Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was born in 1798 in Georgia and came to Texas in 1835, becoming immediately involved in the movement for independence from Mexico. After the fall of the Alamo and news of the Goliad Massacre, he joined the Texas Army as a private as Houston moved eastward toward San Jacinto. In the swiftly moving events that followed, Lamar was made a colonel on the eve of the Battle of San Jacinto, where he commanded cavalry with distinction, and ten days later he was named Secretary of War in the ad interim government. Elected vice-president in the new nation's first government, he became the anti-Sam Houston faction's candidate for president in the next election, won, and took office in 1838 for a three-year term. During his administration, the Republic of Texas was recognized by Great Britain and France. He was known for his forceful Indian policy and for his opposition to annexation. He laid the foundation for the first system of public education in Texas, and by his decision Austin was made capital of Texas. A poet and diplomat, he planned to write a history of Texas, but he died in 1859 before the book was well begun. His plantation was near Richmond, and he is buried near there in Morton Cemetery.