USA > Texas > Bexar County > San Antonio > San Antonio de Bexar; a guide and history > Part 17
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* I find the following in the County Records .- ED.
"I do solemnly swear that I was a resideut citizen of Texas at the date of the Declaration of Independence. That I did not leave the country during the Campaign of the spring of 1836 to avoid participation iu the War, aud that I did not aid nor assist the Euemy ; that I have not previously received a title for my quantum of land, and that I conceive myself to be justly entitled under the Constitution and laws to the quantity for which I now apply. April 29th, 1837. CANDELARIO VILLANUEVA,"
Col. Ford's Memoirs.
The Fighting of the Alamo.
The following description of the fall of the Alamo is from the memoirs of Col. Ford, a gentleman meutioned many times in this work-a pioneer, an Indian fighter, a Texan. The information he gives is derived first haud from iuformants he well knew:
In 1835 General Santa Anna overturned the republican form of government in Mexico and violated the constitution of 1824. This instrument the colonists of Texas had sworn to support. He reduced the number of militia in each state or Mexico to one for every five hundred inhabitants, and issued a decree to disarm the remainder. The people of Texas though numbering less than 100,000, saw the meaning and intent of these movements. They prepared for resistance. They sent troops to invest San Antonio. It was surrendered by General Cos on Deceni- ber 10, 1835, to the Texans under General Edward Burleson.
The Texas troops were disbanded and went to their homes, except a small force left in San Antonio, commanded by Colonel Neill. General Cos and his conr-
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SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
mand moved in the direction of Laredo. They were paroled and promised not to bear arms against Texas during the war.
The body known as the "Consultation" reassembled at San Felipe de Austin November 1, 1835. They formulated a provisional government, elected Henry Smith, governor ; James W. Robinson, lieutenant-governor ; Sam Houston, com- mander-in-chief, and elected five of their members to remain and assist the gov- ernor in the discharge of his duties. The "Consultation" adjourned to meet at Washington, on the Brazos, March 1, 1836. The five members remaining at San Felipe de Austin took it upon themselves to control the governor and General Houston. Deposed the governor, advocated the invasion of Mexico, appointed officers to command, and had a large number of troops in the west where they were beaten in detail.
Colonel Bowie aided General Houston in his efforts to concentrate the Texas troops. He came to San Antonio, saw Colonel Neill, who soon after left, with a view, as many affirm, to procure transportation to move the artillery and munitions of war. He carried Deaf Smith with him. He left Colonel James Bowie in com- mand. Bowie fell sick. In a few days Colonel Travis arrived and assumed com- mand. Juan N. Seguin sent a cousin of his to Laredo with orders to report the appearance of a force from Mexico of sufficient strength to invade Texas. He returned and affirmed that General Santa Anna had crossed the Rio Grande with an army. He forced General Cos and his men to violate their parole, and to take service against the Texans.
When the report was made at San Antonio, the Texans refused to believe it. They remained too near the town to learn what was transpiring outside. A sen- tinel was placed in the church on the west side of the river. One day he reported Mexican troops westward of the town. A man ascended to him and was unable to see any armed men. The sentinel was accused of reporting falsely. Eventually Travis ordered Dr. John Sutherland and J. W. Smith to go out on horseback and ascertain the truth. They proceeded to the top of Prospect Hill, and found them- selves within 150 yards of the Mexican army. They started back at a run. Suth- erland's horse gathered mud on his feet, turned a somersault. crippled Sutherland and broke his gun. Smith dismounted and relieved Sutherland. When they reached town and reported all was in commotion. Travis marched the Texans to the Alamo. On the way they found twenty or thirty beeves, which they drove into the fort. All was activity now. The first thing was to place the building in a position to stand the seige. That night they tore down a number of "jacales" (huts) not far from the Alamo, and brought in the wood for cooking. Men were told what part of the walls they were to defend. David Crockett and his twelve brave Tennesseeans were allotted a conspicuous point to cover. Every man was at his post and ready for duty. This is learned from Dr. Sutherland who wrote an article on the fall of the Alamo, full of information. He was too badly hurt by the fall of his horse to do good duty, and for that reason Col. Travis directed him to proceed to Gonzales and procure reinforcements, a duty he performed properly and promptly.
