USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 1 > Part 44
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" In the meantime the turning of Travis's gun had been
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
imitated by the garrison. A small piece on the roof of the chapel or one of the other buildings, was turned against the area while the rooms were being stormed. It did more exe- cution than any other cannon of the fortress; but after a few effective discharges, all who manned it fell under the enemy's fire. Crockett had taken refuge in a room of the low barrack, near the gate. He either garrisoned it alone, or was left alone by the fall of his companions, when he sallied to meet his fate in the face of the foe, and was shot down. Bowie had been severely hurt by a fall from a platform, and, when the attack came on, was confined to his bed in the upper room of the barrack marked (P). He was there killed on his couch, but not without resistance ; for he is said to have shot down with his pistols one or more of the enemy as they entered the chamber.
" The church was the last point taken. The column which moved against it, consisting of the battalion of Jimenez and other troops, was at first repulsed, and took refuge among some old houses outside of the barrier, near its southwest angle, till it was rallied and led on by General Amador. It was soon joined by the rest of the force, and the church was carried by a coup de main. Its inmates, like the rest, fought till the last, and continued to fire from the upper plat- forms after the enemy occupied the floor of the building. A Mexican officer told me of seeing a man shot in the crown of the head in this melee. The bayonet soon gleaned what the bullet missed; and in the upper part of the church the last defender must have fallen. The morning breeze which re- ceived his parting breath probably still fanned his flag above the fortress, ere it was pulled down by the victors.
" The Alamo had fallen !
" The action, according to Santa Anna's report, lasted thirty minutes. It was certainly short; and possibly no longer space passed between the moment the enemy fronted the breach and that when resistance died out. Some of the
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incidents which have to be related separately no doubt occurred simultaneously, and occupied very little time.
" The account of the assault which Yoakum and others have adopted as authentic, is evidently one which popular tradition has based on conjecture. By a rather natural in- ference it assumes that the inclosing wall of the fortress was its principal work; that in storming this the main conflict took place ; and that after it was entered, nothing more than the death struggles of a few occurred. The truth was that that extensive barrier proved to be ' nothing more than the out- works, speedily lost, while the buildings constituted the cita- del and the scene of the sternest resistance. That Santa Anna himself was under the works urging on the escalade in person is fabulous.
" A negro boy belonging to Travis, the wife of Lieutenant Dickinson, Mrs. Alsbury (a native of San Antonio), and another Mexican woman, Madame Candelaria, and two chil- dren, were the only inmates of the fortress whose lives were spared. The children were those of the two females whose names are given. Lieutenant Dickinson cammanded a gun in the east upper window of the church. His family was probably in one of the two small upper rooms of the front.
" Castrillon was the soul of the assault. Santa Anna re- mained at the south battery with the music of the whole army and a part of his staff, till he supposed the place was nearly mastered, when he moved up with that escort toward the Alamo; but returned again on being greeted by a few rifle balls from the upper windows of the church. He, however, entered the area toward the close of the scene, and directed some of the last details of the butchery.
" The five infantry corps that formed the attacking force, according to the data already referred to, amounted to about 2,500 men. The number of Mexican wounded, according to various accounts, largely exceeded that of the killed ; and the estimates made of both by intelligent men who were in the
37
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
action, and whose candor I think can be relied on, rated their loss at from 150 to 200 killed, and from 300 to 400 wounded. Santa Anna's report is a piece of balderdash, dealing mostly in generalities. He sets down his force at 1,400, his loss at 60 killed, and 300 wounded, and the strength of the garrison, all told and all killed, at 600. The real loss of the assailants in killed and wounded, probably did not differ much from 500 men. General Bradburn was of opinion that three hundred men in that action were lost to the service, counting with the killed those who died of wounds or were per- manently disabled. This agrees with the other most reliable estimates. Now, if 500 men or more were bullet stricken in half an hour by 180 or less, it was a rapidity of bloodshed almost unexampled, and needs no exaggeration. It was not the carnage of pursuit like that of San Jacinto, nor the sweeping effect of cannon under favorable circumstances, like that of Sandusky. The main element of the defense was the individual valor and skill of men who had few advantages of fortification, ordnance, discipline or command. All their deficiencies, which were glaring, serve only to enhance the one merit, in which no veterans could have excelled them. It required bravery, even in greatly superior numbers, to over- come a resistance so determined. The Mexican troops displayed more of it in this assault than in any other action during the campaign, and they have seldom shown as much anywhere.
