Alamo Traces (15 page)

Peter Harper was most likely a couple of days ahead of Crockett. Crockett and B. A. M. Thomas would have arrived at Goliad in late January when there were about thirty-five Texian soldiers under the command of Francis W. Thornton. Those troops would have believed that San Antonio was under the threat of an immediate attack by a large Mexican force and that Lt. Colonel James C. Neill was in need of mounted scouts. That information may in turn have influenced Crockett and his men to join the Texian force at Bexar.

Or Crockett may have encountered Houston on the road to Goliad as Houston was returning to Washington-on-the-Brazos, and Houston may have ordered Crockett to the Alamo because Neill needed mounted scouts. Houston, however, left no record of such an event.

There are two sources that report that Crockett traveled through Bastrop on his way to San Antonio. First, there is the John Berry story in Andrew Jackson Sowell,
Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas
(Austin: Ben C. Jones and Company, 1900), 46. Berry's wife claimed that her husband, John Berry, had repaired a broken rifle stock for Crockett while in Bastrop (Mina) on the way to San Antonio. Mrs. Berry's veracity is compromised by two elements in the account. First, she claimed that John B. repaired the rifle's stock with a “large silver band.” Silver is a soft metal that would not have been used to repair a broken stock. Second, she claimed that Crockett did not wear an animal skin cap. Crockett did wear such a cap. It appears that Berry told the Crockett tale to enhance her and her husband's small place in Texas history, not an uncommon human behavior.

The second source is Noah Smithwick's
The Evolution of a State
, which claims: “I [Smithwick] was taken down with fever while in Bastrop, but was convalescent when Crockett came on, and wanted to return with him to San Antonio, but, seeing that I was not in condition to do so, he persuaded me
to wait for another party to arrive a few days later.”

Contrary to the great trust that has been placed in the Smithwick book, military service records, Noah Smithwick file, AMC-TSL, show that he was a member of Captain I. W. Burton's Texas Ranger company from January 29, 1836, to April 29, 1836. The unit was stationed in East Texas, near the United States border. If Crockett had traveled through Bastrop, it would have been around January 26 or 27. It would have been impossible for Smithwick to have been sick in Bastrop on those dates and have enlisted in Burton's company on the Sabine River on January 29, 1836.

William C. Davis, Crockett's most recent biographer, in
Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis
, 718, reports: “[Thomas Ricks] Lindley's itinerary maintains that Crockett was in the Goliad-Copano area, more than one hundred miles off the most direct route to Bexar. Lindley's evidence is a claim filed for an expense incurred by Peter Harper, who had been part of Crockett's contingent, the inference being that if Harper was near Goliad or Copano, then so was Crockett. This may be true, and it may not. Since the most direct road from Gay Hill to Bexar was the old Gotier Trace to its junction with the
Medio
road [La Bahia road], then south across the San Antonio road and thence via Gonzales, this has been chosen as his most likely route.”

Mr. Davis's triple biography is mammoth and excellent. Also, Mr. Davis has been very supportive and appreciative of this investigator's work, for which I am extremely thankful. In this case, however, Mr. Davis's direct route to San Antonio claim is off base. Had Crockett taken the Gotier Trace, it would have taken him to Mina (Bastrop), not Gonzales. The San Antonio road that Davis wrote of did not go through Gonzales. The most direct and safest route to Bexar from Gay Hill would have been for Crockett to have traveled southwest on the Medio road to its junction with the San Antonio to Columbus road. At that intersection Crockett could have turned west and the road would have taken him through Gonzales, straight to Bexar. Also, on that road the chance of being attacked by Indians was much less than on the road from Mina to Bexar. There is, however, no evidence that indicates Crockett passed through Gonzales.

34
John M. Swisher,
The Swisher Memoirs
(San Antonio: The Sigmond Press, 1932), 18; James C. Neill to Convention, February 5, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 265; G. B. Jameson to Henry Smith, February 11, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 303; Crockett to Lott, January 23, 1836; Thomas to Lott, January 24, 1836; “Muster Roll of Capt. Chenoweth's Co,” Muster Rolls book, Archives Division, Texas General Land Office, Austin; said archive is hereafter cited as the GLO. Historians have long wondered just how the Muster Rolls book was created. The GLO book was copied from the original Adjutant General muster rolls sometime before those rolls were destroyed in the burning of the Adjutant General building during the mid-1850s. A notice that appeared in the November 26, 1836 issue of the
Telegraph and Texas Register
indicates that the original Adjutant General's
rolls were most likely created in 1837. The notice reads: “The undersigned being appointed a committee by the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas to obtain the names of as many of the officers and soldiers who were in service under the commands of Austin, Burleson, Dimmit, Travis, and Fannin – do hereby request that all persons who are in possession of information relative to said service will furnish the undersigned, the Secretary of War, or the editor of the
Telegraph
, with a certificate list of the names of such as can be procured. [John] Chenoweth, [Elkanah] Brush, [John Wheeler] Bunton.” The three men were veterans of the revolution.

