For David Crockett the starting place must be his own A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the state of Tennessee. There are two excellent modern editions, probably the more useful being that edited by James A. Shackford and Stanley J. Folmsbee in 1973, though a 1987 edition with an introduction by Paul A. Hutton is also good. The standard biography is still James A. Shackford's David Crockett, The Man and the Legend. The book is rather dated now after more than forty years, and has always suffered from a professorial and discursive writing style, but it is the current starting place for all serious study of Crockett. The articles by Stanley J. Folmsbee and Anna Grace Catron is the West Tennessee Historical Society Papers and East Tennessee Historical Society Publications make valuable additions and corrections to Shackford's earlier work. James W. Burke's Davy Crockett: The Man Behind the Myth and Gary L. Foreman's Crockett: The Gentleman from the Cane add little that is new, while among the much older biographies none is very worthwhile. Edward S. Ellis, The Life of colonel David Crockett, published in 1884, is interesting, not for its content on Crockett but for a very valuable recollection of Bowie by William H. Sparks, published as an appendix. A much-anticipated work in progress by Paul A. Hutton promise to be the most definitive Crockett biography to date.
There are many significant special studies and monographs on Crockett as a frontier icon and folk character, the best of which are Joseph Arpad's 1970 Ph. D. dissertation, “David Crockett: An Original Legendary Eccentricity and Early American Character”; Walter Blair, “Six Davy Crocketts,” in the July 1940 Southwest Review; Richard B. Hauck, Crockett: A Bio-Bibliography; and the works of Michael Lofaro, including Davy Crockett: The Man, the Legend, the Legacy, a fine anthology of recent scholarship, and Crockett at Two Hundred, edited with Joe Cummings. For an excellent though flawed examination of Crockett's controversial death, see Dan Kilgore, How Did Davy Die?
Much less attention has been paid to James Bowie, and the quality of what there is does not invite compliments. Evelyn Brogan's James Bowie: A Hero of the Alamo, published in 1922, is typical of the uncritical and superficial treatment given to his life. C. L. Douglas's 1944 James Bowie: The Life of a Bravo has been as much the standard life as any, yet it is heavily fictionalized, utterly uncritical of the sources used, and passes along a life that is largely mythical, being based on a few published Texas histories, a smattering of archival research, and a preponderance of secondary sources. Raymond Thorpe's Bowie Knife, privately published in 1948, is a dreadful work, prejudiced, self-congratulatory, and utterly unsophisticated as regards sources. It, like Douglas, indulges in invented conversation and blind acceptance of old myths. Its citations are confused or erroneous, genuine quotations have been altered, and some material apparently simply invented. Equally bad is Sam Mims, Trail of the Bowie Knife, privately published in 1967. contentious, packed with mythology, invented conversation, and such, it is typical of what has passed for Bowie biography. the most recent attempt, and little better than the above, is Clifford Hopewell, James Bowie, Texas Fighting Man: A Biography, which appeared in 1994. It is chiefly a repository of myth and legend, with some facts in between, though often either misstated or misunderstood. Its inventions and unsupported statements and assumptions are too numerous to deal with.
The only family history is Walter W. Bowie's The Bowies and Their Kindred, published in 1899. It is not reliable for the Louisiana Bowies, who were not his branch of the family or a chief concern. The numerous articles of J. Frank Dobie—”Bowie and the Bowie Knife,” “Fabulous Frontiersman: Jim Bowie,” “James Bowie, Big Dealer”—and his essays in such volumes as In the shadow of History are interesting but reveal less about Bowie than they do about Dobie, who may have been an excellent folklorist but was no historian. In the same category is Edward S. Sears's unwarrantedly influential “The Low Down on Jim Bowie,” in From Hell to Breakfast. It is iconoclastic without understanding of the subject matter, and completely misinterprets most of the data used. Somewhat more useful, if occasionally quirky, are some of the several articles on Bowie by J. De Stefani, Joseph Musso, and others that have appeared in Alamo Journal.
