Authors: James Donovan
Tags: #History / Military - General, #History / United States - 19th Century
The fragile condition of the Alamo’s north wall is discussed in Ivey,
Mission to Fortress,
chapter 7, p. 26.
The four saints in the niches on either side of the Alamo’s main entrance are listed in Ivey, “The Search for the Saints.”
The two rows of timber stakes are mentioned in Jack Eaton’s 1980 excavation research report, quoted in Hansen, p. 737. John Sutherland also described the palisade as having two rows (Hansen, p. 175). However, two leading Alamo researchers, James Ivey and Mark Lemon, have concluded that there was only one row of stakes.
The information supplied by the Tejano scout was forwarded by Bowie in his February 2, 1836, letter to Henry Smith, reprinted in Chariton,
100 Days in Texas,
p. 204.
Robinson’s February 2, 1836, letter to Neill is quoted in Binkley,
Official Correspondence,
vol. 1, p. 372. Though the physical letter has disappeared, the council’s recommendation to Robinson is still extant, and has a note on it stating: “Col. Neill written to Feb 2d 1836.”
Crockett’s arrival and this portion of his speech are related in Sutherland,
The Fall of the Alamo,
pp. 11–12.
Evidence of the service of the Neill sons is at TSLA (ROT audited claim 558, reel 77, frame 353), and it states that Samuel Clinton Neill served as a private in the mounted rifle corps under Colonel John Moore and Williamson, and that George Jefferson Neill “served 14 days in Williamson’s corps” plus “two months in Hunt’s company” (frame 272). The exact dates of service are unavailable, but it is clear that the two were actively engaged in defending the frontier area around Bastrop in the early part of 1836. The rumor that Neill had also left to procure money for the garrison is noted in Sutherland,
The Fall of the Alamo,
p. 8. See Hardin, “J. C. Neill,” for an excellent and judicious appraisal of Neill that refutes Walter Lord’s description of Neill in
A Time to Stand
as a “good second-rater” who was “gently nudged aside” by Travis, Bowie, and Crockett.
There are records for at least fifteen discharges at this time. See TSLA records for John T. Ballard, M. B. Atkinson, David Davis, Jabez Fitch, Chester Gorbit, T. Harris, Thomas Hendrick, Jonathan Hobbs, William Irwin, David Murphree, Preston Pevyhouse, John Pevyhouse, Felix Taylor, and Robert White (plus Neill’s February 14, 1836, discharge for Marcus Sewell). All these men were on the muster roll of Alamo defenders taken by Neill in mid-to late January (John T. Ballard likely was “J. Bartlett” on the list, especially since he is on the February 1 Alamo election return and “Bartlett” is not). See Chariton,
100 Days in Texas,
pp. 148–49, for the mid-January list, and n. 81 on p. 191 of that work for further explanation. Additionally, several men on the muster roll are known to have left the Alamo (TSLA records of them exist), though their discharges could not be found, including F. W. Jackson, Peter Conrad, John Johnston, Gerald Navan, William Bell, Thomas Ryan, and John Pickering. Based on the dates of most of these discharges—February 14—researcher nonpareil Thomas Ricks Lindley concluded in his book
Alamo Traces
that Neill left on the eleventh, made it to Gonzales, but was persuaded by a rider from Béxar to return and sort out the command problem. This may have happened, but due to the complete lack of corroborating evidence in the record—no account, letter, or report mentions anything of the sort—I find it unlikely.
Crockett’s statement affirming his rank of private is quoted in Sutherland’s early draft account, reprinted in Hansen, p. 178.
Travis’s February 13, 1836, letter to Henry Smith regarding his awkward position is reprinted in Mixon, “William Barret Travis,” p. 227, as is Baugh’s letter of the same date to Smith (p. 229). The February 14, 1836, letter from Travis and Bowie to Smith that relates their agreement is reprinted in Hansen, pp. 24–25.