The Crockett claim reads: “This is to certify that John Lott furnished myself and four other volunteers on our way to the army with accommodations for ourselves & horses.” At that point the army was forming at Copano and Goliad. Thus, it appears that the group spent the night of January 22 at Lott's place and departed the following morning. As Gay Hill was only a short ride from Washington-on-the-Brazos, Crockett probably arrived there on the twenty-third.

B. A. M. Thomas's claim shows that he did not depart Lott's establishment until the morning of January 24. He would have most likely joined Crockett at Gay Hill on that date.

The February 5 Neill letter contains the signatures of all the company commanders at San Antonio on that date. Because Crockett's name is not on the document, it appears he had not arrived at Bexar as of February 5. The Jameson missive placed Crockett in Bexar on February 11. He most likely arrived before the eleventh, but the evidence for an earlier date is weak. Antonio Menchaca, one of James Bowie's men, who left the Alamo during the siege, reported in his
Memoirs
that Crockett was in Bexar on February 10, 1836. That date is most likely correct, but Menchaca also claimed that Crockett entered the city on January 13, 1836, which is wrong.

35
Ibid.

36
Williams, “A Critical Study,” 97; Jose Antonio Navarro to Samuel M. Williams, September 26, 1833, Bexar, Samuel May Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas. Translation of the Navarro letter was done by Mr. Ismael Magna, Mexican Consul of Galveston, date unknown. A special thanks to Casey Edward Greene, Head of Special Collections at the Rosenberg Library, for furnishing this writer with copies of the original Navarro letter and the translation.

37
Williams, “A Critical Study,” 298; Note titled “John” and page from Williams's early draft of her defender roll listing defenders 181 to 183, Box 2N494, Williams Papers. Williams's research notes reveal that, about John, she first wrote: “John – Negro slave boy of Desauque I find no warrant, headright or other information.” The first draft of her summary on John reads: “183 _______ John, the negro slave boy who belonged to Francis De Sauque was left at the Alamo by his master. He died there. Why he was not spared as were the other negroes is not known. All lists include the name. No certificate for land to his heirs, if he had any, can be found.”

38
Milam I-883, Jasper B-23, Bexar B-413, Land Grant records, GLO.

39
Telegraph and Texas Register
, March 24, 1836, San Felipe.

40
John Thurston to Noah J. Byars, December 20, 1835, Noah J. Byars file, AMC-TSL; J. M. Thurston to Sam Houston, December 18, 1835, Andrew Jackson Houston Papers, TSL; Bernard Bee affidavit, October 28, 1837, Houston, John M. Thurston file, AMC-TSL; John H. Forsyth to William Newland, February 4, 1836, Gonzales, William Newland file, AMC-TSL; John H. Forsyth to William A. Matthews, February 4, 1836, Gonzales, William A. Matthews file, AMC-TSL; William B. Travis to Henry Smith, January 29, 1836, Burnam's Crossing on the Colorado River, AP-TSL; James C. Neill et al. to Convention, February 5, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 263-265.

41
George M. Collinsworth to Governor Henry Smith, January 10, 1836, Matagorda, Henry Smith Papers, CAH; George Wheelright affidavit, November 20, 1837, Houston, R. R. Royall file, AMC-TSL.

42
Frank Templeton,
Margaret Ballentine or The Fall of the Alamo
(Houston: State Printing Company, 1907), 235; James O. Breeden, ed.,
A Long Ride in Texas: The Explorations of John Leonard Riddell
(College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1994), 51; David R. Goldfield,
Promised Land: The South Since 1945
(Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1987), 107. Riddell, on meeting an Indian named John, wrote: “The soldiers and Texans universally gave Indians the name John.” Templeton's appendix has some valuable data not found elsewhere, but it must be used with caution.