Gen. Santa Anna reached San Antonio February 22nd or 23rd. Two nights previously he encamped on the Medina where he learned the Texans were attend-
121
COL. FORD'S MEMOIRS.
ing a fandango. He formed the idea of reaching and attacking them before day- light. He was encamped on both sides of the Medina. His ammunition wagons were on the west bank. A rain had fallen and the river had risen suddenly and he found it impossible to get ready. A norther was blowing. Under the circum- stances he gave up the movement.
He was of the opinion that the Texians would occupy the Mission Concep- cion. He said it afforded more facilities for defense by a small force than the Alamo.
General Santa Anna's army numbered about 4,000. General Tolsa was expected to arrive soon at the head of 2,000 nien.
Dr. Sutherland mentions the sending of a couple of officers, under a white flag to demand a surrender of the Alamo. Colonel Travis dispatched Major Morris and Captain Martin to meet them. They had a conference on a foot-bridge just above the present bridge on Commerce street. Colonel Travis answered by a cannon shot.
General Santa Anna intended crossing the river below the Alamo, out of reach of Colonel Travis' guns. He directed General Castrillon, with two companies of the battalion of Matamoras, to gather timbers to make a bridge from houses on the Alamo side. They were in reach of the rifles of the Texians. Within a few minutes thirty of the Mexicans were killed. General Castrillon requested General Santa Anna to order their withdrawal, if he wished to save their lives. They were withdrawn at once.
The ninequal contest was now opened.
* * * *
On the third day of March, Travis addressed a last appeal to the president of the convention at Washington on the Brazos. He said that "the blood red ban- ners which waved on the church at Bexar and in the camp above him were tokens that the war was one of vengeance against rebels." To a friend in Washington county he wrote: "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."
On February 23rd Travis wrote to Fannin at Goliad, asking for assistance. Fannin attempted to march to San Antonio on the 28th, but failed for want of trans- portation. This was the last chance apparently available to aid the defenders of the Alamo.
On March 3rd Tolsa reached San Antonio. General Santa Anna began to pre- pare for the final assault on the Alamo. On the 5th day of March, Santa Anna issued an order for an assault on the Alamo, naming the officers to take charge of the four attacking columns, the columns to be in readiness at 4 o'clock a. m., and to move at the sound of the bugle at the north battery, where he would be sta- tioned.
Sergeant Becera thus describes the contest of March 6th, 1836:
"The troops under General Castrillon moved in silence. They reached the fort, planted scaling ladders and commenced ascending, some mounted upon the
122
SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
shoulders of others. A terrible fire belched from the interior. Men fell from the scaling ladders by the score, many pierced through the head by balls, others felled by clubbed guns. The dead and wounded covered the ground. After half an hour of fierce conflict, after the sacrifice of many lives, the column of General Cas- trillon succeeded in making a lodgment in the upper part of the Alamo to the northeast. It was a sort of outwork. I think it is now used as a lot or a court- yard. This seeming advantage was a mere prelude to the desperate struggle which ensued. The doors of the Alamo building were barricaded by bags of sand as high as the neck of a man; the windows also. On the top of the roofs of the different apartments were rows of sandbags to cover the besieged.
"Our troops, inspired by success, continued the attack with energy and bold-
ness. The Texians fought like devils. It was at short range-muzzle to muzzle, hand to hand, musket and rifle, bayonet and bowie knife-all were mingled in con- fusion. Here a squad of Mexicans, there a Texian or two. The crash of fire arms the shouts of defiance, the cries of the dying and the wounded, made a din almost infernal. The Texians defended desperately every inch of the fort-overpowered by numbers they would be forced to abandon a room. They would rally in the next, and defend it until further resistance became impossible.
