Three Roads to the Alamo

by William C. Davis

  He could not afford to alienate anyone now that everything was coming together for him. Stopping in San Felipe in mid April, he met with Williams who gave him letters to take to the influential member of the Saltillo congress José Navarro, at Gonzales, probably recommendations for Bowie's mercantile ambitions or his eleven-league grant enterprise.28 Now that he was a citizen, he also obtained on April 20 his grant of a league of land on the East Navidad, forty miles west of San Felipe, as a colonist under empresario Austin.29

  And then in San Antonio there was Ursula. They appointed April 25 for the wedding, but first there was the matter of the prenuptial contract that Veramendi wanted. Bowie had probably been working over this in his mind for some time, deciding what to include, and just how to state his assets. On April 22 he appeared before acting alcalde, José Maria Salinas, and dictated easily the most unwittingly revealing document of his life. He stated that he was thirty-two now, shaving three years from his age, and offered to Ursula as his pledge in recognition of her “virtue, honesty and other laudable gifts,” the sum of $15,000 to be drawn from “the most select of his estate or property” should he for any reason back out of the marriage before the vows were taken, or should they in future divorce. He then appended a virtual statement of net worth, starting with 60,000 arpents of land in Arkansas worth $30,000. Then there were the notes due him from the Walkers and Wilkins, one set totaling $45,000, and the other $20,000. Following this came $32,800 acknowledged as due him from the United States government, then $20,000 that he said he had left with McNeil in Natchez to buy the cotton mill machinery, and finally various unstated properties in Texas that he had bought or was buying, and which could not yet be estimated. Of course, none of this property or money was in Texas, since he had only just immigrated, so he pledged to redeem the contract in coin within two years after the marriage was consummated. Moreover, he gave his oath not to otherwise pledge, mortgage, attach, or spend those assets prior to paying the dowry. Then, almost as an afterthought, he appended to the statement another 15,000 arpents of land on the Red River and in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, worth an estimated $15,000.30

  On the face of it, James Bowie stated his fortune at $162,800, not counting his new Texas property. Yet at every turn he either lied or stretched the truth. The sixty thousand arpents in Arkansas were the forged claims, never his in the first place, shared equally with John if realized, and in any case virtually a dead issue by now, as he well knew. There were no assets there. The total of $65,000 due from the Walkers and Wilkins in notes may have been genuine, but given Bowie's other exaggerations in the document, they could just as easily have been greatly inflated, and were always subject to cancellation anyhow if or when Bowie's titles were rejected. The $32,800 due from the United States represented the $11,850 plus interest from Bowie's bogus Kemper-de la Français claim, the balance genuinely due to Kemper remained unappropriated, and in any case Bowie's title to it was fraudulent and worthless. As for the $20,000 left with McNeil, that may have been genuine, but since so much of the rest of the document was falsehood, this could just as easily be at best an exaggeration. And the 15,000 arpents on the Red River and in Ouachita were in fact land already covered in the February sales to the Walkers and Wilkins, and thus part of the $65,000 in notes due him. In short, he was listing the asset twice, once as real property, and again as a debt due him.

  In fact James Bowie's real assets amounted to no more than some notes due from the Walkers and Wilkins, totaling something up to a possible $65,000, and whatever cash McNeil held for him. Almost half the total, at least $77,800, was a complete lie, money he knew he would never see, for property and claims that were forgeries and that he never owned. Two years later, when the dowry came due, there would scarcely be one dollar in this statement that he could call his own, especially after Walker discovered the problems with his titles. As for Bowie's promise not to mortgage or otherwise encumber this property, in fact some of the Arkansas and all of the Louisiana land had already been sold, while the de la Français claim may still have been half Thomas's. The document typified Bowie's aggressive and boastful manner, his confidence man's ability to oversell himself convincingly to others, and his stunning economy with the truth. Like the man himself, it was big, bold, and just over half dishonest.31

