Alamo Traces (20 page)

The muster roll of the United States Invincibles included the following men who appear to have been available for Fannin's special mounted relief force for the Alamo:

David Murpree's name is not on the Chenoweth roll, but he was a member of the company. After the storming of Bexar, he remained in San Antonio to care for John W. Peacock, the unit's original captain, who had been severely wounded in the attack on Bexar. After Peacock's death in early February 1836, Murpree rejoined the company at Goliad.
⁷²

This muster roll reports every man as having been killed, except John Chenoweth, Peter Harper, B. H. Smith, and C. Mallon. The list, however, does not identify when and where the men were killed. Also, Hugh Frazier, T. B. Cox, and S. S. Curtis, though identified as being killed, were not killed during the revolution. Harper had originally been a member of Crockett's small company of mounted spies. Harper, William Hunter, B. H. Smith, B. M. Clark, and C. Mallon joined the Invincibles on January 27.
⁷³

Before Fannin's quickly formed mounted relief departed for Bexar, it appears that Fannin sent Edwin T. “Tom” Mitchell to the Gonzales committee of safety, informing them of his plans for reinforcing the Alamo. He requested that the Gonzales soldiers “. . . effect a junction with him below Bexar, at some convenient point.” The “convenient point” appears to have been the Cibolo Creek crossing on the San Antonio/Goliad road, about halfway between San Antonio and Goliad. Then, sometime after the Chenoweth and De Sauque force rode out for the Alamo, Fannin's main force crossed the San Antonio River on their march to Bexar.
⁷⁴

John Sowers Brooks, Fannin's adjutant, described the event with these words: “We marched at the time appointed, with 420 men, nearly the whole force at Goliad, leaving only one company of Regulars to guard the Fort. Our baggage wagons and artillery were all drawn by oxen (no broken horses could be obtained) and there were but a few yokes of them. In attempting to cross the San Antonio River, three of our wagons broke down and it was with the utmost labor and personal hazard, that our four pieces of cannon were conveyed safely across. We remained there during the day, with our ammunition wagon on the opposite side of the River.”
⁷⁵
Unable to repair their equipment before dark, Fannin's men spent the night on the east side of the river. Reinforcement activities, however, continued at Gonzales.

Major R. M. Williamson, who had left Mina that morning, probably arrived at Gonzales that evening. As the senior military officer he assumed command of the relief activities at that settlement. Later Seguin and his two men would have arrived with Travis's letter of February 25 to Houston.
⁷⁶

Houston, however, was still someplace on the road between Nacogdoches and Washington-on-the-Brazos. Yet, after four days, the reinforcement of the Alamo was in motion at the settlements that could send men the quickest. Time was the key element and it was precious. The second factor was the number of Texians that could be brought to the Alamo with sufficient arms and provisions. Bowie, in attempting an honorable surrender on February 23, understood that the Alamo's only hope was the immediate arrival of a force large enough to bottle up Santa Anna in the city on the west side of the San Antonio River.
⁷⁷

Travis also knew their backs were against the wall. Giving up was not an option. He did the only thing he could. He assumed the aggressive posture of a trapped animal, hoping to make the enemy realize that the cost would be high if they stormed the Alamo. The question was: Would the stratagem work long enough for a sufficient number of Texian soldiers to reach the Alamo in time?
⁷⁸

1
Travis to Houston, February 25, 1836.

2
Walter Lord,
A Time To Stand
(1961; reprint, New York: Bonanza Books, 1987), 126-127; Long,
Duel
, 224-226; Stephen L. Hardin,
Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994), 133; Michael Lind,
The Alamo
(New York and Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), 176; Rita Kerr,
The Immortal 32
(Austin: Eakin Press, 1986), 1-51.

3
Travis to Convention, March 3, 1836.

4
The fall of the Alamo was extremely “decisive” in that the defeat and the subsequent murder of the Goliad soldiers enraged the Texians, which resulted in the San Jacinto victory.