"General Tolsa's command forced an entrance at the door of the church building. He met the same determined resistance without and within. He won by force of numbers and a great sacrifice of life.
"There was a long room on the ground floor. It was darkened. Here the fight was bloody. It proved to be the hospital. A detachment of which I had command had captured a piece of artillery. It was placed near the door of the hospital, doubly charged with grape and canister, and fired twice. We entered and found the corpses of fifteen Texians. On the outside we afterward found forty-two dead Mexicans.
"On the top of the church building I saw eleven Texians. They had some small pieces of artillery and were firing on the cavalry and on those engaged in making the escalade. Their ammunition was exhausted and they were loading with pieces of iron and nails. The captured piece was placed in a position to reach them, doubly charged, and fired with so much effect that they ceased work- ing their pieces." * * * * *
Sergeant Becera was of opinion that the two last ment killed were Travis and Crockett, though he admitted he did not know them personally and might be mistaken as to their identity.
The Alamo, as has been stated, was entered at daylight; the fight did not cease till 9 o'clock.
"General Santa Anna directed Colonel Mora to send out his cavalry to bring in wood. He ordered that they should make prisoners of all the inhabitants they might meet, and force them to pack wood to the Alamo. In this manner a large quantity of wood was collected. A large pile was raised. It consisted of layers of wood and layers of corpses of Texians. It was set on fire. The bodies of those brave men who fell fighting that morning, as men have seldom fought, were reduced to ashes before the sun was set. It was a melancholy spectacle."
123
COL. FORD'S MEMOIRS.
Don Lino Ruiz, a respectable Mexican of Brownsville, claimed to have been one of the men compelled to pack wood on that occasion. * *
Mr. Nagle, an Englishman, inscribed their names on a stone of the Alamo. It has an inscription: "Thermopylæ had her messenger of defeat, but the Alamo had none." That memorial is at Austin.
The number of Texians who fell cannot be accurately ascertained. Dr. Sutherland placed it at 172. About twenty Mexicans joined them. But four of these remained to be massacred.
Eight or ten Mexican ladies were in the Alamo when it fell. Mrs. Als- bury, an adopted daughter of Governor Veramendi and her little sister, Señoras Candelaria, Losoyo and others were present at the end of the siege. Señora Candelaria was nursing Bowie, sick of typhoid fever. She says she raised his head to give him water, when the Mexican soldiers came in bayoneted him and gave her a wound in the face. Mrs. Alsbury told Mrs. Maverick that the Mexican soldiers hoisted Colonel Bowie's body on their bayonets until the blood covered their clothes. A Mexican colonel rushed to them and stopped them.
Sergeant Becera thus speaks of the Mexican loss and is corroborated by Dr. Sutherland:
"There was an order to gather our own dead and wounded. It was a fear- ful sight. Our lifeless soldiers covered the ground surrounding the Alamo. They were heaped inside the fortress. Blood and brains covered the earth, the floor, and had spattered the walls. The ghastly faces of our comrades met our gaze. We removed the bodies with despondent hearts. Our loss in front of the Alamo was represented at two thousand killed, and more than three hundred wounded. The killed were generally struck on the head. The wounds were generally in the neck or shoulders, seldom below that. The firing of the beseiged was fearfully precise. When a Texas rifle was leveled at a Mexican he was considered as good as dead. All this indicates the dauntless bravery and the cool self-posses- sion of the men who were engaged in a hopeless conflict with an enemy number- ing more than twenty to one. They inflicted on us a loss ten times greater than they sustained. The victory of the Alamo was dearly bought. Indeed the price in the end was well nigh the ruin of Mexico."
-
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SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
The Alamo Monument. *
FROM COL. FORD'S MEMOIRS.
