Historical marker erected 1936. Not sure if he is actually is buried here. Family bible suggests his wife died and was buried here 1836. James died at his home. Married 1814 TN to Margaret Harriett Ferguson (b-1798; d-1836 Corsicana, Navarro, TX). Parents: James Neill and Hannah Clayton. In 1814 he was wounded at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. James, his wife and three children arrived in Texas. They came from Alabama and settle in Milam Co. 1835 he was commissioned as a Captain in the new Texian Army. Oct. 2, 1835 he fired the artillery shot in Gonzales, TX. The "Come and Take Me" cannon in what was described as "the shot heard around the world". In 1835, is Commander of the Alamo and is promoted to Lt. Col. J.C. left the Alamo just before it fell to get supplies for his men and to visit ill family members. The Battle of San Jacinto was another battle in which J.C. missed by one day by being wounded the day before the battle. He had been put in charge of the "Twin Sisters".

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Col. J.C. Neill first had a command in the War of 1812 in Tennessee [wounded in Battle of Horseshoebend]. John Holland Jenkins stated that in 1835 John Sowell made a cannon ball for the little Gonzales cannon and Colonel James C. Neill fired a trial shot October 2 at Gonzales [it is said that Neill essentially fired the "first shot of the Texas Revolution, the shot heard round the world"]. He was in command of the Alamo until he turned the command over to Travis while he attended to some business; later he joined the Texas army at Gonzales where Houston put him in charge of the artillery. Colonel Neill was in command of the artillery at San Jacinto but was wounded and left on the battlefield until he could be moved and Colonel Hockley took over his command. Colonel James C. Neill and John A. Neill, one of DeWitt's colonizers, were first cousins. Information found and used with permission from Sons of DeWitt Colony. Wallace L. McKeehan. All Rights Reserved.