  But the document achieved its goal with Veramendi. Three days later, on April 25, James and Ursula and her parents went into the San Fernando Parish Church, not far from the military plaza, and stood before Padré Refugio de la Garza. While Navarro and others looked on as witnesses, he made them man and wife.32 The ceremony done, they moved at first to a rented house belonging to one Zambrano, dwelled there for two months, then moved again for another three months to a house rented from Señor Yturio. That fall they relocated again, this time to land given them by Veramendi near the Mission San José not far from town, and there they commenced housekeeping until the end of the year. Their furnishings were Ursula's, given her by her father, Bowie having none of his own.33 One of their first visitors was Caiaphas Ham, who would virtually live with them from time to time, and before long they seemed to have established a comfortable and happy domestic life.34

  Juana Navarro, Ursula's cousin and adopted sister, recalled the newly married Bowie as “a tall, well made gentleman, of a very serious countenance, of few words, always to the point, and a warm friend. In his family he was affectionate, kind, and so acted as to secure the love and confidence of all.”35 The Veramendis themselves lived a princely existence by San Antonio standards. Their one-story house on Soledad Street was a hollow square built around a central patio, well furnished, with paneled doors and a veranda. Being a leading merchant as well as a politician, Veramendi had plenty of money and enjoyed the best that could be had in Texas, and either for his daughter's sake or because Bowie's story of wealth and standing back in Louisiana had gained his confidence, Veramendi extended to him almost unlimited credit in money and supplies. “Bowie was treated like a son,” the family friend Menchaca noticed. “His style of living was like a man who had plenty of money.” The money was all Veramendi's. By the beginning of 1832 the Bowies simply moved in with the Veramendis on Soledad Street, there to remain.36

  Menchaca would also note, with a note of veiled disapproval, that Bowie had “no regular occupation.” Two months after his marriage Bowie did go to San Felipe, where he met recent immigrants Matthew Doyle, Thomas McCaslan, Daniel Baker, and a fellow named Mann. McCaslan, at least, was a mechanic whom Bowie had sent for to help with the cotton mill plan, and the others may have had a similar connection. He met them now by prior arrangement and assisted as they applied to the ayuntamiento for passports to go to Béxar. At the same time Bowie applied to Alcalde Frank Johnson for approval and paid the appropriate fees to sell the china and other goods he had brought.37Thus at least he was making a start as a merchant, and showing some genuine intent on the textile factory, but within only a month the authorities in Béxar summoned him before them. He was suspected of engaging in contraband trade, meaning no doubt that he was selling goods on which he had not paid the required customs duties.38 That, of course, only put Bowie in the mainstream of Texas merchants, most of whom still tried to get around the customs requirements, and all of whom harbored increasing resentment toward Mexico for imposing duties in the first place. This single incident, in what was probably no more than a passing mercantile enterprise in any case, would be James Bowie's first grievance against Mexico.

  If the new Texian had not the temperament for industry, neither did he for trade. Both required too much time and effort for too small a return. Bowie always wanted the big transaction, quick and substantial wealth, and like so many who hunted for fortune, he could sometimes be gullible himself when gripped by the lure of riches. He never supposed that the 1829 trip to the San Saba would be his last. Perhaps he got stories from some of the friendly locals—or those who enjoyed misleading a white man—and perhaps he even saw one of the few spurious maps floating about the region, suppose
dly showing the mine's location.39 Back in Louisiana he certainly told Rezin the stories he heard, what he had found and had not found, and before James returned to Texas to marry in 1831, the brothers probably agreed that Rezin would come west that fall and join him in another expedition. So strong was their inseparable bond from early childhood that despite the fact that Rezin had his own family and interests to look after, he would leave them for months when James called.40 Besides, it was not hard for him to share the preoccupation with the mineral fortune that was ever on James's mind. “Bowie was occupied most of his time hunting for mines,” said his friend Menchaca, “and mountains of gold or silver.”41

