Exodus From the Alamo: The Anatomy of the Last Stand Myth

by Phillip Thomas Tucker

  147. Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 18.

  148. Barr, Texans in Revolt, p. 64; Wheelan, Invading Mexico, p. 46; Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, pp. 160, 163, 165.

  149. Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 185.

  150. Miller, New Orleans and the Texas Revolution, pp. 129–143; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 107.

  151. New York Herald, February 29, 1836.

  152. Elizabeth Salas, Soldaderas in the Mexican Military, Myth and History, (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2006), pp. xi, 1–30; Kevin R. Young, “Finding a Face: El Soldado Mexicano, 1835–1848,” Palo Alto Battlefield Archive, Brownsville, Texas.

  153. San Luis Battalion Logbook, Jose Enrique de la Pena Papers, Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, Texas; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, p. 50.

  154. San Antonio Daily Express, June 30, 1889; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, p. 9.

  155. San Luis Battalion Logbook, De la Pena Papers, UT; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 8.

  156. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, pp. 144–145.

  157. Ibid., pp. 135–137.

  158. General Jose Antonio Fernandez, December 30, 1835 notice, Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin Texas, The Matamoros Archives, Box 2 Q266, Vol. IV.

  159. Francisco Paredas y Arrillaga to Minister of War Jose M. Tornell, June 10, 1836, CAH, Box 2Q174, vol. 334.

  160. Scheina, Santa Anna, pp. 18–20; Brands, Lone Star Nation, pp. 77, 140–141; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, pp. 37–38.

  161. Scheina, Santa Anna, pp. 87–88.

  162. El Mosquito Mexicano, Mexico City, Mexico, March 1 and March 11, 1836; El Censor, Vera Cruz, Mexico, March 2, 1836; La Lima de Vulcano, Mexico City, March 5, 1836.

  163. Scheina, Santa Anna, pp 87–88; Brands, Lone Star Nation, p. 77.

  164. Brading, Mexican Phoenix, p. 237.

  165. Ibid., pp. 237, 239; De Bruhl, Sword of San Jacinto, p. 32.

  Chapter 4: LULL BEFORE THE STORM: FATAL OVERCONFIDENCE

  1. Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. 53, 106, 135; Ford, Rip Ford’s Texas, pp. 13–15; The Telegraph and Texas Register, November 18, 1837; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, 95–100; Long, Duel of Eagles, pp. 114–116; Nelson, The Alamo, p. 111.

  2. Fehrenbach, Lone Star, pp. 164–166, 178; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 158; Nelson, The Alamo, p. 111.

  3. Tuchman, The March of Folly, p. 25,

  4. Nelson, The Alamo, p. 46.

  5. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, pp. 31–32.

  6. Ibid., pp. 85–88.

  7. Ibid., pp. 123–126.

  8. Ibid., p. 31.

  9. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 107.

  10. Chariton, Exploring the Alamo Legends, p. 156; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 26, 51.

  11. Gaddy, Texas in Revolt, pp. 12–13.

  12. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 20.

  13. Ibid., p. 35.

  14. Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. xii–xiii, 10; Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, pp. 934–936; Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the War of 1812, p. 20; Wright, Jr., The Continental Army, pp. 25, 49, 67–70, 78–82; Latimer, 1812, pp. 380–386; Robert Lagermann and Albert C. Manucy, The Long Rifle, (Washington, D.C.: Eastern Acorn Press, 1980), pp. 5–32.

  15. Gaddy, Texas in Revolt, pp. 10,14.

  16. Ibid., p. 26.

  17. Ibid., p. 46.

  18. Chemerka, Alamo Anthology, p. 66; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 75; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 71, 163; Nelson, The Alamo, p. 111; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, pp. 4–125.

  19. Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 110.

  20. Ibid., p. 248; Anthony J. Scotti, Jr., Brutal Virtue: The Myth and Reality of Banastre Tarleton, (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, Inc., 2002 ), pp. 13–217.

  21. Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 611.

  22. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 20.

  23. Army and Navy Chronicle, New York, New York, vol. iii, no. 4, July 28, 1836.

  24. Perry, ed., and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 19.

  25. Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, p. 163; Walter R. Borneman, 1812: The War That Forged A Nation, (New York: Harper Perennial, 2004), pp. 216–235.