The monument of the Alamo at Austin, has Travis on the South front, Bowie on the East front, Crockett on the North front and Bonham on the West front. Beneath these, inscribed on the North and South fronts, by Mr. Nagle, are the following names :
M. Autrey,
J. E. Garwin, Gillmore,
Nelson,
R. Allen,
M. Andress,
Hutchason
Wm. G. Nelson, C. Ostiner,
Ayers,
S. Hollaway,
Pelone,
Anderson,
Harrison,
C. Parker,
W. Blazeby,
Hieskell,
N. Pollard,
J. B. Bournan,
J. Hayes,
G. Paggan,
Baker,
Horrell,
McQuerry,
S. C. Blair,
Harris.
S. Robinson,
Blair,
Hankins,
Reddenson,
Brown,
J. Holland,
N. Rough,
Bowin,
W. Hersie,
Rusk.
Balentine,
Ingraılı,
Robbins,
J. J. Baugh,
John
W. Smith,
Burnell,
J. Jones,
Sears,
J. Butler,
L, Jolinson,
C. Smitlı,
J. Baker.
C. B Jamison,
Stockton,
Burns, Bailey,
T. Jackson,
A. Smith,
J. Beard,
D. Jackson,
J. C. Smith,
Baliess,
Jackson,
Sewall,
Bourne,
G. Kemble,
A. Smith,
R. Cunningham,
A. Kent,
Simpson,
J. Clark,
W. King,
R. Star.
J. Cane,
Kenney,
Starn, N. Sutherland,
S. Crawford, Cary
W. Linn,
J. Summerline
W. Cummings,
Lanio,
Thompson,
R. Crossman,
W. Lightfoot,
Tomlinson,
Cockran,
W111. Lightfoot,
E. Taylor,
G. Cottle,
G. W. Lynn,
G. Taylor, Bros.
S. Dust,
Lewis,
J. Taylor,
J. Dillard,
J. Lonly,
W. Taylor,
A. Dickinson,
W. Mills,
Thornton,
C. Despalier,
Micheson,
Thomas,
L. Davell,
E. T, Mitchell,
J. M. Thruston,
J. C. Day,
E. Melton1,
Valentine.
J. Dickens,
McGregor,
Williamson,
Devault,
T. Miller,
J. L. Wilson,
W Deadruff,
J. McCoy,
Warner,
J. Erving,
E. Morton,
D. Wilson,
T. R. Evans,
R. Mussalman,
Walslı.
D. Floyd,
Millsop,
Washington,
J. Flanders,
R. B. Moore,
W. Wells,
W. Fishpaugh,
W. Marshall,
C. Wright,
Forsythe,
Moore,
R. White,
G. Fuga,
R. McKenney,
J. Washington,
J. C. Goodrich,
McCaferty,
T. Waters,
J. George.
J. McGee,
Warnall,
J. Gaston,
G. W. Main,
J. White,
J. C. Garrett,
G. Nelson,
D. Wilson,
C. Grimes,
Nelson, J. Noland.
J. Wilson, A. Wolf.
Groyn,
To these Mrs. Candelaria adds the following Mexicans:
José Marera Cabrera, Tula, Mexico. José Maria Jimenes, Mexico. Elijio or Elias Losoya, San Antonio. - - Jacinto, from the coast of Texas. These make 170 slain. Dr. Sutherland stated 172.
* It is also designed to rear a shaft in the centre of Alamo Plaza, to commemorate, in marble or in granite, the incidents of the fight of the Alamo, and of other contests of the revolution against Mexico; the ground for this monument has already been set aside by the city council of san Antonio.
Cloud,
J. Kenny,
Lewis.
W. Sunimiers,
W. Jolinson,
Stewart,
125
THE COUNTY RECORDS.
