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

by Phillip Thomas Tucker

  64. Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 33; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 109; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 122; Perry, ed. and trans, With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 44–45; Brown, Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans, pp. 10–11; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 139.

  65. Perry, ed. and trans.,With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 44–45.

  66. Santa Anna to McArdle, March 19, 1874, TSL and AC.

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

  68. Grady McWhiney and Perry Jameson, Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage, (University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1982), pp. 41–42.

  69. San Antonio Express, June 23, 1878; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 13–14; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 126; Crawford, ed., The Eagle, pp. ix–xii; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 57; Perry, ed. and trans.,With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 46.

  70. The Battle of San Jacinto by Pedro Delgado, The McArdle Notebooks, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, Texas; Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. iii, p. 21; MichelRolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), pp. 38–39.

  71. Fisher to Austin, October 20, 1835, Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, Texas; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 45.

  72. Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. 90–91, 136–137; Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army in the Texan War of 1836, vol. iii, pp. 31, 35–37; Perry, trans. and ed., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 44–45.

  73. Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 28; Borroel, The Texan Revolution of 1836, p. 54; MarshallCornwall, Napoleon, pp. 139–145.

  74. Brands, Lone Star Nation, p. 141; Scheina, Santa Anna, pp 19–20; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, p. 36; Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, p. 9.

  75. DePalo, The Mexican National Army, p. 38.

  76. Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, pp. 159–160.

  77. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Lundstrom, “Assault at Dawn,” Campaign, p. 9; Roberts and Oslon, A Line in the Sand, p. 106; Brown, The New Orleans Greys, pp. 75, 122–123; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. xviii; Barr, Texans in Revolt, pp. 45–59; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 46; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 159.

  78. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 25.

  79. Goneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 57; Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, p. 163; Smith, Napoleon Against Russia, p. 112.

  80. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 134; Hardin, Texas Iliad, p. 59.

  81. Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 19; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 46.

  82. Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. iv, p. 59; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 134; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 46–47; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 161.

  83. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Richmond Whig, April 15, 1836; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 13–14; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 161; Chartrand, Santa Anna’s Mexican Army, p. 7; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, p. 50; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 18, 46–47.

  84. Kevin Young, editor, “The Siege of the Alamo: A Mexican Army Journal,” Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association, vol. iii, no. 1, (Fall 1998), p. 33; Levy, American Legend, pp. 177–178; Brands, Lone Star Nation, p. 366; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 13–14; Roger Borroel, editor and translator, Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, (East Chicago, Indiana; “La Villita Publications,” 2001), vol. iv, p. 59; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 45–46; Chartrand, Santa Anna’s Mexican Army, pp. 7–8, 12, 61; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 8–9, 46; DePablo, The Mexican National Army, p. 24; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 82–83.

  85. San Antonio Express, June 23, 1878; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 14–15; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 67, 159; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 125; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 97; Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. vii, p. 52; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 14, 74.

  86. San Antonio Daily Express, June 23, 1878 and June 30, 1889; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, pp. 46–47; Lundstrom, “Assault at Dawn,” Campaign, p. 7; Chartrand, Santa Anna’s Mexican Army, p. 18.

  87. Crawford, ed., The Eagle, p. 50; Fowler, Santa Anna of Mexico, p. 160.

  88. San Antonio Daily Express, June 30, 1889, Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 160; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 104; Salas, Soldaderas, pp. 29–30; Perry, ed. and trans, With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 68; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, p. 51.

  89. Washington Post, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1907.

  90. Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. iii, pp. 51, 53; Branding, Mexican Phoenix, 41, 74, 239.

  91. Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 112–113.

  92. La Lima de Vulcano, Mexico City, Mexico, April 30, 1836; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. xix, xx, 8, 44–45.

  93. Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 31.

  94. Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 41, 44–45; Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. vi, pp. 22, 25–27, 34–35, 42; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, pp. 23–24, 41, 48; Kevin R. Young, “Understanding the Mexican Army,” Kevin R. Young Papers, Rossville, Illinois.

  95. General Joaquin Ramirez Sesma Report, March 11, 1836, Secretaria de la Defensa Nacional, Archivo Historico Militar Mexicano, Mexico City, Mexico; Jackson, Alamo Legacy, pp. 144–145; Lindley, Alamo Traces, p. 265.

  96. New York Times, February 22, 1891; Lack, The Texas Revolutionary Experience, p. 244; Nelson, The Alamo, p. 32; Uniformology Research File, Weatherford, Texas; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, p. 31.

  97. Hardin, Texan Iliad, p. 98.

  98. Perry, ed. and trans, With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 40, 45.

  99. Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, p. 559.

  100. Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, pp. 38–39; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, p. 50.

  101. Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. 137–138; Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. ii, 31.