Sutherland’s tantalizingly brief and enigmatic description of Bowie’s illness is in
The Fall of the Alamo,
p. 13. See Reid, “What Ails You,” for a succinct account of the various diagnoses of Bowie’s condition, and the author’s conclusion that it was probably typhoid pneumonia, from which sufferers often recovered after an acute period lasting a few weeks. Supporting this diagnosis somewhat is what Susanna Dickinson supposedly told her grandchildren—that at “lucid moments when the fever was somewhat abated, his soldiers would bring his cot to the main building” (Hansen, p. 57), since delirium, according to Reid, invariably accompanied the sickness. Two medical authorities also weighed in with a diagnosis of pneumonia: Dr. Joseph Field mentions “pneumonia typhoides, or bastard pleurisy” as a common Texas affliction of the time in his book
Three Years in Texas,
p. 37, and the author of
The Medical Story of Early Texas,
Patrick Ireland Nixon, concludes: “It is likely that Bowie contracted pneumonia ten days before his death” (p. 182). But historian John S. Ford, who interviewed Juana Alsbury, who may or may not have been familiar with the diagnosis, quoted her as saying that “Col. Bowie was very sick with typhoid fever” (Hansen, p. 87).
Most writers on the subject claim that Bowie did not become bedridden until the second day of the siege, February 24, citing Reuben Potter’s “The Fall of the Alamo” as their source. But circumstantial and oral evidence strongly points to an earlier date, as much as a week previous, or to a day or two after the cosigned dispatch of February 14. Virtually all accounts by participants mention Travis as being in command at the time of the retreat into the Alamo, and sometimes before. John Sutherland, who was there until the siege began, wrote (in what is likely his earliest account, sometime soon after 1860): “Col. James C Nail [Neill] was the Commander, by leave of absence, Col. Jas. Bowie, was entitled to the command; but owing to sickness previous to the commencement of the siege, he requested in presence of the writer of this, Col Travis (who had but recently arrived at San Antonio) to take the command, which he did” (Hansen, p. 167). In another section of the same account, he writes: “All in the Alamo at the fall One hundred & eighty seven men; forty of which when the writer left were on the sick list. (Col Bowie with the sick)” (Hansen, p. 179). In his more polished account, published by his daughter in 1936, he writes: “By Colonel Neill’s absence, Colonel James Bowie was left in command but he was shortly afterwards taken sick and confined to his bed” (Sutherland,
The Fall of the Alamo,
p. 8), which certainly sounds as though Bowie was bedridden soon after Neill’s departure on February 11 and several days before the arrival of the Mexican army on February 23. (And since Sutherland left the Alamo on the afternoon of February 23, the simple fact that he discussed and attempted to diagnose Bowie’s illness indicates that Bowie was seriously ill before that date.) Another witness was Juana Alsbury, who in the fall of 1838 visited the Alamo with Béxar resident and historian Mary Maverick, wife of Samuel, and described Bowie’s death to her. Mrs. Maverick wrote: “Mrs. Allsbury went into the Fort with Bowie to care for his comfort, he being in feeble health, & having had to resign command to Col. Travis” (Green,
Samuel Maverick,
pp. 55–56). And affidavits from Juan Seguín, on behalf of some of his Tejano horsemen seeking pensions years later, mention Travis and not Bowie in connection with the men receiving furloughs at the time: “After the capitulation of Gen’l. Cos he [Jesus Hernandez] continued in the same volunteer service till the beginning of February at which time B. Travis who was in superior command gave leave of absence sine die, to a large portion of volunteers whose services were no longer needed” (affidavit of Juan Seguín, Jesus Hernandez pension claim, reel 220, frame 270, ROT [Republic of Texas] Claims, TSLA), and: “After the capitulation, he [Macedonia Arocha] continued in the military service, until the middle of the month of February 1836 at which time he received from Col. Travis leave to retire” (affidavit of Juan Seguín, Macedonia Arocha pension claim, reel 201, frame 372, ROT [Republic of Texas] Claims, TSLA). A Tejano in Seguín’s company testified that “the commanding officer B. Travis dismissed indefinitely good many volunteers” (affidavit of Clemente Bustillo, Jesus Hernandez pension claim, reel 220, frame 269, ROT [Republic of Texas] Claims, TSLA), and on February 22, Travis signed a receipt for forty
fanegas
of corn appropriated from Antonio Cruz (Antonio Cruz pension claim 4469, reel 23, frame 13, ROT [Republic of Texas] Claims, TSLA). In November 1837, Captain William H. Patton signed a receipt stating: “This will certify that I was present when Capt. Francis Desauque loaned Col. Travis at Bexar two hundred dollars on act. Of the Texian Gov’t.” (Desauque audited claim, reel 25, frame 531, ROT [Republic of Texas] Claims, TSLA). There are no doubt other examples as well. There are at least three pension claim affidavits from men of Seguín’s command who, many decades later, testified that they were dismissed or received permission to leave the Alamo garrison from both Bowie and Travis (José Alameda, Agustin Bernal, Matias Carillo); only one claimed he was dismissed by Bowie and not Travis (Manuel Cerbera). The point is that there is virtually no evidence that Bowie exercised command, or shared it with Travis, after the February 14 cosigned letter.