43
Ibid.

44
Williams, “A Critical Study,” 238.

45
Samuel E. Alsbury, “The Private Journal of Juan Nepomuceno Almonte February 1 - April 16, 1836,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
, XLVIII, 23.

46
Copy of the Neill statement in Dr. William's handwriting, Williams Papers, Box 2N494, CAH.

47
James C. Neill affidavit, February 2, 1838, Houston, I. L. K. Harrison file, M & P-TSL.

48
George A. Nixon to R. R. Royall, November 14, 1835, Nacogdoches, Box 2/19, Council Papers, TSL; J. Roth receipt, November 17, 1835, Nacogdoches, Henry Raguet Papers, CAH; John Chenoweth affidavit, n.d., Houston, Edward Nelson file, AMC-TSL.

49
Nixon to Royall, November 14, 1835; J. Roth affidavit, December 15, 1835, Bexar, Leonard L. Williams file, AMC-TSL; J. Roth affidavit, December 15, 1835, Bexar, David Cook file, AMC-TSL; Alamo voting list, Bexar, Election Returns Collection, TSL.

50
Williams, “A Critical Study,” 301.

51
Petition of John Dorset for Administration of Jacob Roth, January 31, 1838, Final Record Book A: 128, Nacogdoches County, Texas.

52
“Muster Roll, Captain Thomas H. Breece's Co., Texas Volunteers, in the Army before Bexar, 1835,” Muster Rolls book, 25, GLO. Williams identified James Dickon as James Dimkins (Dimplins). Ernest Beerstecher Jr., “Historical Probate Extracts,”
Texana
, VII: 271 shows that the name was James Dickon. Williams did not address the name of James Holloway in her study.

53
Williams, “A Critical Study,” 287.

54
Ibid., 291.

55
Ibid., 287.

56
Edward Gritten to
Alcalde, Ayuntamiento
and People of Gonzales, October 4, 1835, Bexar, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, II: 38; Edward Gritten claim for expenses for A. Anderson express to Gonzales, Edward Gritten file, AMC-TSL; Alamo voting list, February 1, 1836; “List of men who have this day volunteered to remain before Bexar, November 24, 1835,” Austin Papers, CAH; “Return of Killed and Wounded in the Actions of 20th and 21st of April 1836,” Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, VI: 14-14; Peter L. Duncan muster roll, n.d., siege of Bexar, 1835, Austin Papers, CAH; Peter L. Duncan to Luke Moore, December 13, 1835, Bexar, Luke Moore file, AMC-TSL.

57
Williams, “A Critical Study,” 288; “Breece Muster Roll.”

58
Williams, “A Critical Study,” 301; Lost Book of Harris County, 119 and name index, Box G-629, GLO; Gifford White, Lost Book of Harris County, typescript copy, 119 and name index, Manuscript Collection, TSL; San Jacinto List, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, VI: 14-15.

59
Ibid.

60
Williams, “A Critical Study,” 300.

61
Texas General Land Office Land Grant Index
, Volume H, 1673-1674, GLO.

62
Williams, “A Critical Study,” 300; “Breece Muster Roll.”

63
Robert Musselman, Thomas P. Hutchinson, and John J. Baugh affidavit, Francis William Jackson file, AMC-TSL; Groneman,
Alamo Defenders
, 11 and 82. A total review of Williams's citations for Baugh and Musselman was not conducted. Her sources appear to prove the two men died at the Alamo.

64
Ibid.

65
“List of the names of those who fell in the Alamo at San Antonio de Bexar March 6, 1836,” Muster Rolls book, 2, GLO, this roll lists a “J. Washington”; Ernest Beerstecher Jr., “Historical Probate Extracts,”
Texana
, VIII: 86; reports an entry for “James Washington”; Alamo voting list, February 1, 1836. The last document lists the name George Washington. Also, the Nacogdoches Enlistments, January 14, 1836, list Joseph G. Washington. It is believed that Joseph G. Washington arrived at San Antonio with David Crockett. Both men enlisted at the same place on the same date. Washington, however, voted at Bexar on February 1. Crockett did not, which suggests they were not together. It is possible that Washington was riding ahead of Crockett and reached San Antonio before Crockett.

66
Lucy A. Erath, “Memoirs of Major George Bernard Erath,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
, XXVI: 230-231. The long quote from Erath was included because it is the only known information about the life of Ross McClelland, other than his death at the Alamo.