[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2587]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                   SAMUEL McCULLOCH, JR.--FIRST BLOOD

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, born in South Carolina in 1810, Sam McCulloch, 
Jr. arrived in Texas with his father and three sisters just prior to 
the Texas War for Independence from Mexico.
  McCulloch was a free black, and with his freedom he volunteered as a 
private in the Texas Army to fight for independence. On October 9, 
1835, McCulloch took part in the Battle of Goliad. While storming the 
Mexican line, McCulloch was severely wounded when a musket ball 
shattered his right shoulder. Thus, Samuel McCulloch, Jr. became the 
first Texas casualty of the war.
  After Texas won its independence and became a free Republic, Samuel 
McCulloch, Jr. went on to fight against the Comanches along with the 
Texas Rangers at the famous Battle of Plum Creek, and he served as a 
spy for the Texas Army when Mexico reinvaded Texas in 1842. Later, 
McCulloch lived as a farmer and a rancher with his family on the land 
that the Texas government gave him for his service to the Republic.
  He died in November of 1893. He triumphed over all obstacles and 
voluntarily risked life and limb to establish freedom for Texas, the 
land he loved. During Black History Month, we honor this freedom 
fighter and this first to shed blood for Texas independence.
  And that's just the way it is.

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