After that letter, Travis wrote and/or signed every letter, order, or receipt through February 24 (a total of at least eleven extant, including two receipts recently made public in the November 9, 2011, auction conducted by RR Auction of Amherst, New Hampshire—both with the header “Commandancy of Bexar”), plus a few others known to have been written to James Fannin at Goliad but not extant. Bowie’s shaky signature at the bottom of the February 23 letter to Santa Anna—actually penned by Juan Seguín—evidences the only known letter he had anything to do with, though he may have cosigned, with Travis, a letter to Fannin on the same day. There are three pieces of evidence for that letter. One is in Foote,
Texas and the Texans,
vol. 2, p. 224: “The Commandant at Fort Defiance had received the express of Travis and Bowie requesting his aid, on the 25
th
of February,” which is followed by the text of said letter. The second is the fact that Fannin, in a letter to Robinson on February 25, 1836, wrote: “The appeal of cols Travis & Bowie cannot however pass unnoticed…” (Chariton,
100 Days in Texas,
p. 272). The third is Travis’s statement in his March 3, 1836, letter: “On the arrival of the enemy in Bejar ten days ago, I sent an express to Col. F., which arrived at Goliad on the next day, urging him to send us reinforcements—
none have yet arrived
” (quoted in Hansen, p. 36). (Note that Travis did not write “Col. Bowie and I sent an express,” which may or may not be construed as support for this argument, but is certainly no support for Bowie having written it; another possibility is that Bowie merely signed the letter, as he did on February 23.) Additionally, in every account by a credible eyewitness (Dickinson, Dimitt, Esparza, Highsmith, Seguín, Sutherland, etc.), Bowie is rarely if ever mentioned in connection with any command activities in the week preceding Santa Anna’s arrival on February 23—or mentioned at all. In a February 28, 1836, letter to James Kerr, Dimitt wrote: “On the 23
rd
, I was requested by Colonel Travis to take Lieutenant Nobles and reconnoitre [sic] the enemy” (Huson,
Captain Philip Dimitt’s Commandancy,
p. 236). Susanna Dickinson is quoted in 1874 as saying: “On February 23
rd
, 1836, Santa Anna, having captured the pickets sent out by Col. Travis to guard the post from surprise…” (Hansen, p. 45). And Juan Seguín, in a June 7, 1890, letter, wrote: “Col. Travis had no idea that Santa ana [sic] with his army, would venture to approach the city of Bexar, (now San Antonio) and for this reason, only a watch was kept up on the church tower…. In the act of the moment, Col. Travis resolved to concentrate all his forces within the Alamo, which was immediately done” (Hansen, p. 197).
Crockett’s earthy opinion concerning the men leaving the garrison appears in an affidavit of David Harman (David Harman Donation Voucher File, GLO). I have corrected the spelling of “shit,” which in the written affidavit was euphemized as “sheet.”
Details of Antonio Saez’s blacksmith shop are from the Antonio Saez File, TSLA. The claim for the sixty-five head of cattle is in the February 19, 1835, pension claim by Felipe Xaimes (audited claim 813, reel 130, frame 606, ROT [Republic of Texas] Claims, TSLA).
The ditty taught to young Enrique Esparza was related by Esparza in an interview reprinted in Hansen, pp. 113–14.
The footbridge across the San Antonio River has often been described and portrayed as a sturdy bridge wide enough for a cart to cross, but John Sutherland specifically wrote of “the footbridge from the city leading to the Alamo (there was no wagon bridge then)” (Hansen, p. 179). J. M. Rodriguez, who was a child at the time and lived close to the bridge, described it as “the footlog across the river” (
San Antonio Daily Express,
May 28, 1905). Additionally, Captain José Juan Sánchez’s map/illustration of the area clearly shows a small plank bridge, and his description reads: “Board bridge to facilitate the passage of the people from Béxar to the Alamo.” The next entry in his descriptive list concerns the ford lower on the river, which he describes as a “ford for vehicles and horses going toward La Villita,” indicating that he would probably have used similar language for the Potrero Street bridge if it deserved such a designation (Hansen, p. 409). And de la Peña writes of the morning of the attack: “The columns were set in motion, and at three they silently advanced toward the river, which they crossed marching two abreast over some narrow wooden bridges” (de la Peña,
With Santa Anna in Texas,
p. 46).