" Santa Anna, when he marched for Texas, had counted on finding a fortified position in the neighborhood of San Antonio, but not at the Alamo; for he supposed, with good reason, that the mission of Concepcion would be selected. The small area of that strong building, which had room enough for Travis' force and not too much, and its com- pactness, which would have given better range to his cannon, would have made it a far better fortress than the Alamo, and earthworks of no great extent would have covered the garri-
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son's access to the river. The advantages of the position must have been known to Travis, and that he did not avail himself of it was probably owing to his imperfect command of men unwilling to leave their town associations. An attempt to move might break up the garrison. The neglect of scouting service before referred to, indicates a great lack of subordination ; for Travis, who, during the late siege of Bexar, had been the efficient head of that branch of duty, must have been aware of its importance. On the 24th of February he wrote thus: ' When the enemy appeared in sight, we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses eighty or ninety bushels, and got into the walls twenty or thirty head of beeves.' This omission to provide subsist- ence, remedied so late by accident, must have been more owing to the commander's lack of control and to the occupa- tion of mind incident to it, than to his want of foresight. His men were willing to die by him, but, I infer, not ready to obey in what did not immediately concern fighting.
" I am here tempted to speculate briefly on the bearing which it might have had on the campaign had Travis changed his post to the mission, strengthened it to the best of his ability, and secured a supply of provisions for a few weeks. The great importance Santa Anna attached to an early blow and rapid movement would probably have induced him to make an assault there as early or nearly so, as he did at the Alamo; and there, even had his force been stronger, I am confident the result would have been different. Instead of the panic which the fall of the Alamo spread through the land, sending fugitives to the Sabine, a bloody repulse from Con- cepcion would have filled Texas with exultation, and sent its men in crowds to Houston's camp. The fortress could then have held out till relieved, and the war would probably have been finished west of the Guadalupe. Its final results could not have been more disastrous to the invaders than they eventually were, but a large extent of country would have been saved from invasion and partial devastation.
-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
" The foregoing details, which do not refer to documentary authority, I obtained from General Bradburn, who arrived at San Antonio a few days after the action and gathered them from officers who were in it. A few I had, through a friend, from General Amador. Others again I received from three intelligent sergeants, who were men of fair education and I think truthful. One of them, Sergeant Bacero, of the bat- talion of Matamoros and captured at San Jacinto, was for several years my servant in Texas. From men of their class I could generally get more candid statements as to loss and and other matters than from commissioned officers. I have also gathered some minor particulars from local tradition pre- served among the residents of San Antonio. When most of the details thus learned were acquired, I had not seen the locality ; and hence I have to locate some of the occurrences by inference, which I have done carefully and I think correctly.
PLAN OF THE ALAMO.
B
0
GA
o
D
R
P
E
E
IM
L
n.
n
n
n
L
12
Q
ISI
IF;
L
n
L
L
T
S represents a porte cochere or wide passage through the centre of the house F, with but one room on each side. The dotted lines represent a projecting stockade which covered a four- gun battery in front of the outer door.
Captain Potter's plan is inaccurate in minor details, as is to
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
be expected from a consideration of the circumstances under which it was prepared.
I am indebted to Col. Geo. W. Fulton, of Rockport, Texas, for the following diagram, taken from Corner's History of San Antonio, and more nearly absolutely correct:
the
Alania
Proper
(abandoned)
-
-
Are
Ave. E
Alamo mission.
1836
1890.
St.
Old References.
New References,
. Houston
A
E Houston Street.
la
1. The Alamo Church. a. Federal Building.
2. Convent'or Resi- dence of the Podres of the Mission.
Fed. Court House and Post Qfce.
6
3
b. Government Lot.
