Smithville
Bastrop County, Texas
30 00.607' N 97 04.305' W
Directions: The marker is in the Cunningham Cemetery. Start at the intersection of Reinsch Road and Unger Road (CR-200) east of Smithville. Go 500 feet east on Unger Road and turn left (north) onto an unpaved road. Go .2 miles north on the unpaved road. The cemetery is at the end of the road. The marker is in the east section of the cemetery

Text: A soldier in the Texas War for Independence, 1835 - 1836. Marker: 9219 William Redfield was born January 21, 1817, to William and Susan (Prentice) Redfield. After the death of his father, his mother married John C. Cunningham, a friend of Moses and Stephen F. Austin, and soon thereafter the family (including William's brothers, John Albert and Henry Prentice) immigrated to the Austin colony in Texas. They left New York in late 1830, and arrived by ship at Matagorda in 1831. After living at San Felipe for several years, they settled on the Colorado River in lower Bastrop County on a large grant of land that became known as Cunningham's Prairie. Besides farming, the Cunninghams later ran a stagecoach inn on the old road from Austin to San Felipe. Both William and his brother, Henry Prentice Redfield , participated in Texas' fight for independence in 1835-36. William was killed in 1840 at the Battle of Presidio, which involved the Republic of the Rio Grande, an effort on the part of Federalist leaders in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila, to break away from the centralistic government of Mexico in 1840 and to form a new confederation. Condensed from the quot;Texas State Historical Association's Handbook Onlinequot; by Carol Snyder. Inscription on his gravestone: quot;William Redfield. Born Jan 21th (sic), 1817, killed at the Battle of Presidio Rio Grande, in the fall of 1840, in his 23 yearquot;.