Authors: James Donovan
Tags: #History / Military - General, #History / United States - 19th Century
The scene of the Gonzales townspeople seeing off the relief force is briefly described by eyewitness David Darst (son of Alamo defender Jacob Darst) in the
San Antonio Light
of August 18, 1912.
There is little reliable information on the route and makeup of the Gonzales relief force. The route to San Antonio here posited—the mill road rather than the better-marked and more heavily traveled road cleared and marked by Byrd Lockhart—is based on the fact that the King residence was on this route. As it was most likely a rougher road (probably a trail hard to follow at some points, and even more so at night), it probably took the force longer to make the trip, thus explaining their arrival at the Alamo at three a.m. on March 1. Evidence of the road’s existence can be found on several maps of the period, in Byrd Lockhart’s “Notes Related to Land Distribution,” dated November 1831 (file SC 000119:2, GLO), and on a map in Hunt and Randel,
A New Guide to Texas
.
The King family story is related in an undated transcript of a newspaper story entitled “Wm. P. King, Youngest Martyr To Die In Alamo,” in which a story supplied by Captain William L. Foster, who married King’s sister, Eliza Ann, is related (TSLA; also in file 5, box 1039, Lindley Papers, Southwestern Writers Collection, Texas State University). It is also corroborated in a speech given by Captain H. E. McCullough on July 22, 1857, and reported in the Seguin
Mercury
on April 7, 1858 (reprinted in Sowell,
Rangers and Pioneers of Texas,
p. 145).
The description of Peña Creek is in de la Peña,
With Santa Anna in Texas,
p. 33; he also noted the eagerness of the soldiers (pp. 20 and 40) and the reluctance of Gaona to incur Santa Anna’s displeasure (p. 33). Santa Anna did reprimand Gaona for his column’s slow pace when he reached Béxar.
As noted above, several period maps illustrate the upper road, or the mill road, from Gonzales along the Guadalupe to Béxar, showing where it crosses the Cibolo a few miles north of the spot where the lower road fords the creek and also showing where it intersects the lower road a few miles west of the Cibolo. For one example see the map of Texas in Hunt,
A New Guide to Texas
.
The arrival of the Gonzales relief force at the Alamo is described by John Sutherland, who doubtless received his information from his friend John W. Smith, the group’s guide. See Sutherland,
The Fall of the Alamo,
pp. 25–26, and Sutherland’s unpublished narrative, reprinted in Hansen, p. 147.
Bowie’s reassurance to Juana Alsbury was described in her account of events, reprinted in Hansen, p. 87. His appearances while sick are related by Susanna Dickinson in a remembrance to her grandchildren, reprinted in Hansen, pp. 57 and 58. She also told them many times of the fiddle playing of Crockett and the bagpipe playing of McGregor (see Hansen, pp. 58 and 60), and she also related it in an interview with James Morphis, who published it in his 1874
History of Texas;
her account therein is reprinted in Hansen, p. 75.
Almonte, in his journal, notes that Ramírez y Sesma left on February 29 and returned early the next morning (reprinted in Hansen, p. 364).
At the beginning of the siege Travis reported, in an express to Fannin at Goliad, 156 “effective men” (John Sowers Brooks to his father, February 25, 1836, reprinted in Chariton,
100 Days in Texas,
p. 274). Both John Sutherland and Susanna Dickinson reported between two and three dozen ill or injured men, as did Green Jameson, who on January 18 counted “114 men counting officers, the sick and wounded which leaves us about 80 efficient men” (Hansen, p. 571), though it is not clear if he was including Seguín’s Tejanos. Most of the Tejanos left the Alamo before the battle, and at least fifteen defenders left the garrison about February 14; for these reasons and others, it is impossible to come up with an accurate count of the garrison at the time of the battle. But several letters written from Goliad after the arrival of courier James L. Allen on March 8 mention the Alamo garrison as consisting of about two hundred men, information clearly derived from Allen, who left the Alamo on the evening of March 5 (see Chariton,
100 Days in Texas,
pp. 349–57). Thus, with the arrival of the “Gonzales Thirty-Two” early in the morning of March 1, the Alamo defenders, not counting women and children, likely comprised about two hundred volunteers, give or take a courier or two. For two good discussions of the subject, see “The Alamo Numbers Game” chapter in Chariton,
Exploring the Alamo Legends,
and the essay “Numbers of Combatants” in Hansen, pp. 758–62.