  26. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 8, 14–26.

  27. Levy, American Legend, pp. 257–258, 261–262; Derr, The Frontiersmen, pp. 242–243; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 86.

  28. Lack, The Texas Revolutionary Experience, pp. 196–197.

  29. Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, pp. 92–93.

  30. Ibid., pp. 99–100.

  31. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, pp. 17–18; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, pp. 7, 58.

  32. Gaddy, Texas in Revolt, p. 38.

  33. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 20; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 7.

  34. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 109; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 59.

  35. Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 6; Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 37; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 30.

  36. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; King, James Clinton Neill, p. 90.

  37. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 35.

  38. Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 100; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 20–21.

  39. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Hardin, Texas Iliad, p. 91.

  40. Groneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 144.

  41. Levy, American Legend, p. 260; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 29–30, 34,

  43, 53; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 24, 32; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 73.

  42. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, pp. 106–107.

  43. Nofi, The Alamo, p. 49; Boyd, The Texas Revolution, p. 27; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 132–134; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 91; Long, Duel of Eagles, pp. 199–203.

  44. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 134–135; Nofi, The Alamo, pp. 87, 89.

  45. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 134–135.

  46. Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. xiii–xiv; Levy, American Legend, pp. 257–258; Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, pp. 118–119; Brands, Lone Star Nation, pp. 238–239; Long, Duel of Eagles, pp. 33–35.

  47. Derr, The Frontiersman, p. 240.

  48. Sutherland Mauscript, CAH; Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, p. 7; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 23.

  49. Death Records, San Fernando Church, San Antonio, Texas, Catholic Archives of Texas, Austin, Texas; King, James Clinton Neill, p. 90; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, 188; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 20.

  50. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH.

  51. Brands, Lone Star Nation, pp. 140–141.

  52. Hardin, Texas Iliad, pp. 120–121; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, p. 34.

  53. Delderfield, Napoleon’s Marshals, pp. 12–13, 48; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 118.

  54. Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 43; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 29–30, 43; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 45, 53–54, 60.

  55. William M. Dwyer, The Day is Ours! November 1776-January 1777: An Inside View of the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, (New York: Viking Press, 1983), pp. 227–276; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 37.

  56. Levy, American Legend, pp. 7, 257, 261–262; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, p.

  51; Long, Duel of Eagles, pp. 34–35; Walraven and Walraven, The Magnificent Barbarians, p. 59.

  57. Richmond Whig, Richmond, Virginia, April 15, 1836.

  58. James E. Crisp, Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett’s Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 62–63; Lord, A Time to Stand, pp. 87–88.

  59. Moore, Savage Frontier, p. 88; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 43–44; Huffines, The Blood of Noble Men, pp. 5, 8, 11; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 60–63; Barr, Texans in Revolt, p. 55; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 45; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 95.
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br />   60. Roger Borroel, editor and translator, Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. vi, (East Chicago, Indiana: “La Villita Publications,” 2006), p. 27.

  61. Crawford, ed., The Eagle, pp. 26, 50–51.

  62. San Antonio Express, May 18, 1907; Memphis Enquirer, April 12, 1836, Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 8; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, p. 67; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 163.

  63. Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 43–44; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 61; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 60–63, 67; Zamoyski, Moscow 1812, pp. 522–523.

  64. Levy, American Legend, pp. 264; Lord, A Time to Stand, pp. 56, 91; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 18–19.

  65. Eric Niderost, “No Mercy!,” Military Heritage, (February 2004), pp. 60–61; Digby Smith, Napoleon Against Russia: A Concise History of 1812, (Barnsley, England: Pen & Sword Military, 2004), p. 156; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 111.

  66. Lack, The Texas Revolutionary Experience, pp. xiii–ix, xvi–xxiii, 53–237.

  67. Ibid., pp. 117–118, 120, 126–132, 147, 173.

  68. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 127; Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, pp. 547–548,

  568; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 19–20, 22; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 5.

  69. Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 23.

  70. John Sutherland Manuscript, CAH.

  71. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 139.

  72. Ibid., p. 100; King, James Clinton Neill, pp. 91–92.

  73. Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 134; Hardin, Texas Iliad, pp. 53, 59; Wheelan, Invading Mexico, p. 46.

