by Buddy Levy
40 David Crockett, The Life of Martin Van Buren (New York, 1835), 80-81.
41 Davis, Three Roads, 403-5. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett and West Tennessee,” 23.
42 Davis, History of Memphis, 151-52.
43 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 204.
44 Crockett to Carey and Hart, July 8, 1835, quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 204.
45 Crockett to Carey and Hart, August 11, 1835, Crockett Vertical File, Maryland Historical Society.
46 Shackford 206-9. Davis, Three Roads, 407. In the end, nothing came of these charges.
47 William Armour to James K. Polk, September 7, 1835, in Weaver and Hall, Correspondence of James K. Polk, vol. 3, 286.
48 Joel R. Smith to James K. Polk, August 9, 1835, in ibid, 261.
49 Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 24. Charleston Courier, August 31, 1835.
Chapter 14: Lone Star on the Horizon
1 Landon Y. Jones, William Clark and the Shaping of the West (New York, 2004), 109-12. Derr, Frontiersman, 229.
2 Brands, Lone Star Nation, 24.
3 Ibid, 24-25. William C. Davis, Lone Star Rising (New York, 2004), 57.
4 Davis, Lone Star Rising, 89. Derr, Frontiersman, 229.
5 Stephen L. Hardin, Texian Iliad (Austin, 1994), 5.
6 Ibid, 6.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid. Brands, Lone Star Nation, 220-21.
9 Brands, Lone Star Nation, 224.
10 Randy Roberts and James S. Olson, A Line in the Sand (New York, 2001), 91.
11 Brazos, The Life of Robert Hall, Reprint. (Austin, 1992), 19. Davis, Three Roads, 408, 692n. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 91.
12 Cooper, “Crockett Firearms,” 67.
13 Crockett to George Patton, October 31, 1835, in Shackford, Man and Legend, 210.
14 Ibid, 212.
15 Quoted in Haley, Sam Houston, page 110, Red River Herald, October 7, 1835.
16 Quoted in Haley, Sam Houston, 109. Houston to Isaac Parker, 5 October 1835, in Williams and Barker, Writings of Sam Houston, vol. 1, 302.
17 Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 28. Atlas Jones to Calvin Jones, November 13, 1835, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (SHC-UNC).
18 Davis, Three Roads, 409.
19 Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 29.
20 Calvin Jones to Edmund Jarvis, December 2, 1835, Jones Papers SHC-UNC. Also quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 29, and Davis, Three Roads, 409.
21 Davis, History of Memphis, 141.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid, 143.
24 Ibid, 144-45.
25 Ibid, 146.
26 Ibid, 140.
27 Hardin, Texian Illiad, 118. Stephen L. Hardin, “Gallery: David Crockett,” Military Illustrated 23 (February-March, 1990): 28-30.
28 Bernard DeVoto, Mark Twain’s America (Boston, 1932), 3-4.
29 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 36.
30 William F. Pope, Early Days in Arkansas (Little Rock, 1895), 183-84. Also quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 42.
31 Pope, Early Days in Arkansas, 185. Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 44-46. Arkansas Gazette, November 17, 1835.
32 Arkansas Gazette, November 17, 1835. Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 44.
33 Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 50. Vance Randolph, We Always Lie to Strangers: Tall Tales from the Ozarks (Westport, CT, 1951), 160.
34 David Crockett, Davy Crockett’s Own Story, as Written by Himself (New York, 1955), 255-58.
35 New York Sun, January 12, 1836. Arkansas Gazette, May 15, 1955. Also in Davis, Three Roads, 411.
36 Arkansas Gazette, November 17, 1835. Also in Gary S. Zaboly, “Crockett Goes to Texas: A Newspaper Chronology,” Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association 1 (Summer, 1995): 7-8.
37 Derr, Frontiersman, 227. Davis, Three Roads, 412. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett in Texas,” East Tennessee Historical Society Publications 30 (1958), 50-51.
38 Shackford, Man and Legend, 214. Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 77.
39 Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 214, republished in Niles Register, L, 432-33, for August 27, 1836, from the Jackson, Tennessee, Truth Teller.
40 Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 71. Pat B. Clark, The History of Clarksville and Old Red River Country, Texas (Dallas, 1937), 5.