Regarding the supply of coffee, the existence of a promissory note signed by Travis on February 20, 1836, to a local merchant for 640 pounds of coffee, 370 pounds of tobacco, three large bars of lead, and twenty-five pounds of powder was recently made public (in the November 9, 2011, auction conducted by RR Auction of Amherst, New Hampshire). If legitimate, it would indicate that the garrison had a supply sufficient for quite a while. But it appears doubtful that Kimble would go to the trouble of buying and carrying fifty-two pounds of coffee unless one of the couriers—John Sutherland, John W. Smith, or the more recently arrived Albert Martin—made it clear that the coffee supply was low. If the 640 pounds were indeed delivered to the garrison, part or all of it may have been left in Béxar in the haste to move into the Alamo upon the arrival of the Mexican army.
F
OURTEEN
: “D
EVLISH
D
ARK
”
The chapter title phrase is from the
Arkansas Gazette
of April 19, 1836: “To use the language of one of our correspondents, the atmosphere of Texas is becoming ‘devlish dark.’ ” The epigraph is from Santa Anna’s February 29, 1836, orders to Ramírez y Sesma, reprinted in Hansen, p. 335.
These stories of Crockett’s expertise are in Field,
Three Years in Texas,
p. 17; Muir,
Texas in 1837,
p. 113; and Captain Rafael Soldana’s account of the Alamo siege and battle in DeShields’s
Tall Men with Long Rifles,
reprinted in Hansen, p. 470. Crockett’s statement about being hemmed up was remembered by Susanna Dickinson in an interview granted to historian James Morphis and published in his 1874
History of Texas
(reprinted in Hansen, p. 46). Her recollection of Henry Warnell’s similar statement first appeared in an 1860 deposition, reprinted in Hansen, p. 45. Details of Crockett’s War of 1812 experiences can be found in his
Narrative,
p. 90.
The information on William Malone is found in G. A. McCall, “William T. Malone,”
Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association
14 (April 1911), and in the deposition of Mary Malone in the case of
Malone et al. v. Moran et al.,
case number 3644, on file in the district court of Parker County, Texas.
The move of the Mexican battalion is noted in Almonte’s diary, reprinted in Hansen, p. 365: “The President discovered, in the afternoon, a covered road within pistol shot of the Alamo, and posted the battalion of Jimenes there.”
Williamson’s March 1, 1836, letter to Travis is reprinted in Hansen, p. 601.
De la Peña’s quote, and the details of the Duque-led battalion’s force-march to Béxar, are found in his
With Santa Anna in Texas,
pp. 35 and 36.
Travis’s March 3, 1836, letter to the president of the convention is reprinted in Hansen, pp. 35–36. His letter of the same date to Jesse Grimes is reprinted in Hansen, p. 37. His letter to David Ayres of the same date is reprinted in Hansen, p. 38.
This reconstruction of the events of March 3 is based on the known circumstances and events of that evening. Almonte wrote in his journal, “The enemy attempted a sally in the night at the Sugar Mill, but were repulsed by our advance” (Hansen, p. 365). The possibility of this action being used as a diversionary tactic is first mentioned in Santos,
Santa Anna’s Campaign,
p. 72.
The cold weather in Washington, Texas, is noted in William Fairfax Gray’s diary, which is quoted in Chariton,
100 Days in Texas,
p. 293; his description of Houston’s arrival there is also noted in his diary,
Diary of Colonel W. F. Gray,
p. 122.
