USA > Texas > Bexar County > San Antonio > San Antonio de Bexar; a guide and history > Part 12
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In the year 1824 a lot of French merchants passed through San Antonio en route to Santa Fé on a trading expedition. Some distance from town their pack- animals were all stolen by Indians ; but they managed to get carts and oxen from San Antonio, and so conveyed their goods finally to Santa Fé, where they sold them at an immense profit. In 1831 the Bowie brothers, Rezin P. and James, organised in San Antonio their expedition in search of the old reputed silver mines at San Saba Mission. In the course of this unlucky venture occurred their famous Indian fight, where the two Bowies, with nine others, fought a pitched battle with one hundred and sixty-four Indians who had attacked them with arrow, with rifle, and with fire from sundown to sunset, killing and wounding eighty-four. They then fortified their position during the night, maintained it for eight days afterwards, and finally returned to San Antonio with their horses and three wounded comrades, leaving one man killed.
It is related that in 1832 a Comanche Indian attempted to abduct a Shawnee woman in San Antonio. She escaped him, joined a party of her people who were staying some thirty-five miles from town, and informed them where the Comanches (of whom five hundred had been in town for some purpose) would probably canıp. The Shawnees ambushed themselves at the spot indicated. The Comanches came on and stopped as expected : the Shawnees poured a fire into them, and repeated it as they continually rallied, until the Comanches abandoned the con test with a loss of one hundred and seventy-five dead.
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Early in 1833 (or perhaps late in December 1832) arrives in San Antonio for the first time one who is to be called the father of his country. This is Sam Houston. He comes in company with the famous James Bowie, son-in-law of Vice-Governor Veramendi, and holds a consultation with the Comanche chiefs here, to arrange a meeting at Cantonment Gibson with a view to a treaty of peace. Meantime trouble is brewing. Young Texas does not get on well with his mother. What seems to hurt most is the late union of Texas with Coahuila. This we cannot stand. Stephen F. Austin goes to the City of Mexico with a memorial on the subject to the federal government. He writes from there to the municipality of San Antonio, Oct. 2d, 1833, informing the people that their request is likely to be refused, and advising them to make themselves ready for that emergency. The municipality hand this letter over to Vice-President Farias, who, already angry with Austin on an old account, arrests him on his way home and throws him in prison, back in the city of Mexico.
In October, 1834, certain people in San Antonio hold what Yoakum calls " the first strictly revolutionary meeting in Texas;" for Santa Anna has pronounced, and got to be at the head of affairs, and he refuses to separate Texas from Coa- huila. So, through meetings all over the state ; through conferences of citizen deputations with Col. Ugartechea, Mexican Commandant at San Antonio, for the purpose of explaining matters ; through confused arguments and resolutions of the peace party and the war party ; through confused rumors of the advance of Mexican General Cos with an army ; through squabbling and wrangling and final fighting over the cannon that had been lent by the Post of Bexar to the people of Gonzales ; through all manner of civic trouble consequent upon the imprisonment of Governor Viesca of Texas by Santa Anna, and the suspension of the progress of the civil law machine, we come to the time when the committee of San Felipe boldly cry : "Let us take Bexar and drive the Mexican soldiery out of Texas !" and presently, here, on the 28th of October, 1835, is General Cos with his army in San Antonio, fortifying for dear life, while yonder is Austin with a thousand Texans, at Mission Concepcion, a mile and a half down the river below town, where Fannin and Bowie with ninety men in advance have a few hours before waged a brilliant battle with four hundred Mexicans, capturing their field-piece, killing and wounding a hundred or more, and driving. the rest back to tow11.
General Austin believes, it seems, that Cos will surrender without a battle ; and so remains at Concepcion till November 2d, then marches up past the town on the east side, encamps four or five days, marches down on the west side, dis- plays his forces on a hill side in terrorem, sends in a demand for surrender-and is flatly answered no. He resolves to lay siege. The days pass slowly, the enemy will not come out though allured with all manner of military enticements, and the army has no "fun," with the exception of one small skirmish, until the 26th, when "Deaf" Smith* discovers a party of a hundred Mexican troops, who have been sent out to cut prairie-grass for the horses in town, and reporting them in camp, brings on what is known as the "grass-fight." Colonel James Bowie
*One of the most celebrated and efficient scouts of the revolution. [Whose grandchildren are well known in this city to-day .- W. C. ED.]
