 - Troy, Lincoln, Missouri  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  The Dawson Massacre was an event in the history of the Republic of Texas, in which 36 Texans were killed by Mexican soldiers and Texas Cherokee Indians with cannon on September 18, 1842 outside San Antonio, Texas. This event follows the Texan victory at the Battle of Salado Creek. On September 11, 1842, a Mexican force of almost 1,000 entered San Antonio and took control of the city, with minimal resistance from the Texans. When the news of the fall of San Antonio reached Gonzales, Mathew Caldwell formed a militia of 225 men and marched toward San Antonio. Caldwell's troops made camp about twenty miles east of San Antonio near Salado Creek and planned their attack on the Mexicans. On September 18, Caldwell sent a small band of rangers to draw the Mexicans toward the battlefield he had chosen. An estimated 850 Mexican soldiers moved out of San Antonio to attack the Texans. A separate company of 54 Texans, mostly from Fayette County, under the command of Nicholas Mosby Dawson, arrived at the battlefield and began advancing on the rear of the Mexican Army. The Mexican commander, General Adrian Woll, afraid of being surrounded, sent between 400 and 500 of his soldiers and one or two cannon to attack the group. The Texans were able to hold their own against the Mexican rifles, but once the cannon got range the Texan fatalities mounted quickly. Dawson realized the situation was hopeless and raised a white flag of surrender. In the fog of war, both sides continued to fire and Dawson was killed. The battle was over after a little more than one hour. It ended with thirty-six Texans dead, fifteen captured and three escaped. At the front, Caldwell's men had repelled several Mexican charges and inflicted heavy casualties. Woll was forced to retreat back to San Antonio. The next morning Caldwell's troops located the Dawson Battleground and buried the dead Texans in shallow graves. The dead Mexicans were not buried. Caldwell then unsuccessfully pursued Woll's forces south as they retreated from San Antonio. Caldwell returned to San Antonio, after the Mexicans successfully recrossed the Rio Grande. In late summer of 1848, a group of La Grange citizens retrieved the remains of the men killed in the Dawson Massacre from their burial site near Salado Creek. These remains and the remains of the men killed in the failed Mier Expedition were reinterred in a common tomb in a cement vault on a bluff one mile south of La Grange. The grave site is now part of the Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites.«s76 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson_Massacre»

  
  

• Sources

  [S44] Orcutt_001 gedcom file, Robert Waddell.