The County Records. ,
The expression "hunting it up in the records" is an apt phrase. It must have been coined by a man who could appreciate the similarity of the keen feel- ing of the chase with that ardor that an elusive fact aronses in one when it is traced and followed from document to document until-ping ! and you have it on the point of your Faber. It is almost like the pig sticking of India-for "facts are stub- born things." Many an enjoyable "run" has been made in the County Vault, with what measure of success we leave the reader and critic to judge. If our bag is not full and we fail to obtain a mede of admiration for good sport, we still have the relish of the pursuit, not to speak of the remembrance of the encouragement and help that has ever generously been accorded by that Nimrod of the records, Mr. Thad. Smith. To him our thanks are due for many a hint. His aid was found invaluable. His intimate knowledge of the vast amount of writing stowed away enabled us to take many a short cut. The task we set ourselves is all but completed and space only allows of the merest mention of so much that would make the most interesting reading if intelligently edited and compiled. Suffice it to say that there is material enough and to spare to weave either history or romance interminable. Romance of real events and life, stranger than the strangest fiction. Deeds, documents, proclamations, letters, wills, statements, dispatches, grants and agreements, in fine every form of documentary evidence relating to the doings of Bexar and its restless children for a hundred and fifty years.
Here, a document relating to deep water on the coast-not by any means a new question it appears for it speaks of the exploration of Matagorda and Aran- zuzu Bays, by the Conde de Galvez in 1690, one expedition going by land and another by sea, when it was reported among other things that "the port of Mata- gorda has a good depth." Again, in June, 1804 an expedition went forth to explore, and the explorers had to anchor, we are told, for three days in Espiritu Santo bay. Other papers endorsed "Geographical" are doubtless of historical inter- est. Here, are papers relating to the partition of the Mission Concepcion lands, with the names, sexes and condition of the recipients, dated A. D. 1786.
'The next paper is a description of a disastrous flood of the San Antonio river and ditches which destroyed much property, with a list of drowning casualties, July 5th, 1819. Following is a royal decree making vaccination compulsory, dated May 20th 1804. Another census of the Missions. Decrees of Coahuila and Texas, 1808. Census of the Alamo, Dec. 31st, 1808. City ordinances 1827-28. Boundaries of Texas. Anglo-Americans and their doings. Description of jail and barracks built by Ripperda in 1773. Then an intensely interesting letter from Antonio Morales, from New Orleans just after the battle in 1815, concern- ing the pirates of the gulf coast and the part they took in the fight. Ordinances of La Villa Capital de San Fernando founded November 28th, 1730 by Antonio de Aviles, or rather the growing settlement was then erected into a Royal Presidio. Large numbers of military papers, rosters and rolls of the Spanish armies. Papers relating to American colonists and their " uprisings "-prisoners . of war.
126
SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
This is only a partial list of the historical evidence accumulated in the county vault. It is sufficient to show that there is much material for an ambitious local historian.
MEM .- In the County Records may be seeu a power of attorney to Domingo Bustillo from James Bowie, to administer James Bowie's property and the property belonging to James Bowie's deceased wife, Ursula de Vera- mendi, during his, the said James Bowie's absence from San Antonio, Dated June 29th, 1834.
MEM .- The Saints are usually spokeu of in the documents as "Señor San Jose, etc."
The Founding of the Town of San Fernando
By the Canary Island Settlers, 1730-31.
On pages 293 et seq., of the work "Apuntes para la Historia Antigua de Coa- huila y Texas," por Esteban L. Portillo, already mentioned in a note appended to the plan of Mission Concepcion, are some interesting passages of earliest San Auto- nio history. The author, Portillo, gives at length a document which he says is to be found in the City Records of Saltillo concerning certain aid and assistance rendered by Don Mathias de Aguirre to the sixteen families of Canary Island emigrants when on their way through Saltillo to the Presidio of San Antonio de Bexar. The document as it stands is not quite lucid, at least not from the modern reader's point of view. It requires some explanation here and there, and the edi- tor regrets that for the present he is unable to inspect the original document, to see if there is not "more to it." For instance, these sixteen Canary Island fam- ilies, numbering, as the document avers, fifty-six persons, arrived in San Antonio according to accepted history and tradition, on November 28th, 1730, and here apparently, are fifteen persons representing sixteen families, four of whom rep- resent one family of themselves, * already (Jan. 29th, 1731), back in Saltillo, witnessing to this voucher of substance delivered to them, all in order that Don Mathias de Aguirre may be paid. Are we to suppose that these men made the long weary journey back to Saltillo just for this purpose and noth- ing more, or was Saltillo the early trading post of this new Texas Territory and did they visit Saltillo for these two or more purposes? The reader must answer for himself this and other questions that will naturally arise upon the perusal of the following most interesting matter :
The author E. L. Portillo says :
"By a Royal decree of 10th May, 1723, the King of Spain ordered that four hundred families from the Canary Islands should emigrate (pasaran) to populate Texas.