  Chapter 6: THE PREDAWN ASSAULT

  1. Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 62–63; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 138; Smith, Napoleon Against Russia, p. 115.

  2. Ibid., p. 42; Hart, Strategy, pp. 114–139.

  3. Pedro Sanchez, March 4, 1836 letter, Box 2Q174, vol. 334, Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, Texas; Levy, American Legend, p. 178; Borrell, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. iv, p. 60; Miguel A. Sanchez Lamego, The Siege & Taking of the Alamo (Santa Fe: The Press of the Territorian, 1968), pp. 35, 37.

  4. Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 95, 137, 139; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 19; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 47.

  5. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 33.

  6. San Antonio Express, June 23, 1878; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 20; Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 82; Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. iii, p. 33; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 138; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, 158; DePalo, The Mexican National Army, 24; Chartrand, Santa Anna’s Mexican Army, p. 12; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, p. 15; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 45; Borroel, The Texan War of 1836, p. 37; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p.130; Lamego, The Siege & Taking of the Alamo, p. 32.

  7. San Antonio Express, June 23, 1878; Frankfort Commonwealth, Frankfort, Kentucky, May 25, 1836; Myers, The Alamo, p. 146; Ro
berts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 23–25, 158–159; Salas, Soldaderas, p. 25; Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. 138–139; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 45–46; Santos,Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, pp. 14–15;Commercial Bulletin, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 11, 1836; Lamego, The Siege & Taking of the Alamo, pp. 32–33, 35.

  8. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 611; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 82.

  9. Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 124, 127; Nelson, The Alamo, p. 46.

  10. Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War in 1836, vol. iv, p. 56.

  11. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836; Perry, ed. and trans, With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 47; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 125, 147; Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. iv, p. 55; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 21, 25; Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. xviii,138–139; Rene Chartrand and Bill Younghusband, The Portugese Army of the Napoleonic Wars, vol. 2, (Oxford, England: Osprey Publishing Limited, 2000), p. 5; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 61.

  12. Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836; Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Hansen, ed, The Alamo Reader, pp. 22–23, 611; Brown, The New Orleans Greys, pp. 173, 186, 188; William R. Chemerka, Director of The Alamo Society, to author, November 14, 2003; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 159; Myers, The Alamo, p. 146; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 14, 21, 25; Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, p. 558; Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. xviii, 138–139, 147; Cooke Papers, DRT Library.

  13. Sunderland Manuscript, CAH; Brown, The New Orleans Greys, p. 186; Lord, A Time to Stand, pp. 154–155; Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Goneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 11; Chemerka, Alamo Anthology, pp. 71–73; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 21, 25; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 125; Huffines,Blood of Noble Men, pp. 75, 122, 125–126; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 611; Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836.

  14. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, 147; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 21, 25; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 611; Commercia l Bulletin, April 11, 1836.

  15. Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 21.

  16. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836.

  17. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, p. 93; Hansen, The Alamo Reader, pp. 97, 684.

  18. Levy, American Legend, p. 279.

  19. Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 25.

  20. Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 155; Memphis Enquirer, April 14, 1836; FrankfortCommonwealth, May 25, 1836; Goneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 11; Chemerka, Alamo Anthology, p. 71; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 25; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 143, 146–147; Hansen, ed. The Alamo Read, p. 611.

  21. Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 155; Goneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 11.

  22. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836; Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, pp. 70–71, 82; Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, pp. 412–413; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 21, 25.

  23. Groneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 119; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 78.

  24. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836; Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; San Antonio Daily Express, April 28, 1881; Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, pp. 412–413; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 21, 25; Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp.

  1143, 146–147; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 392–393, 611.

  25. Washington Post, Washington, D.C., April 9, 1916; Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 611; Kilgore, How Did Davy Die?, pp. 24–31.

  26. Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836; Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, pp. 70–71, 82; Hardin, The Alamo 1836, pp. 40–41; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 14, 21, 25; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 48–49; Borroel, ed. and trans., Field Reports, of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. vi, p. 47; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp.

  392, 611; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 145.

  27. Perry, ed., and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 48–49; Lord, A Time to Stand, pp. 158–159

  28. Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 13, 48–49, 96; Stephen Pope, Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars, (New York: Facts on File, Inc., n.d.), pp. 264–265; Christopher Duffy, Borodino and the War of 1812, (London: Cassell and Company, 1972), p. 131; F. G. Hourtoulle, Borodino-The Moskova, The Battle for the Redoubts, (Paris, France: Histoire and Collections, 2000), p. 66; Groneman, Alamo Defenders, p. 63.

