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This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Scurlock, Mial

by R. H. Detrick, 1994; Revised by Jared Dease, Government and Heritage Library, January 2023

25 May 1803–6 Mar. 1836

"The Alamo," San Atonio, Texas, photograph 1909. From the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. Mial Scurlock, defender of the Alamo, was born in Chatham County, the second oldest of five children of Joseph and Martha Jones Glosglow Scurlock. The other children—in order of birth—were Joseph, Eliza, William, and Timothy. In 1826 the Scurlock family moved to Tennessee and later to Mississippi. In 1834 Mial and his brother William, along with the people they enslaved, migrated to Texas. They entered the territory at Gaines Ferry at the Sabine River Crossing on the Old San Antonio Road. Subsequently they settled in San Augustine. On 17 Oct. 1835 both men joined the Texas army as privates.

Mial and William Scurlock took part in the siege of San Antonio de Béxar, which lasted from 5 to 12 Dec. 1835. After General Martin Perfecto de Cós's forces were defeated, Mial remained in San Antonio, while his brother joined a detachment of troops destined for Matamoros. Mial was still in San Antonio in February 1836, when the forces of Cós's brother-in-law, General Antonio López de Santa Anna, reached the town. Mial joined the other Texans in San Antonio in defending the Alamo. He died when the Alamo fell on 6 March.

References:

Alamo records (Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio).

Sheppard Family Bible (Sheppard Memorial Library, Greenville, N.C.).

W. P. Webb, ed., The Handbook of Texas, vol. 2 (1952).

Amelia W. Williams, "A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and the Personnel of Its Defenders," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 37 (1933–34).

Additional Resources:

Groneman, Bill.  "SCURLOCK, MIAL," Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association.(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsc34), accessed May 05, 2014.

"The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas". Photograph. 1909. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002722786/ (accessed May 5, 2014).

"Remember the Alamo." American Experience, PBS.org. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/alamo/ (accessed May 5, 2014).

Image Credits:

"The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas". Photograph. 1909. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002722786/ (accessed May 5, 2014).

Subjects: 
Biographies
Military personnel
Militias
War
Authors: 
Detrick, Robert H.
Origin - location: 
Chatham County
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1994 | Detrick, Robert H.