5
R. M. Potter, “The Fall of The Alamo,”
Magazine of American History
, January 1878, 7-8. This article is an expanded version of an article that was first published in the
San Antonio Herald
in 1860. While many believe that Potter's study of the Alamo defeat was the first written. That is not the case. John Henry Brown, an old Texas Ranger and newspaperman, wrote a pamphlet titled
The Fall of the Alamo
in September 1843. In December 1853, Brown wrote a second pamphlet titled
Facts of the Alamo, Last Days of Crockett and Other Sketches of Texas
. Copies of the works cannot be located today. Potter found a place in Texas history by writing about the Texas revolution. However, when given the opportunity to participate in that fight he refused. On March 6, 1836, Potter was at Velasco on the Texas coast. He was the chairman of a public meeting of the citizens of Velasco and Quintana that concerned an expected navel blockade of the Texas coast. By summer 1836 he had returned to Matamoros.

There is no primary source that shows that the Alamo defenders actually celebrated Washington's birthday, but given that most of them were from the United States, the party probably took place.

6
Almonte, “Private Journal,” 16-17; Jose Enrique de la Pena, Campaign Diary, 13, Jose Enrique de la Pena collection, CAH; “Trinidad Coy: As Recalled by His Son Andres Coy,”
San Antonio Light
, November 26, 1911; Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to General Joaquin Ramirez y Sesma, December 27, 1835, San Luis Potosi, English translation, Box 2/23/1063, MS-TSL.

Order number four of the Santa Anna document reads: “On starting your march from Laredo to Bejar you will walk with the most possible precautions not to be surprised by a nocturnal ambush in your camp, taking care that this march be executed in accordance with the military strict laws.”

Order number five starts with: “If the enemy should come out to meet you and present battle, you will examine above everything else the position they have taken, and if it should be so advantageous that you would see it impossible to defeat them, you will avoid the attack, directing your
maneuver towards Bejar through one of its flanks if the territory permits it, or to initiate a false retreat of about 2 or 3 leagues.”

7
Ruiz, “Fall of the Alamo,” 80; John Sutherland,
The Fall of the Alamo
Annie B. Sutherland, ed. (San Antonio: The Naylor Company, 1936), 15-16; L. Smither to All the Inhabitants of Texas, February 24, 1836, Gonzales in Michael R. Green, “To The People of Texas & All Americans in The World,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
, XCI: 503-504.

Sutherland, though he was not in San Antonio on February 23, also reported that Travis learned the Mexican army was near the city on the morning of the twenty-third.

Also, the Ruiz account is compromised by the fact that he was not in San Antonio on March 6, 1836. See Chapter Eight of this book for the evidence that shows why Ruiz was out of town on the day the Alamo fell. Still, his claim in regard to when Travis and his men learned of the Mexican army being in the area appears to be correct.

8
Juan N. Seguin to William Winston Fontaine, June 7, 1890, Nuevo Laredo, W. W. Fontaine Papers, CAH; Potter, “The Fall,” 6; Sutherland,
The Fall of the Alamo
, 6, Amelia W. Williams Papers, CAH.

In this original Sutherland manuscript (1860), he wrote that one had to climb to the top of the church's bell tower by a scaffold that had been erected by the Mexicans after the siege and storming of Bexar in 1835. Given that during the storming of Bexar, Texian artilleryman William Langenheim hit the bell tower's cupola with two twelve-pound cannonball shots, the scaffold was probably in place to assist workmen in repairing the tower.

9
Potter, “The Fall,” 7-8. If the Alamo defenders were selling weapons, they were most likely Brown Bess muskets that were captured from the Mexican army in December, not their personal weapons.

10
Joint Resolution for the relief of H. A. Alsbury, December 29, 1838, in H. P. N. Gammel,
The Laws of Texas 1822-1897
(10 vols., Austin: The Gammel Book Company, 1898), II: 30; “Testimony of Mrs. [Susanna Dickinson] Hannig Touching the Alamo Massacre, September 23, 1876, MS-TSL; Webb, Carroll, and Branda, eds.,
Handbook
, I: 36.

