Thomas Jefferson Rusk (December 5, 1803 – July 29, 1857) was an early political and military leader of the Republic of Texas, serving as its first secretary of war and as a general at the Battle of San Jacinto.

After hearing Nacogdoches citizens denounce the despotism of Mexico, Rusk became involved in the independence movement.

He organized volunteers from Nacogdoches and hastened to Gonzales, where his men joined Stephen F. Austin's army in preventing the Mexicans from seizing their cannon.

After the Mexicans killed all James W. Fannin's Texan army at Goliad, Burnet sent Rusk with orders for General Sam Houston to make a stand against the enemy.

Rusk participated with bravery in the defeat of Santa Anna on April 21, 1836, in the Battle of San Jacinto.

On December 12, 1838, the Texas Congress elected Rusk chief justice of the republic's Supreme Court.

Concern over the lack of protection on the frontier caused Congress, in a joint ballot on January 16, 1843, to elect Rusk major general of the militia of the Republic of Texas, but he resigned in June when Houston obstructed his plans for aggressive warfare against Mexico.

[2] Rusk supported Sam Houston and the growing movement to annex Texas to the United States.

Rusk and Houston forgot past differences as they worked to settle the southwest boundary question in favor of Texas' claim to the Rio Grande.

Rusk supported the position of US President James K. Polk on the necessity of the Mexican War and the acquisition of California.

President James Buchanan offered him the position of United States postmaster general in 1857, but he turned it down.

Missing his wife and ill from a tumor at the base of his neck, Rusk killed himself by a self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 29, 1857.