41 Claude V. Hall, “Early Days in the Red River Country,” Bulletin of East Texas State Teacher’s College, 14: 49-70.
42 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 70-71. Davis, Three Roads, 412.
43 Crockett to Wiley and Margaret Flowers, January 9, 1836, quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 214-15.
44 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 72-73.
45 Davis, Three Roads, 413.
46 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 94.
47 Derr, Frontiersman, 227.
48 Davis, Three Roads, 413, 694n. Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 122.
49 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 100.
50 Ibid, 101. James Gaines to James W. Robinson, January 9, 1836, in William C. Binkley, Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution, 1835-1836, 2 vols. (New York, 1936).
51 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 100; Galveston [Texas] News, January 9, 1898.
52 Morning Courier and New York Enquirer, March 26, 1836.
53 Crockett to Margaret and Wiley Flowers, January 9, 1836. Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 216.
54 The shrewd and perceptive historian William C. Davis makes an observation that no other researcher, including Shackford, has: simply that the discrepancy in the date of the letter may be the result of Crockett having written it in at least two sittings over a few-day period. See Davis, Three Roads, 695n.
55 Shackford, Man and Legend, 217-19.
56 Crockett to Margaret and Wiley Flowers, January 9, 1836.
Chapter 15: “Victory or Death”
1 Houston to Jackson, February 13, 1833, in Williams and Barker, Writings of Sam Houston, vol. 1, 274-76.
2 Statement of Enlistments, January 14, 1836, in John H. Jenkins, Papers of the Texas Revolution 1835-1836 (Austin, TX, 1973), vol. 4, 13. Amelia Williams, “A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and the Personnel of Its Defenders, Chapter IV,” Southern Historical Quarterly 37 (January 1934): 167. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett in Texas,” 54.
3 Committee of Vigilance and Safety, January 18, 1836, in Jenkins, Papers of the Texas Revolution, vol. 4, 66. Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 130.
4 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 130.
5 Ibid, 130, 247n. Audited Military Claims, Republic of Texas, Texas State Library and Archives, Austin. Also in Davis, Three Roads, 416. Shackford, Man and Legend, 222.
6 Crockett to Flowers, January 9, 1836, Asbury Papers. Quoted in Shackford, Man and Legend, 216.
7 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 139. From Herbert Simms Kimble Letter, September 5, 1836, William Irving Lewis File, Daughters of the Texas Revolution Library, San Antonio.
8 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 139.
9 Ibid.
10 Derr, Frontiersman, 228.
11 Marques James, The Raven (Indianapolis, 1929), 224.
12 James C. Neill to Sam Houston, January 14, 1836, in Binkley, Official Correspondence, vol. 1, 295. Davis, Lone Star Rising, 205.
13 Davis, Lone Star Rising, 205.
14 Brands, Lone Star Nation, 338. Davis, Lone Star Rising, 205.
15 John M. Swisher, The Swisher Memoirs (San Antonio, 1932): 18-19.
16 Ibid, 18.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 Davis, Lone Star Rising, 209-10. Hardin, Texian Iliad, 22-23.
21 Hardin, “Gallery: Da
vid Crockett,” 30-31.
22 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 161.
23 Ibid, 158.
24 Davis, Three Roads, 524; see his note on arrival dates, 717-718n. Folmsbee and Catron, “David Crockett in Texas,” 60. Also see Todd Hansen, The Alamo Reader (Mechanicsburg, PA, 2003), 504-6.
25 Antonio Menchacha, Memoirs (San Antonio, 1937), 22. San Antonio Daily Express, February 12, 1905. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 504-5.
26 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 167.
27 Davis, Three Roads, 516.
28 Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 171, from John Sutherland, The Fall of the Alamo (San Antonio, 1936) 11-12. Davis cites a shorter version, and Cobia points out some discrepancies, including Lindley, in the Sutherland source.
29 Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 173. Davis, Three Roads, 516, 718-719n. Sutherland, Fall of the Alamo, 11-12. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 140.
30 Quoted in Jeff Long, Duel of Eagles (New York, 1990), 132.
31 Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 175.
32 Long, Duel of Eagles, 132. Menchacha, Memoirs, 22-23.
33 Ibid, both sources.
34 Quoted in Hardin, Texian Iliad, 111. James Bowie to Henry Smith, February 2, 1836, in Jenkins, ed., Papers of the Texas Revolution, 4: 236-38.