For Bowie's second most famous escapade, the Sandbar fight near Natchez, the best sources are James L. Batson, James Bowie and the Sandbar Fight: Birth of the James Bowie Legend & Bowie Knife, and J. R. Edmondson's four-part series, “James Bowie: First Blood,” appearing in Knife World in 1995-96. Joseph Musso's article, “Jim Bowie's Sandbar Fight”, in the February 1988 Alamo Journal is a fair overview in brief compass.
While Travis has been far less studied than the other tow, he was certainly been better served than Bowie, at least. A starting point is his own diary, edited by Robert E. Davis as The Diary of William Barret Travis: August 30, 1833-June 26, 1834. The edition is careless and inconsistent, and the book is further marred by numerous errors in transcription from the original and an all-but-useless index, but it remains an indispensable source until a better edition appears. The best biography is Archie P. McDonald's 1976 Travis, a sympathetic yet not uncritical work that does an excellent job of evoking Travis's world. Its only serious weakness is in its handling of Travis's Alabama years. Martha Anne Turner's william Barret Travis: His Sword and His Pen appeared in 1972 and is considerably less satisfying than McDonald's book. Though very dated, Ruby Mixon's master's thesis “William Barret Travis: His Life and Letters” remains an essential source, and contains some primary material no longer available elsewhere. Robert J. Travis The Travis (Travers) Family and its Allies is only marginally useful as a family history, there being considerable disagreement about Travis's ancestry.
Archie P. McDonald's article “Travis: The Legend and the Legend Makers,” in the Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas is the best short version of Travis's life, though it perpetuates a couple of legends. Robert H. Williams, Jr., “Travis—A Potential Sam Houston,” in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, is a largely unsuccessful attempt at psychobiography.
As for the Alamo, the literature is enormous, and of a widely varying quality. The best modern study of the political background is Paul D. Lack, The Texas Revolutionary Experience: A Political and Social History, 1835-1836, while the most able account of the campaigns and battles of the revolt is Stephen L. Hardin, Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution. The earliest serious study of the Alamo itself, and one that still dominates much thinking on the subject, was Amelia Williams's Ph.D. dissertation, “A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and of the Personnel of Its Defenders,” subsequently published in four parts in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly in 1933-34. It is a deeply flawed work, though useful, and must be approached carefully. Walter Lord's 1961 A Time to Stand remains after thirtyseven years the ablest account, and always worthy of reading for sheer pleasure. New information may have dated some of its conclusions, but it remains the definitive treatment until something better comes along. The most recent substantial effort is Jeff Long's 1990 Duel of Eagles: The Mexican and U.S. Fight for the Alamo. It is glib, marred by unseemly iconoclasm, misuse or ignorance of pertinent sources, and conclusions and inventions unwarranted by its evidence—when any is cited. It does not in any respect supplant Lord's earlier work
As a final note it should be added that only sources from which material has actually been drawn are listed below. Scores—perhaps hundreds—of others were consulted without contributing anything to this study.
Official Publications
Acts Passed at the Annual Session of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama. Tuscaloosa, 1836.
American State Papers… The Public Lands. Washington, 1859-1860. 6 vols.
Compendium of the Enumeration of the Inhabitants and Statistics of the United States, as Obtained at the Department of State, from the Returns of the Sixth Census. Washington, 1841.
Journal of the House of Representatives During the First Session of the Eighth Legislature of the State of Louisiana. New Orleans, 1827.
Journal of the House of R
epresentatives During the Second of the Eighth Legislature of the State of Louisiana. New Orleans, 1828.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas. Fifth Congress, 1840-1841. Austin, 1841.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Alabama. Tuscaloosa, 1835.
Journal of the Proceedings of the General Council of the Republic of Texas, Held at San Felipe de Austin, November 14th, 1835. Houston, 1839.
Journal of the Senate of the State of Alabama. Tuscaloosa, 1836.
Journals of the Consultation, Held at San Felipe de Austin, October 16, 1836. Houston, 1838.
Lowire, Walter S., and Walter S. Franklin, eds. American State Papers: Documents Legislative and Executive…; The Public Lands. Washington, 1834.