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attacks with a hundred mounted men ; both sides are quickly reinforced, and a sharp running fight is kept up until the enemy get back to town; the Texans capturing seventy horses and killing some fifty of the enemy, with a loss of but two wounded and one missing. Meantime discontents arise. On the day before the "grass-fight" Austin resigns, having been appointed Commissioner to the United States, and Edward Burleson is elected by the army to the command. General Burleson, for some reason, seems loth to storm. Moreover, one Dr. Jantes Grant seduces a large party with a wild project to leave San Antonio and attack Matamoras, when he declares that the whole of Mexico will rise and over- whelm Santa Anna ; and on the 29th of November it is actually announced that two hundred and twenty-five men are determined to start the next morning.
But they do not start. It is whispered the town will be stormed. On the 3rd of December, Smith, Holmes, and Maverick escape from San Antonio, and give the Texan commander such information as apparently determines him to storm. Volunteers are called for to attack early next morning ; all day and all night of that December 3rd the men make themselves ready, and long for the moment to advance : when here comes word from the General's quarters that the attack is put off ! Chagrin and indignation prevail on all sides. On the morning of the 4th there is open disobedience of orders ; whole companies refuse to parade. Finally, when on the same afternoon orders are issued to abandon camp and march for La Bahia at seven o'clock, the tumult is terrible, and it seems likely that these wild energetic souls, failing the Mexicans, will end by exterminating each other.
Midst of the confusion here arrives Mexican Lieutenant Vuavis, a deserter, and declares that the projected attack is not known (as had been assigned for reason of postponing), and that the garrison in town is in as bad order and dis- content as the besiegers. At this critical moment a brave man suddenly crystal- lised the loose mass of discordant men and opinions into one compact force and one keen purpose. It is late in the morning, Col. Benjamin R. Milam steps forth among the men, and cries aloud : "Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?" Three hundred and one men will go.
A little before daylight on the 5th they "go," Gen. Burleson agreeing to hold his position until he hears from them. Milam marches into and along Acequia Street with his party .; Johnson with his along Soledad Street. Where these debouch into the Main Plaza, Cos has thrown up breastworks and placed raking batteries. The columns march parallel along the quiet streets. Pres- ently, as Johnson gets near the Veramendi House (which he is to occupy, while Milam is to gain De la Garza's house), a Mexican sentinel fires. Deaf Smith shoots the sentinel. The Mexicans prick up their ears, prick into their cannon- cartridges; the Plaza batteries open, the Alamo batteries join in ; spade, crowbar, rifle, escopet, all are plied, and the storming of Bexar is begun.
But it would take many such papers as this to give even meagre details of all the battles that have been fought in and around San Antonio, and one must pass over the four days of this thrilling conflict with briefest mention. It is novel fighting ; warfare intramural, one might say. The Texans advance inch by inch by piercing through the stone walls of the houses, pecking loop-holes
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with crowbars for their rifles as they gain each room, picking off the enemy from his housetops, from around his cannon, even from behind his own loop-holes. On the night of the 5th with great trouble and risk the two columns succeed in opening communication with each other. On the 6th they advance a little beyond the Garza house. On the 7th brave Karnes steps forth with a crowbar and breaks into a house midway between the Garza house and the Plaza ; brave Milam is stricken by a rifle ball just as he is entering the yard of the Veramendi house and falls instantly dead ; and the Navarro house, one block from the Main Plaza, is gained. On the 8th they take the " Zambrano Row" of buildings, driving the enemy from it room by room ; the enemy endeavor to produce a diversion with fifty men, and do, in a sense, for Burleson finds some diversion in driving them back precipitately with a six-pounder ; at night those in the Zam- brano Row are reinforced, and the "Priest's House" is gained amid heavy fighting.
This last is the stroke of grace. The Priest's House commands the Plaza. Early on the morning of the 9th General Cos sends a flag of truce, asking to sur- render, and on the 10th agrees with Gen. Burleson upon formal and honorable articles of capitulation.
