Born in Massachusetts in 1805, Sidney Sherman led his crack Kentucky Militia Company to join the Texas Army in the War for Independence and commanded the cavalry wing at the Battle of San Jacinto. He later served as a major general and congressman in the Republic of Texas, built the second railroad west of the Mississippi River, and gave his name to the first engine to run in Texas, the General Sherman. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was put in command of fortifying Galveston, Texas's most valued seaport, where he set up a marine guard and batteries of cannon. He lost his eldest son in the Galveston recapture in 1863, and he died in 1873.