  Rezin arrived in Béxar late that fall, and joyful as the reunion must have been, it came at the price of bad news. The plantation continued to be a shambles. The steam machinery was worthless now, and the debt continued to mount. Rezin needed a bonanza even more than James did.42 Affairs for brother Stephen got progressively worse. Creditors closed in on him. Arrested in Natchez in September, he had to give an oath of insolvency to be released, and even then one creditor filed a statement that, since Bowie did not reside in Mississippi, he could be expected to “leave the county… so as to prevent the recovery of the plaintiff's claim.” He was arrested a second time on September 20, and once again discharged on the plea of bankruptcy. His only asset was land he owned next to James's new tract twenty miles below Thibodeauxville, and even on that he needed one thousand dollars to secure clear title from the seller. And there was also twelve thousand dollars that he said James still owed him, that and the slave Ned, and in a last act of fraternal disloyalty he had engaged an attorney to collect from his brother. The debt, if it ever existed, would never be repaid, and Stephen himself had disappeared.43

  Then there was the news of Arkansas. The territorial supreme court reviewed the superior court's 1827 confirmation of the Bowie claims during its April 1830 term on a test case. One of the fictitious grants James and John created had been to a Bernardo Sampeyrac. Following the Arkansas superior court confirmation of the claims, John Bowie sold the Sampeyrac claim to Joseph Stewart, but now the United States attorney in Arkansas filed a bill charging that the confirmation of the claim was achieved “by fraud and surprise,” moving to set aside the superior court's action in confirming the 117 Bowie claims. Further, the attorney charged that the original grant was a forgery, that Bernardo Sampeyrac was a fictitious person, and that the witnesses who testified to seeing him sell his claim to Bowie had perjured themselves. Since Sampeyrac could not be found, the court proceeded against him as an absent defendant, and since the innocent Stewart now assumed that he legally owned the property, he was made a codefendant, though the court granted that he had no part in or knowledge of the fraud. Finally on February 7, 1831, the court handed down its decree reversing and annulling the original decree in favor of the Sampeyrac claim. The innocent Stewart, faced with losing both his land and the money he had paid for it, filed an appeal to the next higher authority. It was now scheduled to be argued before the January 1833 term of the U.S. Supreme Court.44

  Since no legal action was being threatened against James Bowie—only John's name actually appeared in any of the documents—he had nothing to fear personally from a Supreme Court decision, but it did mean that, whatever the finding, the Arkansas scheme was dead for good. No doubt he kept this virtual elimination of a significant chunk of his dowry assets concealed from Veramendi, especially since he had him interested again in another San Saba expedition, this time to be accompanied by Rezin. The combination of James's enthusiasm and bluff and Rezin's quiet intelligence must have persuaded the vice governor that they had as fair a chance of success as anyone.

  Moreover, Caiaphas Ham had been living for the last five months among the Comanche near the San Saba country. When he first left, his friend Bowie urged him not to go, the Comanche being unpredictable, but in the end James helped Ham prepare for the trip, equipping him with trade goods and a packhorse, and sending him more supplies after a time. By late November, however, Bowie sent a message to Ham to return to Béxar as soon as possible. The always tenuous peace between Mexico and the Comanche was in danger of breaking down, and he feared Ham might lose his life if war erupted. An unspoken motive, which Ham spotted soon enough, was that Bowie also wanted him along on his own expedition thanks to what he had learned of the country.45

  With Rezin and Ham as a nucleus, Bowie mustered his mechanics McCaslan and Doyle, who obviously were not in Monclova setting up any machinery, and for whom the professional pose may have been only a sham to secure them passports in spite of the tightening restrictions on immigration. Their goal may have been treasure hunting all along. Joining them were David Buchanan, Robert Armstrong, Jesse Wallace, James Coryell, and two servants named Charles and Gonzales. Bowie spoke with political chief Ramón Músquiz of his plan, and certainly there is no doubt of his goal, though when he reduced it to writing he couched it in euphemistic language, stating that he had received information “through different channels” inducing him to organize the expedition “expecting that some benefit might result therefrom both to the community and myself.” Rezin was much more frank, as usual: They were bound, he said, “for the silver mines.” On November 2, 1821, with the financial backing of Veramendi and his hearty endorsement, they rode out of San Antonio at first light, bound for the San Saba.46