9. Enclosure or the Plaza of the Mission.c. Maverick Home-
Convert Yard
4 and 5. Old Prison ond Entronce of the Mission,
d. Moverick Land
1
Ofice
6. Houses and Walls surrounding the Mis- sion,
e. Moverich Bank.
7. Abondoned Aceq'a.
8 Roomi used as Pow-
Acequi
f. Circular . Curb of Plata Gorden.
der Magazine during g. Grenet or now Hugo the Siege. & Schutzer's Front.
0. Cedar post Stock- ade and Earthworks in use during Siege.
Col. Fulton says : " This diagram gives the original outlines of the mission and the lines of the streets and buildings now occupying the site.
" About the first of August, 1837, I first visited the Alamo, in company with Judge Baker, then chief justice of Bexar County, who directed my attention to the room I have marked B as the one occupied by Bowie, being on his sick bed, when bayoneted by Santa Anna's minions. The corner marked C was shown me, as the spot where Crockett fell, surrounded by dead Mexicans. There was then a wide entrance about where I have marked, to the right of the church front, I think just where the present entrance to Hugo & Schmeltzer's yard is situated.
Acequias of
Villita
running
steod.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
" I am confident that the foregoing is as then stated to me by Judge Baker, whose opportunity for correct knowledge, at that time, cannot be disputed."
The reader will readily see in the account of Captain Potter a desire to rather underestimate than exaggerate the number of the enemy. His reliance upon the statements of the brag- gart and apostate American, Bradburn, is misplaced confidence. He errs also in the assumption that no Mexicans were killed prior to the assault. There had been a considerable loss in killed in short and sharp contests by sallies from the fort, and there is corroborating testimony, from various sources (in- cluding the observations of three American surgeons, Shackle- ford, Barnard and Fields, saved from Fannin's massacre and sent there to treat the wounded), that Santa Anna's loss in killed and wounded during the entire siege was about one thousand, somewhat over five hundred being killed or mortally wounded.
John W. Smith, the guide who conducted the re-inforcement from Gonzales into the Alamo on the first of March, was dis- patched by Travis on the 3d with the following letter of that date to the president of the convention at Washington :
" From the 25th to the present date, the enemy ( Mexicans ) have kept up a bombardment from two howitzers (one a five and a half inch and the other an eight inch ) and a heavy can- nonade from two long nine pounders mounted on a battery, on the opposite side of the river at the distance of 400 yards from our walls. During this period the enemy have been busily employed with encircling us with entrenched encampments, at the following distances : In Bexar 400 yards west; in Lavil- letta, 300 yards south ; at the powder house 1,000 yards east by south ; on the ditch, 800 yards northeast; and at the old mill, 800 yards north. Notwithstanding all this a company of thirty-two men from Gonzales made their way to us at 3 o'clock on the morning of the first; and Colonel James Butler Bonham, a courier from the same place, got in this morning.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
at one o'clock. I have so fortified the place that the walls are generally proof against cannon balls, and I still continue to entrench on the inside, and strengthen the walls by throwing up earth. At least two hundred shells have fallen inside our walls, without having injured a single man ; indeed we have been so fortunate as not to lose a man from any cause, and we have killed many of the enemy. The spirits of the men are still high, although they have had much to depress them. * *
" Colonel Fannin is said to be on the march to this place with re-inforcements ; but I fear it is not true, as I have repeatedly sent to him for aid without receiving any. Colonel Bonham, my special messenger, arrived at La Bahia (Goliad ), fourteen days ago, with a request for aid; and, on the arrival of the enemy in Bexar, I sent an express to Colonel Fannin, which reached Goliad the next day, urging him to send re-inforcements. None have yet arrived. I look to the colonies alone for aid. Unless it arrives soon, I shall have to fight the enemy on its own terms. I will, however, do the best I can under the circumstances; and I feel confident that the determined spirit and desperate courage here- tofore evinced by my men, will not fail them in the last struggle; and although they may be sacrificed to the ven- geance of a Gothic enemy, the victory will cost the enemy so dear, that it will be worse than a defeat. I hope your honorable body will hasten on re-inforcements, ammu- nitions and provisions to our aid as soon as possible. We have provisions for twenty days for the men we have. Our supply of ammunition is limited. At least 500 pounds of cannon powder and two hundred rounds of six, nine and twelve pound balls, ten kegs of rifle-powder, and a supply of lead should be sent to this place without delay, under a sufficient guard. If these things are promptly sent, and large re-inforcements are hastened to this frontier, this neighborhood will be the great and decisive battle ground. The power of
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Santa Anna is to be met here or in the colonies. We had better meet it here than to suffer a war of desolation to rage in our settlements.