35 Walter Lord, A Time to Stand (New York, 1961), 84.
36 Long, Duel of Eagles, 31.
37 Davis, Three Roads, 519, 719n. Sutherland, Fall of the Alamo, 11. Long, Duel of Eagles, 131.
38 Long, Duel of Eagles, 126. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 673.
39 Quoted in Long, Duel of Eagles, 127; John Baugh, letter to Henry Smith, February 13, 1836, in Jenkins, Papers of the Texas Revolution, #2076. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 674.
40 William B. Travis, letter to Henry Smith, in Jenkins, Papers of the Texas Revolution, #2094. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 22-23.
41 Long, Duel of Eagles, 127.
42 William B. Travis and James Bowie to Henry Smith, February 14, 1836, in Jenkins, Papers of the Texas Revolution, #2094; Hansen, Alamo Reader, 24-25.
43 Quoted in Lord, A Time to Stand, 85, 232n. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 25.
44 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 120.
45 Long, Duel of Eagles, 149.
46 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 120.
47 Jose Enrique de la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas (College Station, TX, 1975), 27.
48 Ibid.
49 Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 119.
50 Quoted in Hansen, Alamo Reader, 142.
51 Long, Duel of Eagles, 156. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 121.
52 Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 121.
53 Quoted in Hansen, Alamo Reader, 143. Also quoted in Long, Duel of Eagles, 157.
54 Hansen, Alamo Reader, 144. Lord, A Time to Stand, 94. Sutherland, Fall of the Alamo, 18-19.
55 Long, Duel of Eagles, 158. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 122.
56 Long, Duel of Eagles, 158; Lord, A Time to Stand, 94.
57 Quoted in Long, Duel of Eagles, 158. Vincente Filisola, The History of the War in Texas (Austin, 1985-1987), vol. 2, 150. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 144.
58 Quoted in Hansen, Alamo Reader, 144.
59 Quoted in Lord, A Time to Stand, 97. Hardin, Texian Iliad, 121.
60 Quoted in Long, Duel of Eagles, 159, and Hansen, Alamo Reader, 31-32. William B. Travis and James Bowie letter to James Fannin, February 23, 1836, in Jenkins, Papers of the Texas Revolution, #2161.
61 Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 193. Sutherland, Fall of the Alamo, 20.
62 Ibid, both sources.
63 Davis, Three Roads, 536. Samuel E. Asbury, “The Private Journal of Juan Nepomuceno Almonte,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 48 (July 1944): 10-32. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 124.
64 Sutherland, in Hansen, Alamo Reader, 146-47.
65 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 127. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 124.
66 Long, Duel of Eagles, 162-163. Lord, A Time to Stand, 102.
67 Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 124-25.
68 Quoted in Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 125. Jose Batres to James Bowie, February 23, 1836, in Jenkins, Papers of the Texas Revolution 4: 44. Lord, A Time to Stand, 102.
69 Davis, Three Roads, 537.
70 Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 125-26.
71 Davis, Three Roads, 537. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 126.
72 William Travis to the People of Texas, February 24, 1836, Army Papers, Record Group 401, Texas State Library and Archives, Austin. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 32.
73 Brands, Lone Star Nation, 356.
Chapter 16: Smoke from a Funeral Pyre
1 Davis, Three Roads, 541. Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 196-98.
2 William Travis to Sam Houston, quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 197. Also quoted in Hansen, Alamo Reader, 34.
3 Long, Duel of Eagles, 190. Davis, Three Roads, 542.
4 Quoted in Long, Duel of Eagles, 191. Lord, A Time To Stand, 109. Letter from William Travis to Sam Houston. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 34.
5 Brands, Lone Star Nation, 357.
6 Quoted in Ibid.
7 Ibid, 358. Long, Duel of Eagles, 200.
8 Joseph Field, Three Years in Texas (Boston, 1836), 17. Asbury, “Almonte Journal,” 19. Davis, Three Roads, 545. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 686.
9 Brands, Lone Star Nation, 359.
10 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 133.
11 Ibid, 133-34. Lord, A Time to Stand, 117; Albert A. Nofi, The Alamo and the Texas War of Independence (Conshohocken, PA, 1992), 68-70, 74. Harden, Texian Illiad, 133-34.
12 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 134. Asbury, “Almonte Journal,” 19, March 1, 1836.