  74. Moore, Savage Frontier, p. 88.

  75. Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, p. 50; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 127.

  76. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Brands, Lone Star Nation, p. 349; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 20, 22.

  77. Chariton, Exploring the Alamo Legends, p. 240.

  78. Michener, The Eagle and Raven, pp. 112–113, 141–142; Hansen, The Alamo Reader, pp. 20, 22.

  79. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 31; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 22.

  80. Maryland Gazette, November 5, 1835.

  81. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 92, 126–126.

  82. Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 16; King, James Clinton Neill, pp. 78, 85–86.

  83. Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. 12, 119; King, James Clinton Neill, pp. 76, 78, 85–86, 97–100; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Stand, p. 114; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, 88.

  84. Barr, Texans in Revolt, pp. 45–56; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 15, 18, 22.

  Chapter 5: AN INEFFECTIVE SIEGE

  1. Copeland, Kendall of the Picayune, p. 56. 2. Woolsey, trans., Memoirs For the History of the War in Texas, p. 42.

  3. Lindley, Alamo Traces, pp. 330–331.

  4. Gaddy, Texas in Revolt, p. 22.

  5. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Jackson, Alamo Legacy, pp. 99–101; Lozano, Viva Tejas, pp. i–ii; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign in Texas, p. 34.

  6. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, pp. 99–101; Tim J. and Terry S. Todish, Alamo Sourebook 1836: A Comprehensive Guide to the Alamo and the Texas Revolution (Austin: Eakin Press, 1998), pp. 42, 65.

  7. Derr, The Frontiersman, p. 246; Levy, American Legend, p. 271; De Bruhl, Sword of San Jacinto, pp. 108, 119; Shackford, David Crockett, pp. 223–226; Brands, Lone Star Nation, pp. 355–356; Davis, Lone Star Rising, p. 229; Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, p. 547; Lindley, Alamo Traces, pp. 1–25; Walker, The Life of Andrew Jackson, p. xv; Lyman C. Draper, King’s Mountain and Its Heroes, (Johnson City, Tennessee: The Overmountain Press, 1996), pp. 139–141, 157–159, 200; Bruce Marshall, Uniforms of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution, (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Military History, 2003), pp. 6–7, 14; Perry, ed. and trans, With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 7–8; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 107–108.

  8. Levy, American Legend, pp. 271; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 148.

  9. Davis, Lone Star Rising, pp. 229–230.

  10. Ibid., pp. 229–230; Lindley, Alamo Traces, pp. 1–25.

  11. Ibid., p. 135.

  12. Levy, American Legend, p. 275; Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, pp. 548–551; Lindley, Alamo Traces, pp. 1–25.

  13. Lindley, Alamo Traces, pp. 1–25.

  14. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 30.

  15. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Morris, Savage Frontier, pp. 91–92, 97–98; Bradfield, Rx Take One Cannon, p. 23; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 70; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 13.

  16. Motovina, The Alamo Remembered, p. 51.

  17. Scheina, Santa Anna, pp. 28–29; Brown, The New Orleans Greys, p. 74; Robert Forczyk, Toulon

  1793: Napoleon’s first Great Victory, (Oxford, United Kingdom: Osprey Publishing Limited, 2005), pp. 7–85; Robert Harvey, The War of Wars: The Great European Conflict, 1793–1815, (New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2006), pp. 63–67; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp.

  34, 68; Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, p. 170.

  18. Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 67–68.

  19. Maryland Gazette, September 5, 1776; Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, pp. 35–36; Hopewell, James Bowie, pp. 1–2; Maryland Gazette, September 12, 1776; Smith, New York 1776, pp. 42–46; Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, p. 21.

  20. Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, p. 12; The Royal Gazette, New York, February 24, 1781.

  21. McDonald, William Barret Travis, pp. 22–24; Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, pp. 804–808.

  22. Helen Litton, Irish Rebellions, 1798–1916, (Niwot: Colorado: The Irish American Book Company, 1998), pp. 7–51, 122; Thomas Pakenham,The Year of Liberty: The Great Irish Rebellion of 1789, (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1997), pp. 40–81; Thomas Bartlett, Kevin Dawson, and Daire Keogh, The 1798 Rebellion: An Illustrated History, (Niwot, Colorado: Roberts Rhinehart Publishers, 1998), pp. 128–134; Bernard A. Cook, Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present, Volume Two, (2 vols., Oxford, England: ABC CLIO, Inc., 2006), pp. 644–645; Michael Kenny, The 1798 Rebellion: Photographs and Memorabilia from the National Museum of Ireland, (Dublin, Ireland: Country House, 1996), pp. 25, 38–39; Charles Murphy, The Irish in the American Revolution, (Groveland, Massachusetts: Charles Murphy Publications, 1975), pp. 1–99; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, pp. 88–89.

