The site now known as Milam Park functioned originally as a burial ground where Texian officer Benjamin Rush Milam was interred after his death on December 7, 1835, during the Siege of Bexar. Milam, a colonizer and empresario who rallied volunteer Texian forces with the famous call Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio, was shot and killed while leading the storming of Mexican-held San Antonio de Bexar, an action that led directly to General Cos's surrender days later. He was buried at the site, reportedly beneath a cypress tree in what was then the old Camposanto (city cemetery) grounds, giving the location its original everyday function as a public burial ground serving San Antonio's Mexican-era and early Texas-era residents. As the surrounding cemetery grounds were later cleared and redeveloped, the burial location was preserved and marked, and the surrounding land was formally dedicated as a municipal park named in Milam's honor. Today the site no longer functions as an active cemetery; it operates as Milam Park, a public city park in downtown San Antonio near Market Square, containing Milam's grave site marked by a monument and historical plaques. The park serves the city's everyday civic and recreational needs as public greenspace, hosting community gatherings, cultural events, and markets, while continuing to commemorate Milam's role in the Texas Revolution.