The poor citizens of San Antonio de Bexar, however, do not yet enjoy the blessings of life in quiet ; these wild soldiers who have stormed the town cannot remain long without excitement. Presently Dr. Grant revives his old Mata- moras project, and soon departs, carrying with him most of the troops that had been left at Bexar for its defense, together with great part of the garrison's winter supply of clothing, ammunition and provisions, and in addition "pressing " such property of the citizens as he needs, insomuch that Col. Neill, at that time in command at Bexar, writes to the Governor of Texas that the place is left desti- tute and defenceless. Soon afterward Col. Neill is ordered to destroy the Alamo walls and other fortifications, and bring off the artillery, since no head can be made there in the present crisis against the enemy, who is reported marching in force upon San Antonio. Having no teams, Col. Neill is unable to obey the order, and presently retires, his unpaid men having dropped off until but eighty remain, of whom Colonel Wmn. B. Travis assumes command. Colonel Travis promptly calls for more troops, but gets none as yet, for the Governor and Coun- cil are at deadly quarrel, and the soldiers are all pressing towards Matamoras. Travis has brought thirty men with him; about the middle of February he is joined by Colonel Bowie with thirty others, and these, with the eighty already in garrison, constitute the defenders of San Antonio de Bexar. On the 23d of Feb- ruary appears General Santa Anna at the head of a well-appointed army of some four thousand men, and marches straight on into town. The Texans retire before him slowly, and finally shut themselves up in the Alamo ; here straight- way begins that bloodiest, smokiest, grimiest tragedy of this century. William B. Travis, James Bowie, and David Crockett, with their hundred and forty-five effective men, are enclosed within a stone rectangle one hundred and ninety feet long and one hundred and twenty-two feet wide, having the old church of the Alamo in the southeast corner, in which are their quarters and magazine. They have a supply of water from the ditches that run alongside the walls, and by way
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of provision they have about ninety bushels of corn and thirty beef cattle, their entire stock, all collected since the enemy came in sight. The walls are un- broken, with no angles from which to command beseiging lines. They have fourteen pieces of artillery mounted, with but little ammunition.
Santa Anna demands unconditional surrender. Travis replies with a cannon- shot, and the attack commences, the enemy running up a blood-red flag in town. Travis dispatches a messenger with a call to his countrymen for reinforcements, which concludes : "Though this call may be neglected, I am determined to sus- tain myself as long as possible, and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or death !" Meantime the enemy is active. On the 25th Travis has a sharp fight to prevent him from erecting a battery raking the gate of the Alamo. At night it is erected, with another a half-mile off at the Garita, or powder-house, on a sharp eminence at the extremity of the present main street of the town. On the 26th there is skir- mishing with the Mexican cavalry. In the cold-for a norther has commenced to blow and the thermometer is down to thirty-nine-the Texans make a sally suc- cessfully for wood and water, and that night they burn some old houses on the northeast that might afford cover for the enemy. So amid the enemy's constant rain of shells and balls, which miraculously hurt no one, the Texans strengthen their works and the siege goes on. On the 28th Fannin starts from Goliad with three hundred troops and four pieces of artillery, but for lack of teams and pro- visions quickly returns, and the little garrison is left to its fate. On the morning of the first of March there is doubtless a wild shout of welcome in the Alamo ; Captain John W. Smith has managed to convey thirty-two men from Gonzales into the fort. These join the heroes, and the attack and defence go on. On the 3rd a single man, Moses Rose, escapes from the fort. His account of that day* must entitle it to consecration as one of the most pathetic days of time.
