Deaf Smith: Scout of the Republic
Near Laredo, Texas
About five hundred yards northeast of this spot, a chapter of Texas history played out in February of eighteen thirty-seven. Erastus "Deaf" Smith, the celebrated scout of the Texas Revolution, led twenty-one Texans into a skirmish with a superior Mexican cavalry force from the Laredo garrison. Smith had already earned legend at San Jacinto the year before, where he destroyed the Vince's Bridge to cut off retreat, helping seal Texas independence.
Near-deaf from childhood illness, he relied on sharp eyes and extraordinary woodcraft. He died just months after this engagement, in November of eighteen thirty-seven, worn down by tuberculosis. A Texas county bears his name, and his likeness lives on as the embodiment of the frontier scout.