" A blood-red banner waves from the church at Bexar, and in the camp above us, in token that the war is one of ven- geance against rebels. They have declared us such, and demanded that we should surrender at discretion, or this gar- rison should be put to the sword. Their threats have had no influence on me or my men, but to make all fight with des- peration, and with that high-souled courage which character- izes the patriot who is willing to die in defense of his country's liberty and his own honor.
" The citizens of this municipality are all our enemies, except those who joined us heretofore. We have but three Mexicans in the fort. Those who have not joined us in this extremity should be declared public enemies and their prop- erty should aid in defraying the expenses of the war.
" The bearer of this (John W. Smith ) will give your hon- orable body a statement more in detail, should he escape through the enemy's lines.
" God and Texas! Victory or death !
" TRAVIS."
On the same date, and of course by the same messenger, he addressed a private note to a friend in Washington County, saying : " * * Take care of my little boy. If the country should be saved I may make him a splendid fortune; but, if the country should be lost, and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the son of a man who died for his country." 1
1 This reference to his son demands an explanation. Colonel Travis had left his wife and little daughter, Isabella, in Alabama. The son, Charles E. Travis, born in 1831, at the time of the siege, was in the family of Mr. David Ayers at Montville, now known as the old Fuller place, in Washing- ton county, attending the school of Miss L. McHenry. After his father's death, he was taken back to his mother in Alabama; but, upon nearing man-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
To adopt the suggestion of Colonel Travis in regard to the people of San Antonio and to class all of them as enemies, would be exceedingly unjust. Their position was peculiar and
hood, returned to Washington County. A few years later his sister, then the wife of John Grissett, a planter, came to Texas and settled in the same county, where she died some years ago, leaving an only child, Mollie J., who first married Thomas G. Davidson, deceased, a lawyer of Brenham. She is now the wife of Mr. De Caussey, in northwest Texas. She and her children are the only living descendants of Colonel Travis. Charles E. Travis became a lawyer. About 1852 he represented Caldwell County in the legis- lature. In 1854 he was captain of a company of Texas rangers in an expe- dition against the Indians. On the 3d of March, 1855, under the highest recommendations, he was appointed by President Pierce a captain in the Second United States Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Albert Sidney Johns- ton. In October, 1855, the regiment moved from Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, to Texas. On the 15th of March, 1856, a court-martial convened at Fort Mason, Texas, to try Captain Travis on the general charge of con- duct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, under three specifications. The only one of the three charges, worthy of notice, was: That Captain Travis " did unscrupulously and dishonorably create and circulate false and slanderous imputations against Lieutenant -. " Travis had, it seems, declared that the Lieutenant had stolen money from him. The court- martial found him guilty of " circulating " the charge, but struck out the words " did unscrupulously and dishonorably create " and " did endeavor thereby to injure the reputation of said officer." The only proof of " cir- culating " the charge was that Captain Travis confidentially communicated it to three bosom friends. Travis on this exhibit was dismissed from serv- ice on the 6th of May, 1856. The whole testimony was examined by a joint committee of the Legislature of Texas, Hon Edward R. Hood, chairman, on the part of the Senate and the late Supreme Judge, Charles S. West, on the part of the House, who vindicated Travis and submitted a resolution, unan- imously passed by both houses on the 28th of August, asking the Presi- dent to set aside the verdict and order a new trial. Every man who examined the testimony, so far as known, pronounced the verdict palpably unjust. It was alleged, with what justice cannot be stated, that the friends of the accused officer at Washington, had sufficient influence to defeat the request for a new trial. Captain Travis, not long after this, was seized with consumption. He took up his abode with his sister on her farm in Washington County, and died there about the beginning of the war between the States. He was a very handsome man, of pleasant address and a favorite wherever known. This note is added to meet the very natural desire of those who hold as sacred the memory of "the immortal hero of the Alamo."
