Henry Wax Karnes (1812 - 1840)

Born 8 Sep 1812 in Rogersville, Hawkins, Tennessee, United States

Ancestors

Died 16 Aug 1840 at age 27 in Bexar County, Republic of Texas

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Biography

Henry Karnes was a Texan.

Henry Karnes is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Texian Army (Militia) 1835-1840
Texas Revolution, achieved the rank of Colonel

Henry Karnes migrated from (born in TN), AR to Mexican Texas in 1835.

KARNES, HENRY WAX (1812–1840). Henry Wax Karnes, soldier of the Republic of Texas, was born in Hawkins County, Tennessee on September 8, 1812. He was the son of George Karnes Junior and Hannah Wax. The grandson of Captain Henry Wax, Veteran of the American Revolution.

While he was still an infant his parents moved to Arkansas, where his father, a hunter and trapper, taught him the ways of the woods. Karnes visited Texas in 1828 and soon returned to Texas and was employed by Jared Ellison Groce on his Plantation. With the outbreak of the Texas Revolution he enlisted as a private in Capt. John York's volunteer company and distinguished himself in the battle of Concepción and the siege of Bexar.

Karnes was dispatched with Erastus (Deaf) Smith and Robert E. Handy from Gonzales to ascertain the fate of the Alamo, and was the first to return to General Sam Houston's army with word of its fall.

On March 20, 1836, with a force of five men, he defeated a party of twenty Mexican soldiers on Rocky Creek.

By April of 1836, the battle of San Jacinto , he was a captain and was second in command of Mirabeau B. Lamar's cavalry corps. His service as a scout before the battle was of great value to Houston's army; after the chaotic and disorderly retreat of the enemy his cavalry company led the pursuit of fugitives from Antonio López de Santa Anna's army. After being promoted to colonel for his contribution to the Texian victory, he was imprisoned on 10 June 1836 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico but he escaped.

On December 28, 1838, Colonel Karnes was authorized to raise eight companies of Texas Rangers for frontier defense.

He applied for a headright in 1838 and received 1,920 acres as a reward for his services.

On August 10, 1839, he commanded twenty-one rangers in a fight against an estimated 200 Comanches near Arroyo Seco. Karnes was wounded by an arrow and never fully recovered.

On August 16, 1840, after accepting the command of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, Colonel Karnes died of Yellow Fever in San Antonio, Texas.

Colonel Henry Wax Karnes was buried in a "plot outside the fence" (because he was a protestant and only Catholic were allowed to be buried inside the fence) of the (former) Campos Santo Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas This cemetery was later moved and Santa Rosa Hospital was built in its place across from Milam Park. A monument to Karnes was erected in the park in 1932, as this was the closest to his grave that the city knew of.^[1]

Karnes City, Texas and Karnes County, Texas are Colonel Karnes's namesakes. ^[2][3]

Sources

• Handbook of Texas Online, Thomas W. Cutrer, "Karnes, Henry Wax," accessed July 17, 2016, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fka02.

• ancestry.com, Tutt Family Tree, Henry Wax Karnes Profile and Facts

http://person.ancestry.com/tree/25568071/person/1678618159/facts?_phtarg=NpW2636

• Henry Wax Karnes in Handbook of Texas Online website

1. ↑ Henry Wax Karnes Memorial #5608081 on findagrave.com
2. ↑ http://www.texascounties.net/statistics/naming.htm
3. ↑ http://www.genealogytrails.com/tex/state/countynamedafter.html