——-. American State Papers, Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States …; Foreign Relations. Washington, 1834.
Military Register of Alabama 1830-1832. Tuscaloosa, n.d. 2 vols.
Peters, Richard. Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States: Vol. 7, January Term 1833. Philadelphia, 1833.
Printed Acts of Alabama 1818-1864. Montgomery, n.d.
United States Census
Alabama
Concecuh County, 1830, 1840
Monroe County, 1830
Arkansas
Chicot County, 1830
Phillips County, 1830, 1840
Louisiana
Assumption Parish, 1830
Avoyelles Parish, 1820
Catahoula Parish, 1810, 1820, 1830
Lafourche Parish, 1830
St. Landry Parish, 1820
Mississippi
Adams County, 1820, 1830
Warren County, 1830
PUBLISHED WORKS
Books
Aderman, Ralph M., ed. The Letters of James Kirke Paulding. Madison, Wis., 1962.
Ardoin, Robert, B., comp. Louisiana Census Records. Vol. 1, Avoyelles and St. Landry Parishes 1810 & 1820. Baltimore, 1970.
Baker, DeWitt Clinton. A Texas Scrap-Book. New York, 1875.
Ball, Timothy H. A Glance into the Great South-east, or, Clarke County, Alabama, and its Surroundings, from 1540 to 1877. Grove Hill, Ala., 1882.
Barker, Eugene C., ed. The Austin Papers. 3 vols. Washington, 1919-26.
Becerra, Francisco. A Mexican Sergeant's Recollection of the Alamo and San Jacinto. Austin, 1980.
Bernard, J. H. Dr. J. H. Bernard's Journal. Goliad, Tex., 1965.
Binkley, William C., ed. Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution. 2 vols. New York, 1936.
“Brazos.” Life of Robert Hall. Reprint, Austin, 1992.
Bryan, J. P., ed. Mary Austin Holley. The Texas Diary, 1835-38. Austin, 1965.
Canby. Henry Seidel, ed. The Works of Henry David Thoreau. Boston, 1937.
Candler, Allen D. The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia. 25 vols. Atlanta, 1907.
——-. The Revolutionary Records of the State of Georgia. 3 vols. Atlanta, 1907.
Caro, Ramón M. Verdadera Idea de la Primera Campaña de Tejas. Mexico City, 1837.
Castañda, Carlos E. The Mexican Side of the Texas Revolution. Dallas, 1928.
Claiborne, J. F. H. Mississippi as A Province, Territory and State, with Biographical Notices of Eminent Citizens. Jackson, Miss., 1880.
Clift, G. Glenn. Second Census of Kentucky 1800. Frankfort, 1954.
Colson, Lucy Wiggins. Monroe and Conecuh County, Alabama, Marriages 1833-1880. Easley, S.C., 1983.
Crèvecoeur (J. Hector St. John). Letters from an American Farmer. Gloucester, Mass., 1968.
Crockett, David. A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee. Introduction by Paul A. Hutton. Lincoln, Nebr., 1987.
——-. A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee Edited by James A. Shackford and Stanley J. Folmsbee. Knoxville, 1973.
Davis, Robert E., ed. The Diary of William Barret Travis: August 30, 1833-June 26, 1834. Waco, Tex., 1966.
Day, Donald, and Harry H. Ullum, eds. The Autobiography of Sam Houston. Norman, Okla., 1954.
Day, James M., comp. The Texas Almanac, 1857-1873: A Compendium of Texas History. Waco, 1967.
De la Peña, José Enrique. With Santa Anna in Texas: A Personal Narrative of the Revolution. College Station, Tex., 1975.
De la Teja, Jesús F., ed. A Revolution Remembered. The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguín. Austin, 1991.
The Devil's Comical Texas Oldmanick. New York, 1836.
Dewees, William B. Letters from an Early Settler of Texas. Louisville, Ky., 1852.
Ehrenberg, Herman. With Milam, and Fannin: Adventures of a German Boy in Texas' Revolution. Dallas, 1935.
Family Adventures. Early Alabama Marriages, 1813-1850. San Antonio, 1991.