"I think it opportune that the names of the founders of Bexar should be known, after having remained forgotten for so many years. In an official docu- ment existing in the Archives of the Town Hall of this cityt is to be found a valuable record leading back to the year 1731."
*This reads something like one of those equations in Algebra with which the good Bishop Colenso used to puzzle us .-
+ Saltillo, Mexico.
127
THE FOUNDING OF THE TOWN OF SAN FERNANDO.
In the town of Santiago del Saltillo de la Nueva Vizcaia, on the twenty-ninth of January, 1731, appeared present before me the Notary Public and the undersigned witnesses :
Juan Leal Goraz, Juan Leal the boy, Antonio Santos, Salvador Rodriguez, Joseplie Cabrera, Manuel de Niz, Francisco Arocha, Vicente Alvarez, Juan Delgado, Marino Melano, Juan Curbelo, and Phelipe Perez, Josephe Antonio, Martin Lorenzo, Ignacio Lorenzo. These last four comprise one family. They are sixteen families, although the Derrotero counted but fifteen. It was resolved here by Captain Don Mathias de Aguirre, at the request of the above named parties, to adjust (or regulate) for sixteen families, numbering altogether fifty-six persons, and these families declared that having presented and represented in writing to Captain Mathias de Aguirre that they came without provisions of any kind and were with neither mules nor horses, as stated to his Honour (or to his Worship) and proved by the fact that the liorses they had exchanged were unable to continue the journey, and the mules had been returned to their owners; that in order that they might be enabled to continue the journey to the Presidio of San Antonio de Vejar * they were given what was most convenient and necessary, namely : Eighty-six horses, as stated in detail in the account of the repartition that was made to each one of the families ; also, seventy-seven mules loaded with provisions for their maintenance during the journey from this town to San Antonio; also, twenty-seven inules moreover to carry biscuit, meat and everything needed and necessary ; also, four mules employed to carry four panier loads (cargas de arganas), making in all the number alluded to, seventy-seven t mules. Also, sixteen yokes of oxen. But His Excellency ordered Captain Don Mathias de Aguirre to give only fifteen yokes, yet there was added one yoke for the four single men who make up a family, adding to said yoke the necessary ploughshare, an axe and a pickaxe. In the same manner they declared having received from the said Captain sixteen metates į with their grinding stones, as His Excellency had ordered the said Captain. And they said that the said Captain had delivered faithfully and without fault in the said Presidio de San Antonio de Bejar the sixteen yokes of oxen. All of which contained in aforesaid arrived as expressed (or stated). They confessed and acknowledged to have received con- formably all the above-mentioned, remaining satisfied, renouncing the laws of the delivered (las leyes de la entrega) and the proof of the receipt contained in them. Leaving the payment of the amount to the will and convenience of His Excellency the Viceroy, Governor and Cap- tain General of this New Spain, which amount the said Don Mathias de Aguirre will give in detail to the officials of the Royal Treasury in the City of Mexico, and to his Attorney, in order that he be paid the sum that would be equivalent to the above named in conformity with that which His Excellency would be pleased to determine and order to be executed, and in order that all agreed upon remain as expressed in the above named contents, they signed it, the witnesses being
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