The Brown Bess was a British smoothbore musket used during the Napoleonic War period with earlier models used during the American Revolutionary War. Mexico began purchasing these surplus muskets through British Arms Merchants in 1827. When General Santa Anna marched into Texas, this weapon was the dominant firearm used at the Battle of the Alamo on both sides. At the Battle of San Jacinto over six hundred were captured. Many of these muskets ended up at the West Bernard Station in present day Wharton County, Texas. Post Bernard was the first Texas Arsenal and by 1840 these muskets were transported to the new Houston Arsenal.
The Musket was acquired at the February 2004 Houston Gun Collectors Show and is presently owned by Freedom Documents Fund, Inc. of Jasper, Texas, a non-profit Texas Corporation. A tour is now being planned that will take the James Lathem Musket to the San Jacinto Museum of History, the Alamo, the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and to the Texas State History Museum. The Musket will be displayed in full battlefield dress with bayonet, sling and mounted flint. A special display case made out of the State Wood of Texas (Pecan) will be used to present the Musket.
No other complete firearm from the Mexican side of the Texas Revolution period has been identified. Since the Mexican Matamoros and Toluca Battalions were both at the Battle of San Jacinto and also in the assault of the Alamo, it is possible that this historic Musket was in both Battles. This treasure of the early history of the Republic of Texas will soon be available for public viewing.
