Moses Lapham
Moses Lapham (October 16, 1808 – 1838) was a soldier in the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution, noted for a daring action during the Battle of San Jacinto that helped seal the decisive Texian victory. Early years Moses Lapham was born near the town of Smithfield, Rhode Island, on October 16, 1808, to Amos and Marcy Aldrich Lapham. He moved to Mechanicsburg, Ohio, with his father and attended college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for a few years. Career Lapham arrived in Texas in the middle of 1831, and he taught school at San Felipe, Texas. He lived in the household of Thomas H. Borden, while assisting Borden with surveying work for about a year. Lapham spent three years in Ohio. However, by December 1835, he had returned to Texas and resumed work as a surveyor. Lapham enlisted in the Texas Army on February 23, 1836, and served as a scout. When General Sam Houston evacuated his troops from Gonzalez, Texas, Lapham was one of three sentinels who did not receive the orders. At one point, he was close enough to the advancing Mexican forces to be seen. Eventually he abandoned his post and fled to safety. In