Plácido Benavides

Who was Plácido Benavides?

Plácido Benavides was an early Mexican-born settler in De Leon's Colony, Victoria County, Texas. Benavides earned himself the sobriquet of the Paul Revere of Texas for his 1836 journey from San Patricio to Goliad to Victoria, warning residents of the approaching Mexican army. He was twice elected alcalde of Victoria, Texas. He married into the powerful De León family, and with his wife Agustina became the father of three daughters. Benavides fought against the dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna, but did not feel Texas should be separated from Mexico.

He led a unit of Tejano fighters at the Battle of Goliad and then he proceeded with his company to San Antonio, where they fought against Martín Perfecto de Cos in the Siege of Bexar. On February 11, 1836, Benavides sent a warning to James Bowie inside the Alamo that Santa Anna was approaching. Benavides escaped the Battle of Agua Dulce and was able to warn James Fannin headquartered in Goliad of the enemy army's approach, as he had warned all towns between Agua Dulce and Goliad. When the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed on March 2, 1836, James Fannin discharged Benavides from the army and sent him home. On his route back to Victoria, Benavides spread the alarm about the march of the Mexican army. In 1836, Benavides and his family were among the Mexicans evacuated out of Victoria by Brigadier General Thomas Jefferson Rusk. His family exiled to Louisiana, where he died of an unknown cause the next year. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark number 6563 placed in 1936 at the SW Corner of S. Main and Juan Linn in Victoria, marks the site of the Benavides Round Top house.