In the early morning of March 14, 1836, twenty eight Texans under Captain Amon B. King separated from Colonel William Ward's command in the mission church and later that day fought a desperate battle in a wood on the west bank of Mission River, a half mile below the town, against part of General Urrea's Mexican command. Five Texans were killed and five wounded, one of whom joined Colonel Ward in the church; the others escaped but were captured the next day. On March 14, 1836, Lieutenant Colonel William Ward, with less than one hundred and fifty men, successfully defended the Church of the Refugio mission against four successive attacks by General Jose Urrea's command and escaped from the church that night after losing only three men wounded, two left to care for them, and a few others as couriers or while separated from command. On March 16, 1836, Captain King and fourteen of his men, who had been made prisoners by General Urrea's cavalry the day before, were marched to the slope of the hill on Goliad road about one mile from the Refugio church and shot. Their bones were later buried where they fell by John Hynes, a twelve year old boy of Refugio who had been their friend. James Murphy of Refugio, Colonel Fannin's courier, killed nearby on March 14, was buried in their common grave. Those remembered here were Captain Amon B. King, Samuel Anderson, William Armstrong, Leslie G.H. Brady, James Henry Callison, John H. Colegrave, Thomas Cook, Fields Davis, Henry H. Eadock, Lewis C. Gibbs, James Henley, Joel F. Heth, Jesse C. Humphries, Harvey H. Kirk, William R. Johnson, Snead Ledbetter, James B. Murphy, George W. Penny, J.B. Rodgers, Antoine Sayle, William N. Simpson, Gavin H. Smith, John C. Stewart, Robert A. Toler, John Ward, Christopher Winters, and Samuel Wood, Texan soldiers killed in action or captured and afterward slain as a result of the fighting at Refugio on March 14, 15, and 16, 1836.