J. Pinckney Henderson
Center for American History
University of Texas at Austin

Texas' first Governor was J. P. Henderson, a man who had already served the Republic as a recruiter, Attorney General, Secretary of State, minister to France and then the United States, and a contributing author of the Constitution of 1845. While Governor, he took a leave of absence to lead Texas volunteers in the Mexican War and led a regiment at the Battle of Monterrey. After the suicide of Senator Rusk, the Legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate, but he served only a short time before his own death.