"About two hours before sunset on the 3rd of March, 1836, the bombard- ment suddenly ceased, and the enemy withdrew an unusual distance. . ... Col- onel Travis paraded all his effective men in a single file, and taking his position in front of the centre, he stood for some moments apparently speechless from emotion ; then nerving himself for the occasion, he addressed them substantially as follows :-
"'My brave companions : stern necessity compels me to employ the few moments afforded by this probably brief cessation of conflict, in making known to you the most interesting, yet the most solemn, melancholy and unwelcome fact that humanity can realise. . ... Our fate is sealed. Within a very few days, perhaps a very few hours, we must all be in eternity ! I have deceived you long by the promise of help ; but I crave your pardon, hoping that after hearing my explanation you will not only regard my conduct as pardonable, but heartily sympathise with me in my extreme necessity. . . . . I have continually received the strongest assurances of help from home. Every letter from the Council, and
* As transmitted by the Zuber family, whose residence was the first place at which poor Rose had dared to stop, and with whom he remained some weeks, healing the festered wounds made on his legs by the cactus- thorns during the days of his fearful journey. The account from which these extracts are taken, is contributed to the Texas Almanac for 1873, by W. P. Zuber, and his mother, Mary Ann Zuber.
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every one that I have seen from individuals at home, has teemed with assurances that our people were ready, willing and anxious to come to our relief. ... These assurances I received as facts. . . In the honest and simple confidence of my heart I have transmitted to you these promises of help and my confident hope of success. But the promised help has not come, and our hopes are not to be realised. I have evidently confided too much in the promises of our friends; but let us not be in haste to censure them. . Our friends were evidently not informed of our perilous condition in time to save us. Doubtless they would have been here by the time they expected any considerable force of the enemy. . My calls on Colonel Fannin remain unanswered, and my messengers have not returned. The probabilities are that his whole command has fallen into the hands of the enemy, or been cut to pieces, and that our couriers have been cut off. [So does the brave simple soul refuse to feel any bitterness in the hour of death.] . . Then we must die .. . Our business is not to make a fruitless effort to save our lives, but to choose the manner of our death. But three modes are presented to us ; let us choose that by which we may best serve our country. Shall we surrender and be deliberately shot without taking the life of a single enemy ? Shall we try to cut our way out through the Mexican ranks and be butchered before we can kill twenty of our adversaries? I am opposed to either method. . ... Let us resolve to withstand our adversaries to the last, and at each advance to kill as many of them as possible. And when at last they shall storm our fortress, let us kill them as they come! kill them as they scale our wall! kill them as they leap within! kill them as they raise their weapons and as they use them! kill them as they kill our companions! and continue to kill them as long as one of us shall remain alive! . . . . But I leave every man to his own choice. Should any man prefer to surrender . . . or to attempt an escape . . . he is at liberty to do so. My own choice is to stay in the fort and die for my country, fighting as long as breath shall remain in my body. This will I do even if you leave me alone. Do as you think best ; but no man can die with me without affording me comfort in the hour of death !"
"Colonel Travis then drew his sword, and with its point traced a line upon the ground extending from the right to the left of the file. Then resuming his position in front of the center, he said, 'I now want every man who is determined to stay here and die with me to come across this line. Who will be the first ? March ! The first respondent was Tapley Holland, who leaped the line at a bound, exclaiming, 'I am ready to die for my country !' His example was instantly followed by every man in the file with the exception of Rose. ... Every sick man that could walk, arose from his bunk and tottered across the line. Colonel Bowie, who could not leave his bed, said, 'Boys, I am not able to come to you, but I wish some of you would be so kind as to remove my cot over there.' Four men instantly ran to the cot, and each lifting a corner, carried it across the line. Then every sick man that could not walk made the same request, and had his bunk removed in the same way.
" Rose too was deeply affected, but differently from his companions. He stood till every man but himself had crossed the line. . . . He sank upon the ground, covered his face, and yielded to his own reflections. A bright idea
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came to his relief ; he spoke the Mexican dialect very fluently, and could he once get safely out of the fort, he might easily pass for a Mexican and effect an escape. . . . He directed a searching glance at the cot of Colonel Bowie. . . . Colonel David Crockett was leaning over the cot, conversing with its occupant in an undertone. After a few seconds Bowie looked at Rose and said, 'You seem not to be willing to die with us, Rose.' 'No,' said Rose ; 'I am not prepared to die, and shall not do so if I can avoid it.' Then Crockett also looked at him, and said, ' You may as well conclude to die with us, old man, for escape is impossi- ble.' Rose made no reply, but looked at the top of the wall. 'I have often done worse than to climb that wall,' thought he. Suiting the action to the thought, he sprang up, seized his wallet of unwashed clothes, and ascended the wall. Standing on its top, he looked down within to take a last view of his dying friends. They were all now in motion, but what they were doing he heeded not; overpowered by his feelings, he looked away and saw them no more. . . . He threw down his wallet and leaped after it. . .. He took the road which led down the River around a bend to the ford, and through the town by the church. He waded the river at the ford and passed through the town. He saw no per- son . . .. but the doors were all closed, and San Antonio appeared as a de- serted city.