13 Quoted in Thomas Ricks Lindley, “Drawing Truthful Deductions,” Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association I (September, 1995): 31-33.
14 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 134.
15 Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 148-49. It was actually the arrival of General Antonio Gaona’s First Brigade and Cavalry Regiment.
16 Lord, A Time To Stand, 137. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 149. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 683, 716-17.
17 Quoted in Hansen, Alamo Reader, 601, Robert McAlpin Williamson letter to William B. Travis, March 1, 1836.
18 Quoted in Hansen, Alamo Reader, 35-36.
19 Quoted in Hansen, Alamo Reader, 35-36. William Travis to President of the Convention, March 3, 1836, San Felipe Telegraph and Texas Register, March 12, 1836.
20 Ibid, 36.
21 Ibid, 37-38.
22 Travis to David Ayers, March 3, 1836, Texas Monument [La Grange, TX, newspaper], March 31, 1852. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 38.
23 Long, Duel of Eagles, 209.
24 Davis, Three Roads, 556.
25 Quoted in Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 208. J. M. Morphis, History of Texas (New York, 1875), 175. There exists some compelling speculation and evidence that Crockett may have gone outside the Alamo on a mission to gather reinforcements during the siege. See Thomas Ricks Lindley, Alamo Traces (Plano, TX, 2003), 140-42. Cobia, Crockett’s Expedition to the Alamo, 203-13.
26 Brands, Lone Star Nation, 365.
27 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, “Manifesto,” in The Mexican Side of the Texas Revolution, translated by Carlos Castaneda (Dallas, 1928), 13.
28 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Military Order, March 3, 1836, United States Magazine and Democratic Review (October, 1838): 143, quoted in Hansen, Alamo Reader, 336-37.
29 De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 43-44. Hansen, Alamo Reader, 335.
30 Davis, Three Roads, 556.
31 Ibid, 557. Brands, Lone Star Nation, 369.
32 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 138.
33 Ibid. De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 46. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 160.
34 Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 159. De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 47.
&
nbsp; 35 De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 46-47. Long, Duel of Eagles, 241. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 161.
36 De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 47.
37 Davis, Three Roads, 559. Lord, A Time to Stand, 155; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 162.
38 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 139.
39 Davis, Three Roads, 560, 732-33n. Joe, Travis’s slave, quoted in Alamo Reader, 77-82. Hardin, Texian Iliad, 139. Bruce Winders, Sacrified at the Alamo: Tragedy and Triumph in the Texas Revolution (Abilene, TX, 2004), 126.
40 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 146.
41 Lord, A Time to Stand, 156-57.
42 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 146. De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 48-50.
43 De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 48-49.
44 Davis, Three Roads, 562. Hardin, Texian Iliad, 147. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 165-68. Lord, A Time to Stand, 161.
45 Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 168. Davis, Three Roads, 562.
46 Quoted in Hardin, Texian Iliad, 147. Pohl and Hardin, “Military History of the Texas Revolution,” 294, 296. Glaser, “Victory and Death,” in Schoelwer with Glaser, Alamo Images, 85.
47 Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 168. Sutherland, Fall of the Alamo, 40. Davis, Three Roads, 561, 734n. Hardin, Texian Iliad, 148. Long, Duel of Eagles, 253.
48 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 148. De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 53. Filisola, History of the War in Texas, 2, 179.
49 De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 53. The exact nature of Crockett ’s death remains unknown, mired in speculation and multiple supposed firsthand “eyewitness” accounts, and the controversy and debate surrounding his demise at the Alamo, like Crockett’s own legend, will likely never die. Thousands and thousands of pages and a number of books are devoted to that subject alone. The bibliography at the end of this work delineates most of the significant texts and authors who have participated in the ongoing discussion.
50 Davis, Lone Star Rising, 234-35.
51 Brands, Lone Star Nation, 389.
52 Ibid, 394-97. Davis, Lone Star Rising, 237-38.
53 Hardin, Texian Iliad, 173-74. Davis, Lone Star Rising, 238. De la Pena, With Santa Anna in Texas, 88-90.
54 Brands, Lone Star Nation, 451.
55 Ibid.
56 Quoted in Brands, Lone Star Nation, 453-54.
57 Lord, A Time to Stand, 193-96. Davis, Lone Star Rising, 269-71. Brands, Lone Star Nation, 450-55.