Beason's Crossing

Benjamin Beason ran a ferry across the Colorado here, and for one week in March 1836 his crossing was the pivot of the Texas Revolution. Sam Houston brought his army to the east bank on the nineteenth and made camp. He was waiting for James Fannin and more than four hundred men to march up and join him from Goliad, which would have roughly doubled his strength and changed what he could afford to do. Across the water, General Sesma's Mexican division made camp in plain sight, positioned deliberately between the two nearest fords. The two armies watched each other across the river for days while the volunteers on the east bank argued about why they were not attacking. Houston declined to explain himself to them, then or afterwards, a habit that came close to costing him the army altogether. What arrived instead of Fannin was the news that Fannin's entire command had surrendered and been executed. Houston broke camp on the twenty sixth and continued east, and the civilian flight that followed, ahead of the retreating army, became known as the Runaway Scrape. Gonzales, this town and San Felipe de Austin were all burned as the army withdrew. Three weeks later the same army won at San Jacinto in eighteen minutes. The site is a riverside park today on the east side of the Colorado, with two historical markers, a pavilion and a kayak launch. The geography that made it matter, a wide shallow crossing with higher ground on the far side, is still perfectly readable from the bank.