For convincing circumstantial evidence that George Childress was likely the sole author of the declaration, see Greer, “The Committee,” pp. 244–45. His dress is described in a January 24, 1888, letter from William C. Crawford to Henry McArdle, in Account Papers, Undated, W. W. Fontaine Papers, BCAH.
The two-day eggnog-drinking spree in Washington was revealed in Mary Austin Holly’s interview with Sam Houston, conducted on April 7, 1844, and reprinted in Hansen, p. 621.
F
IFTEEN
: “H
IS
E
XCELLENCY
E
XPECTS
T
HAT
E
VERY
M
AN
W
ILL
D
O
H
IS
D
UTY
”
The chapter title phrase is from Santa Anna’s general orders for the attack on the Alamo, as reprinted in Hansen, p. 338. The epigraph, Sánchez’s quote, is reprinted in Chariton,
100 Days in Texas,
p. 320.
Henry Smith’s February 25, 1836, letter to Bryan is quoted in Lindley,
Alamo Traces,
pp. 121–22.
The John Sutherland quote about John W. Smith’s attempt to round up one hundred men, and the details of that attempt, are found in his unpublished narrative, reprinted in Hansen, p. 152. The number of men in Gonzales at the time Neill returned is from Colonel John M. Swisher,
The Swisher Memoirs
(San Antonio, TX: The Sigmund Press, 1932), p. 29.
Details of Sutherland and Alsbury’s failed relief force are found in Sutherland’s draft account, reprinted in Hansen, pp. 179–81.
The March 4 quote by Sánchez is from Huneycutt,
At the Alamo,
p. 64. The de la Peña quotes regarding the council of war are in
With Santa Anna in Texas,
pp. 43 and 44.
The Santa Anna quote is from his March 3, 1836, letter to Urrea, as reprinted in Chariton,
100 Days in Texas,
p. 309.
The hot shot is mentioned in Kailbourn, “Lt. Col. Pedro Ampudia’s After-action Report.” As the author points out, despite Ampudia’s outrage, “apparently there was no international ban on the use of that type of ammunition during this era…. The customs of war condemned the use of such projectiles as chain shot, bar shot, bits of scrap metal fired en masse, and jagged shot, but not specifically hot shot. However, during some conflicts the use of hot shot had been prohibited by treaties or military arrangements.”
Santa Anna’s general orders for the attack on the Alamo are in Filisola,
Memorias,
pp. 7–9, translated and reprinted in Hansen, pp. 337–38.
Urrea’s description of Morales can be found in his own diary of the Texas campaign, reprinted in Castañeda,
The Mexican Side of the Texan Revolution,
p. 223.
Santa Anna was skeptical of Uruñuela’s illness and initiated an official investigation after the battle; the result was Uruñuela’s banishment to the frontier village of Guerrero, near the Rio Grande and adjacent to the Presidio de San Juan Bautista del Rio Grande (Gregorio Uruñuela, compiled personnel file, entries of May 3, 1837; August 21, 1837; and December 20, 1837; Archivo de Cancelados, Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional—thanks to Tom Kailbourn for assistance in translating).
Details of Francisca Músquiz’s plea to Santa Anna to spare Susanna Dickinson and her daughter are in Hansen, p. 59, and in a letter from Amelia Williams to Samuel Asbury dated May 3, 1832 (Amelia Williams Papers, BCAH).
The rumor that the Alamo was mined is related by Sánchez, in Sánchez-Navarro,
La Guerra de Tejas,
p. 83.
De la Peña’s quote regarding the Mexican soldiers and their thoughts on death is in de la Peña,
With Santa Anna in Texas,
p. 45. Duque’s request for de la Peña is related by Duque in Borroel,
The Papers of Lieutenant Colonel José Enrique de la Peña, Selected Appendixes from His Diary,
p. 19, and in
With Santa Anna in Texas,
p. 47.
Sánchez’s puzzlement over Santa Anna’s penchant for blood and tears is from his journal, in Sánchez-Navarro,
La Guerra de Tejas,
p. 84 (my translation).