  29. Jose Enrique de la Pena Papers, Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, Texas; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 9, 14, 26, 44, 46–49, 51, 53, 62–63, 148;

  Borroel, ed. and trans, Field Reports of the Mexican Army During the Texan War of 1836, vol. vi, p. 47; Lundstrom, “Assault at Dawn,” Campaign, p. 9; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 159, 164; Santos, Santa Anna’s Campaign Against Texas, p. 14; Borroel, The Texan War of 1836, p. 77, note; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 158.

  30. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, pp. 70-71, 82; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 14,21, 25; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 159.

  31. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Memphis Enquirer, Memphis, Tennessee, April 12, 1836; Levy, American Legend, p. 279.

  32. Levy, American Legend, p. 279; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 21, 25; Long, Duel of Eagles, pp. 34–35; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 22–23.

  33. Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, pp. 70–71, 83; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 21, 25; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 44–45; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 105.

  34. San Antonio Express, February 24, 1929.

  35. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836; Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, pp. 70–71, 83; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 22–23, 611.

  36. San Antonio Express, April 28, 1881; San Antonio Light, November 26, 1911; Paul Andrew Hutton, “‘It was but a Small Affair,’ The Battle of the Alamo,” Wild West, (February 2004), p. 47; Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, pp. 70–71; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 21, 25l; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, p. 157; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 49; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 392–393.

  37. Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, pp. 412–413, 418; Boyd, The Texas Revolution, p. 36; Reid, The Texan Army, 1835–46, p. 13; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 21, 25; Lindstrom, “Assault at Dawn,” Campaign, p. 17; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 392–393.

  38. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, pp. 412–413, 418; Lundstrom, “Assault at Dawn,” Campaign, p. 17.

  39. Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, p. 75.

  40. San Antonio Express-News, November 22, 1902.

  41. Commercial Bulletin, April 11, 1836; Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 611.

  42. Chemerka, Alamo Analogy, pp. 66-67; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 126; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 37, 143,165; Perry, ed. and trans, With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 48, 50; Roberts and Olson, A Line in the Sand, pp. 127, 157; Borroel, The Texas Revolution of 1836, p. 49.

  43. Memphis Enquirer, April 12, 1836; San Antonio Light, November 26, 1911; San Antonio Express, April 28, 1881; Sutherland Manuscript, CAH; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 48, 50; Levy, American Legend, p. 279; Hardin, Texian lliad, p. 139; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 143, 145; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 159.

  44. Jackson, Alamo Legacy, pp. 30–32; Fehrenbach, Lone Star, pp. 164–165, 178; Hardin, Texian Iliad, p. 146;Frankfort Commonwealth, May 25, 1836;Memphis Enquirer, April 12, 1836; Hansen, ed.,The Alamo Reader, p. 611; Borroel, The Texan War of 1836, p. 49.

  45. Frankfort Commonwealth,
May 25, 1836; Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, p. 412.

  46. Lundstrom, “Assault at Dawn, The Mexican Army at the Alamo,” Campaign, p. 8; Memphis Enquirer, April 14, 1835; Craig H. Roell, Remember Goliad!, (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1994), p. 36; Barr, Texans in Revolt, pp. 13, 33, 54–56, 63; Nelson, The Alamo, p. 12; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 48.

  47. Young, ed., “The Siege of the Alamo: A Mexican Army Journal,” JABA, p. 32; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, p. 393; Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, p. 412; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 125.

  48. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, pp. 412, 418; Chermerka, Alamo Anthology, pp. 65–66; Lundstrom, “Assault at Dawn,” Campaign, p. 14.

  49. San Antonio Daily Express, June 30, 1889; Groneman, Eyewitness to the Alamo, pp. 101–104.

  50. San Antonio Daily Express, June 30, 1889; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, p. 147; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 47.

  51. El Mosquito Mexicano, April 5, 1836; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 45, 47, 55–57, 59, 72, 95.

  52. San Antonio Daily Express, June 30, 1889; Chemerka, Alamo Anthology, p. 67; Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, p. 413; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 126; Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 48, 50; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 37, 143, 147; Lord, A Time to Stand, p. 158; Long, Duel of Eagles, p. 246.

  53. Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, pp. 48, 50; Huffines, Blood of Noble Men, pp. 37, 143.

  54. Memphis Enquirer, April 14, 1836; Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, pp. 412–413; Hardin, Texian Iliad, pp. 134, 146; Hansen, ed., The Alamo Reader, pp. 392–393.

  55. Perry, ed. and trans., With Santa Anna in Texas, p. 49.

  56. Ibid. pp. 44–45, 49–50; Huffines, Men of Noble Blood, pp. 130, 134, 141 152, 159; Niderost, “No Mercy!,” Military Heritage, p. 65; Lindstrom, “Assault at Dawn,” Campaign, p. 14; Sutherland Manuscript, CAH.

  57. Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, pp. 68–71, 82; Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, pp. 412–413; Winders, Sacrificed at the Alamo, p. 126.