You Likely Don't Know of the Tejano Patriots of the American Revolution

Pomp and patriotism ruled the hour at the Texas State Cemetery on Sept. 10.

Uniforms and flags. Flowers and ribbons. Pledges and prayers. Anthems and speeches. Poetry and pageantry.

Masses of symbolic snow white suits and blood red outfits, topped with sashes and medals.

Invocations, dedications and benedictions, plus the haunting strains of "Amazing Grace."

At the end of the morning ceremony that honored four Tejano patriots, whose names were newly added to the American Revolutionary War obelisk, the mournful sound of bagpipes wafted down from steep Monument Hill. 

"I'm a Seguin," said Jo Ann Herrera as she ran her finger across the name of her ancestor, Jose Santiago Seguin. "I'm proud of my ancestors."

The Texas Society Daughters of the American Revolution, who first dedicated the monument in 2009, have updated the list of patriots who died in Texas in 2014, 2017 and earlier this month.

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The details of this history were new to me. 

Nobleman Bernardo de Gálvez, namesake for Galveston, served as colonial governor of Spanish Louisiana from 1777 to 1783. That vast territory had been ceded by France to Spain in 1762 as part of a deal among Bourbon monarchs of both countries.

After the Americans declared independence, King Charles III of Spain secretly instructed Gálvez to supply the American revolutionaries with medicine, guns, gunpowder and uniforms. 

Gálvez, who had earlier fought the Apaches along the Pecos River, directly confronted the British once Spain declared war on the British in 1779. Based in New Orleans, he fought them along the Gulf Coast to Florida and eventually the Bahamas.