11
Herbert S. Kimble affidavit, August 22, 1837, Springfield, Tennessee, P. J. Bailey file, M & P-TSL; Charles Merritt Barnes, “The Alamo's Only Survivor,”
San Antonio Express
, May 12 and 19, 1907; Susanna [Dickinson] Hannig interview,
San Antonio Express
, April 27, 1881; Potter, “The Fall,” 6-7; Antonio Menchaca,
Memoirs
, Yanaguana Society Publications, 23; Frederick C. Chabot,
With The Makers of San Antonio
(San Antonio: Artes Graficas, 1937), 328; William B. Travis and James Bowie to James W. Fannin Jr., February 23, 1836, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 419; James S. Brooks to A. H. Brooks, February 25, 1836, Goliad, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 426; Jesse B. Badgett interview,
The Advocate
(Little Rock), April 15, 1836; Juana Alsbury account in Bill Groneman,
Eyewitness to the Alamo
(revised edition, Plano, Texas: Republic of Texas Press, 2001), 70.

The Travis and Bowie letter to Fannin reported they had 146 men. Brooks, Fannin's adjutant, reported that the Alamo was manned with 156 effectives. A few hours later Travis's letter to Gonzales reported 150 men ready for combat. Hannig reported that there were about “160 sound persons in the Alamo.” The number of “146” is probably a printing error.

12
William Barret Travis to the Public, February 24, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 423; William Barret Travis to Ignacio Perez, February 23, 1836, Bexar, Ignacio Perez file, AMC-TSL; Gabriel Martinez claim, June 1, 1850, Department of State Papers, No. 39, File 60, TSL, copy in Amelia Williams Papers, Box 2N494, CAH.

13
Antonio Saez file, PC-TSL.

14
Thomas Ricks Lindley, “Alamo Artillery: Number, Type, Caliber, and Concussion,”
Alamo Journal
, 82 (July 1992); “Statement and manifest of the Artillery, arms, munitions and other effects taken from the Enemy,” March 6, 1836, Bexar, Expediente XI/481.3/1655,
Archivo Historico Mexicano Militar
, Mexico City. Thanks to historian William C. “Jack” Davis for a copy of this Mexican document.

15
“Testimony of Mrs. Hannig,” September 23, 1876. She claimed that the Alamo, “had provisions enough to last the besieged 30 days.” Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to General Vicente Filisola, February 27, 1836, Bexar, English translation, Box 2/23/1063, MS-TSL. Santa Anna wrote: “. . . they [Alamo defenders] only had time to hastily seek refuge at the Alamo fortification which had been beforehand, well fortified and with plenty of supplies.” James Bowie to Henry Smith, February 2, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 237. Bowie wrote: “We are still labouring night and day, laying up provisions for a siege, encouraging our men, and calling on the Government for relief.” Philip Dimmitt to James Kerr, February 28, 1836, Dimitt's Point, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 453; R. R. Royall to Governor and Council, February 2, 1836, Matagorda, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, IV: 243. Royall reported that supplies had just landed at his port and that he had instructed Dimmitt to furnish the troops at Bexar and Goliad the much-needed supplies.

Dimmitt and Noble's departure time from the Alamo is an estimate based on the fact that they were sent out before the sighting of the Mexican force in mid-afternoon.

16
Almonte, “Private Journal,” 16-17; Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, “Manifesto Relative to His Operations in Texas Campaign and His Capture” in Carlos E. Castaneda, trans. and ed.,
The Mexican Side of the Texas Revolution
(1928; reprint: Austin and Dallas: Graphic Ideas Incorporated, 1970), 13.

17
Antonio Balle affidavit, November 12, 1874, San Antonio, Antonio Balle file, PC-TSL; Juan Rodriquiz affidavit, October 24, 1874, San Antonio, Juan Rodriquiz file, PC-TSL.

18
J. M. Morphis,
History of Texas, From its Discovery and Settlement
(New York: United States Publishing Company, 1874), 174.

19
Almonte, “Private Journal,” 16-17; Seguin to Fontaine, June 7, 1890.