  They moved slowly northwest over one hundred miles for more than two weeks on a minor trail called the De la Bandera, until they crossed the Llano River. Beyond lay the San Saba Hills, and a few miles past the Llano on the morning of November 19 they met two Comanche—one of them known to Ham—with a Mexican captive. Using the prisoner as an interpreter, they assured Bowie that they were friendly, and part of a party then driving horses stolen by another tribe back to San Antonio. Bowie gave them his own promise of friendship and that they would be welcomed in Béxar, and saw them on their way. But the next day at dawn, as his party ate their morning meal, the Mexican rode up to them in a lather. His captors had sent him, he said, to give them a warning. After leaving Bowie and the others, the Comanche continued south until they camped for the night, and just then a party of 124 Tawakoni, Waco, and Caddo came up with them and said they were on the Bowies' trail, intent on attacking and killing them to get their horses and equipment. The Comanche tried to talk them out of it, to no avail, and all the chief Isayune could do was to send the Mexican with the news. If Bowie's party could get to the Comanche, they would willingly help them defend themselves, but there were only sixteen of them, badly armed, and in any case the hostiles were now between them on the road. Isayune's only other advice was for the Bowies to push on hard to a brush-covered hill, where they could make a stand when attacked.

  Always impulsive, James Bowie decided not to follow the chief's advice but to push on to the ruins of the fort on the San Saba instead. He would not be deterred from his goal by any number of marauders, and besides, the fort's walls offered better cover in an attack than chaparral. It was a hard twenty-five miles to the San Saba, the trace strewn with rocks that injured their animals' hooves, and when they reached the river they could not find the ruins of the fort, which lay some twelve miles away. Moreover, the ground around the river offered no good cover, so they pressed ahead another few miles on the other side until they came to a grove of thirty or forty mature live oaks that afforded some protection. It sat some forty yards east of a small stream, with another smaller grove of scrub oak fifty yards distant.47 The Bowies decided to make camp there for the night, dividing themselves between the two clusters of trees so that each might protect the other in case of attack. As a further precaution they cleared a wide space around a nearby thicket, just to deny their pursuers cover in that quarter.

  They passed a tense but undisturbed night, and the next morning, December 21, had just loaded the pack animals, and about 8 A.M.mounted their horses to ride on in search of the old fort. But on gaining their saddles, the improved vantage from that height revealed to t
hem a lone Tawakoni following their tracks, not fifty yards from the main grove. Behind him the rest of the band, well over one hundred strong, followed, some 150 yards distant. The first of Bowie's party to spy them yelled out “Indians,” and immediately every man dismounted, tied his animals fast to a tree, unloaded the packs, and readied his rifle. Seeing the commotion in the trees, the pursuers let out a series of war whoops, and themselves started to strip and prepare for battle, while at least one mounted Caddo rode forward, brandishing a scalp.

  The Bowie brothers may not have been acting with perfect accord at this point, for Rezin and Buchanan walked to the smaller clump of trees, which stood between the rest and the main war party. James seemed not to know what his brother was about, but Rezin attempted to speak to the Caddo, using either Spanish or some native dialect that he hoped the Caddo would understand. He asked the man to send forward their leader, in order to talk. Instead, the Caddo and others yelled back in a kind of mockery: “How de do?” and “How are you?” Their evidence of concern proved somewhat less than sincere, since their next action was to fire a volley of a dozen or more shots. All but one of them missed, but that one broke Buchanan's leg, as Rezin emptied a pistol and a shotgun at them and then carried Buchanan back to the small grove. In response to Rezin's fire, the rest of the attackers withdrew a hundred yards or more to cover, obviously steeling themselves for a real assault, and in this lull James rushed over to Rezin and urged them to rejoin the main party in the larger grove. As they hurried across, carrying the injured Buchanan, renewed sniping hit Buchanan in two more places with slight wounds, while other bullets clipped Rezin Bowie's hunting shirt, and then about eight of the Tawakoni left their cover and came after them with tomahawks, only to be stopped when covering fire from the main grove brought down four of the attackers.