  23. Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, pp. 21, 174–175; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 35.

  24. Nofi, The Alamo, pp. 103–106; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 115; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 69–70: Rene Chartrand, Santa Anna’s Mexican Army 1821–48, (Oxford, England: Osprey Publishing Limited, 2004), pp. 64–65; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, p. 51.

  25. Levy, American Legend, p. 173; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 10.

  26. New York Herald, April 12, 1836; Gaddy, Texas in Revolt, p. 49.

  27. The Telegraph and Texas Register, February 20, 1836.

  28. Moore, Savage Frontier, pp. 69–70.

  29. Brands, Lone Star Nation, p. 309.

  30. Garrett, Green Flag over Texas, p. 181.

  31. Davis, Lone Star Rising, pp. 88–89, 126–127.

  32. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 42; Hansen, ed, The Alamo Reader, p. 157.

  33. Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 109.

  34. Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. i 11.

  35. Ibid., p.11

  36. Levy, American Legend, pp. 38–41, 43, 49–52; Brands, Lone Star Nation, pp. 115–116.

  37. Walker, The Life of Andrew Jackson, pp. Lxxiii–lxxv.

  38. Boyd, The Texas Revolution, pp. 29, 59.

  39. Levy, American Legend, pp. 39–40.

  40. Stephenson, Texas and the Mexican War, p. 29; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, pp. 9, 50, 89, 120; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 125.

  41. Garrett, Green Flag over Texas, pp. 178–
237; Woolsey, trans, Memoirs For the History of the War in Texas, pp. 21–33; Bradfield, Rx Take One Cannon, 99–100, 103.

  42. Woolsey, trans., Memoirs For the History of the War in Texas, p. 33.

  43. Brands, Lone Star Nation, p.349; McDonald, William Barret Travis, p. 86; Hopewell, James Bowie, p. 1; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 15, 22. Robert E. Morsberger and Katharine M. Morsberger, Lew Wallace: Military Romantic (New York: McGrw-Hill, 1980), p. 23.

  44. Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 49.

  45. Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, p. 445; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 117.

  46. Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 107.

  47. Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 135; Derr, The Frontiersman, p. 246; Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, pp. 568–569; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, p. 6; Barr, Texans in Revolt, p. 56.

  48. Telegraph and Texas Register, March 5, 1836.

  49. Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, pp. 14, 25.

  50. Josephus, The Jewish War (Baltimore, Md: Penguin Books, 1959), p. 197; Thomas B. Marquis, Keep the Last Bullet for Yourself: The True Story of Custer’s Last Stand, (Algonac: Reference Publications, 1985), pp. 172–179.

  51. Josephus, The Jewish War, p. 200.

  52. Ibid., p. 208.

  53. Ibid., pp. 242, 358–361.

  54. Nofi, The Alamo, p. 131; Josephus, The Jewish War, pp. 197–361; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, pp. 51, 122–123; l; Donald H. Harrison, Louis Rose: San Diego’s First Jewish Settler and Entrepreneur, (San Diego: Sunbelt Publications, Inc., 2005), p. 25.

  55. Nofi, The Alamo, p. 131; Harrison, Louis Rose, pp. 24–25.

  56. Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, p. 27; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, p. 4; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 1–2.

  57. Gaddy, Revolt in Texas, p. 16.

  58. Levy, American Legend, p. 234; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, pp. 70, 94.

  59. Lord, A Time to Stand, pp. 82–83; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, pp. 116–117, 120.

  60. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 24; Lord, A Time to Stand, pp. 21–23.

  61. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 33.

  62. Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, pp. 43–44; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 99, note; Todish and Todish, Alamo Sourcebook, p. 139.

  63. Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. xvi, xx, 6; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 39; Hardin, Texan Iliad, p. 95.