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
hazardous,situated, as they were, a hundred miles from the near- est American settlement. Their all - homes, wives and child- ren - were more desperately endangered than those of people living in any other part of Texas, excepting those of the two Irish settlements of San Patricio and Refugio. In the very nature of things, they could feel no hope of successfully with- standing with less than two hundred Texians the renowned and long victorious Santa Anna and his eight or ten thousand men. Defeat meant not only death to them, but a dreadful visitation of fire and sword, pillage and outrage to the settle- ments eastward. There is no doubt but that a large majority of the permanent citizens desired the success of Texas and rejoiced at the final defeat of Santa Anna. And, as it was, a small company of them did valiant service at San Jacinto. Upon a fair review of all the facts, followed by years of sub- sequent service in council and in the field, they should be ac- corded full credit in our history for what they did, and not be held amenable for simple non-action in that dread hour of destruction, when they were slow to act and unhappily divided in council. The names of Navarro, Manchaca, Erasmo Seguin, Verrimendi, Garza, Flores, Rodriguez, and many others must ever challenge our respect. That of Jose Antonio Navarro merits our admiration and veneration.
CHAPTER L.
Re-election of Houston as Commander-in-Chief - He leaves for Gonzales -
He falls back to the Colorado on the fall of the Alamo - Organization of a government ad interim, with David G. Burnet as President.
Governor Smith, at the earnest solicitation of the most emi- nent men in the convention, remained in Washington till that body had about completed its labors, and then repaired to his home to find his family alone and defenseless, the people having abandoned their homes to avoid the approaching Mexicans.
On the fourth, General Houston was unanimously elected Commander-in-Chief of the army. Thus re-indorsed, despite the machinations of the council and of the military mal-con- tents, he hastily prepared for active duties, and on the morn- ing of the seventh took leave of the convention, of which he was a member. Strangely enough he was elected thereto by the people of Refugio, despite the fact that his home was in Nacogdoches, three hundred miles east, and that Fannin's force, organized in defiance of his authority, was then in the vicinity. He hastened to Gonzales, where a small force was assembling, to take command and endeavor to bring order out of chaos. He arrived at Gonzales at 4 p. m., on the 11th, accompanied only by his staff, Colonel George W. Hockley, Colonel Alexander Horton, Lieut. Richardson Scurry and two or three others, at once assumed command, and proceeded to organize the little force there assembled.
About twilight of the same day Anselmo Borgarra and another Mexican brought in the first intelligence of the fall of the Alamo. Houston had no doubt of the truth of Borgarra's statements, but, to avoid a panic, he placed the two Mexicans under arrest, upon the pretence that they were spies. On the
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
same night he dispatched an order to Fannin to retire from Goliad to Victoria on the Guadalupe. Fannin received the order on the afternoon of the 13th, but, from causes yet to be explained, did not attempt the execution until the 19th.
On the morning of the 13th, General Houston dispatched Deaf Smith, Henry W. Karnes and Robert E. Handy to go near enough to San Antonio to ascertain the facts and return in three days.
About twenty miles beyond Gonzales they met Mrs. Dickin- son, with her infant daughter, Sam, the negro servant of Colonel Travis, and Ben, a free negro man-servant of the Mexican Colonel Juan N. Almonte, who had been allowed to leave by Santa Anna. They confirmed the statements of the two Mexicans. Karnes hastened back with the news, reach- ing Gonzales about 9 o'clock that night, and this was the first authentic information of the fall of the Alamo received by the soldiers or people of Texas. Mrs. Dickinson and party did not arrive till next day.
When Gen. 'Houston left Washington, it was with the de- termination, if possible, to relieve Travis in the Alamo. In the attempted execution of this design, he dispatched from the Colorado on the 9th, an order to Fannin at Goliad, to meet him with all his disposable force, on the west side of Cibolo, with a view to relieving Bexar. On reaching Gonzales and learning of the fall of the Alamo, he, as a matter of course, changed his plans.
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