" After passing through the town he turned down the River. A stillness as of death prevailed. When he had gone about a quarter of a mile below the town, his ears were saluted by the thunder of the bombardment which was then renewed. That thunder continued to remind him that his friends were true to their cause, by a continual roar with but slight intervals until a little before sunrise on the morning of the 6th, when it ceased and he heard it no more." *
And well may it "cease" on that morning of the 6th ; for after that thrilling 3d, the siege goes on, the enemy furious, the Texans replying calmly and slowly. Finally Santa Anna determines to storm. Some hours before daylight on the morning of the 6th, the Mexican infantry, provided with scaling ladders, and backed by the cavalry to keep them up to the work, surround the doomed fort. At daylight they advance and plant their ladders, but give back under a deadly fire from the Texans. They advance again, and again retreat, A third time-Santa Anna threatening and coaxing by turns-they plant their ladders. Now they mount the walls. The Texans are overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers and ex- haustion of continued watching and fighting. The Mexicans swarm into the fort. The Texans club their guns; one by one they fall fighting-now Travis yonder by the western wall, now Crockett here in the angle of the church-wall, now Bowie butchered and mutilated in his sick-cot, breathe quick and pass away; and presently every Texan lies dead, while there in horrid heaps are stretched five hundred and twenty-one dead Mexicans and as many more wounded! Of the human beings that were in the fort five remain alive : Mrs. Dickinson and her child, Colonel Travis' negro-servant, and two Mexican women.
* Rose succeeded in making his escape, and reached the house of the Zubers, as before stated, in fearful condition. After remaining here some weeks, he started for his home in Nacogdoches, but on the way his thorn-wounds became inflamed anew, and when he reached home "his friends thought that he could not live many months." This was " the last" that the Zubers " heard of him."
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The town did not long remain in the hands of the Mexicans. Events followed each other rapidly until the battle of San Jacinto, after which the dejected Santa Anna wrote his famous letter of captivity under the tree, which for a time relieved the soil of Texas from hostile footsteps. San Antonio was nevertheless not free from bloodshed, though beginning to drive a sharp trade with Mexico, and to make those approaches towards the peaceful arts which necessarily accompany trade. The Indians kept life from stagnating, and in the year 1840 occurred a bloody battle* with them in the very midst of the town. Certain Comanche chiefs, pending nego- tiations for a treaty of peace, had promised to bring in all the captives they had; and on the 19th of March, 1840, miet the Texan Commissioners in the Council- house in San Antonio, to redeem their promise. Leaving twenty warriors and thirty-two women and children outside, twelve chiefs entered the council-room and presented the only captive they had brought-a little white girl-declaring that they had no others. This statement the little girl pronounced false, asserting that it was made solely for the purpose of extorting greater ransoms, and that she had but recently seen other captives in their camp. An awkward pause followed. Presently one of the chiefs inquired, How the commissioners liked it? By way of
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reply, the company of Captain Howard, who had been sent for, filed into the room, and the Indians were told that they would be held prisoners until they should send some of their party outside after the rest of the captives. The commissioners then rose and left the room. As they were in the act of leaving, however, one of the Indian chiefs attempted to rush through the door, and being confronted by the sen- tinel, stabbed him. Seeing the sentinel hurt, and Captain Howard also stabbed, the other chiefs sprang forward with knives and bows and arrows, and the fight raged until they were all killed. Meantime the warriors outside began to fight, and en- gaged the company of Captain Read; but, taking shelter in a stone-house, were sur- rounded and killed. Still another detachment of the Indians managed to continue the fight until they had reached the other side of the river, when they were finally despatched. Thirty-two Indian warriors and five Indian women and children were slain, and the rest of the women and children were made prisoners. The savages fought desperately, for seven Texans were killed and eight wounded.
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