Forever on Guard

Posted on June 4, 2010 by bob in AroundMtgy

Horse-head sword hilt.

His right arm reaches across his body, hand grasping the horse-head hilt of the curved sword strapped to his hip, fingers curling around the weapon’s handle.

Eagle buckle.

The wings of the eagle gracing his belt buckle are spread in defiance. Arm, hand, fingers, sword, and belt buckle are frozen in time, sealed in bronze, forever on guard. He is, in a word, a statue. In history, however, he was much more.

This man portrayed in bronze has the unenviable and unsought honor of being the first U.S. military death in a battle that occurred not far from here, a battle waged under the command of Andrew Jackson. Just months prior to his death, following a successful campaign, Jackson himself had presented this young army major a pair of flintlock pistols which are now on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Reports indicate this officer died in the arms of a fellow soldier under his command, a man who later earned his own place in history far to the west, at a place called the Alamo. Sam Houston is said to have cradled the dying major’s head as the battle raged around them.

The face of Montgomery's Major.

According to Dr. I. N. Ternet, this soldier’s tombstone is the only marked grave on the battlefield where he died almost 200 years ago.

Find the statue of the man after whom our county is named, take a photograph of yourself there, and send it to Prime Montgomery. That way you, too, can be immortalized — at least for a little while.

Prime reader Kiki Mitchell discovered the resting place of last month’s lions, where they keep 24-hour watch over the Madison Avenue/ North Madison Terrace entrance to the Capitol Heights neighborhood in midtown Montgomery.