Field, Joseph E. Three Years in Texas. Boston, 1836.
Filisola, Vicente. Memoirs for the History of the War in Texas. 2 vols. Austin, 1986-87.
Flint, Timothy. Recollections of the Last Ten Years in the Valley of the Mississippi. Reprint, Carbondale, Ill., 1968.
Ford, John. S. Origin and Fall of the Alamo, March 6, 1836. San Antonio, 1895.
Gray, William. From Virginia to Texas, 1835: Diary of Col. Wm. F. Gray. Houston, 1909.
Green, Rena Maverick, ed. Samuel Maverick, Texan: 1803-1870. San Antonio, 1952.
Groneman, William, comp. Eyewitness to the Alamo. Plano, Tex., 1996.
Guild, Joseph Conn. Old Times in Tennessee. Nashville, 1878.
Gulick, Charles Adams, Jr., and Katherine Elliott, eds. The Papers of Mirabeau Bounaparte Lamar. 6 vols. Austin, 1923.
Hamilton. J. G. de Roulhac, ed. The Papers of William Alexander Graham. 7 vols. Raleigh, N.C., 1957.
Hargreaves, Mary W. M., and James F. Hopkins, eds. The Papers of Henry Clay. Vol. 6, Secretary of State, 1827. Lexington, Ky., 1981.
Herbert, Donald J., ed. South Louisiana and Records, I. Cecilia, La., 1978.
——-. Southwest Louisiana Records, II. Eunice, La., 1974.
Holley, Mary Austin. Texas. Lexington, Ky., 1836.
Hollon, W. Eugene, and Ruth Lapham Butler, eds. William Bollaert's Texas. Norman, Okla., 1956.
Hopkins, James F., and Mary W. M. Hargreaves, eds. The Papers of Henry Clay. Vol. 5, Secretary of State, 1826. Lexington, Ky., 1973.
Hunter, Robert Hancock. Narrative of Robert Hancock Hunter. Austin, 1966.
Jenkins, John H., ed. The General's Tight Pants. Austin, 1976.
——-. The Papers of the Texas Revolution 1835-1836. 10 vols. Austin, 1973.
Johnson, Frank W. A History of Texas and Texans. 5 vols. Chicago, 1914.
Jones, Anson. Memoranda and Official Correspondence Relating to the Republic of Texas, Its History and Annexation. New York, 1859.
Kennedy, William. Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas. London, 1841.
Lester, Charles E. The Life of Sam Houston. New York, 1855.
Linn, John J. Reminiscences of Fifty Years in Texas. New York, 1883.
Lundy, Benjamin. The Life, Travels and Opinions of Benjamin Lundy. Philadelphia, 1847.
——-. The War in Texas… Philadelphia, 1837.
Maillard, Nicholas D. A History of the Republic of Texas. London, 1842.
Matovina, Timothy, ed.. The Alamo Remembered: Tejano Accounts and Perspectives. Austin, 1995.
Menchaca, Antonio. Memoirs. San Antonio, 1937.
Michel's New Orleans Annual and Commercial Register. New Orleans, 1833.
Morphis, J. M. History of Texas. New York, 1874.
Muir, Andrew F., ed. Texas in 1837, An Anonymous Contemporary Narrative. Austin, 1958.
Nevins, Allan, ed. The Diary of John Quincy Adams, 1794-1845. New York, 1928.
Niles, John M., and L. M. Pease. History of South America and Mexico, … to Which is Annexed A Geographical and Historical View of Texas. Hartford, Conn., 1839.
Parker, Amos. A. A Trip to the West and Texas … 1834. Conc
ord, N.H., 1836.
Paxton, John Adams. The New-Orleans Directory and Register. New Orleans, 1823.
Percy, S. E. The New-Orleans Directory. New Orleans, 1832.
Poore, Ben Perley. Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis. Philadelphia, 1886.
Pope, William F. Early Days in Arkansas. Little Rock, 1895.
Porter, Benjamin. F. Reminiscences of Men and Things in Alabama. Tuscaloosa, 1983.
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