Alamo Traces

by Thomas Ricks Lindley

  Colonel Juan N. Almonte, Santa Anna’s senior aide-de-camp, reported the Texian actions as seen from the Mexican advance: “The enemy, as soon as the march of the division was seen, hoisted the tri-colored flag with two stars, designed to represent Coahuila and Texas. The President with all his staff advanced to Camp Santo (burying ground). The enemy lowered the flag and fled, and possession was taken of Bexar without firing a shot. At 3 P.M. the enemy filed off to the fort of the Alamo.”22

  In 1890 Juan N. Seguin also described the defenders’ move to the Alamo. He wrote: “As we marched [down] ‘Potrero Street’ (now called ‘Commerce’) the ladies exclaimed ‘poor fellows, you will all be killed, what shall we do?’ ”23

  A number of Texian sharpshooters lagged behind to cover the defenders’ stroll to the Alamo. David Crockett may have commanded the Texian shooters. At least one of the men, James M. Rose, was in Crockett’s spy company. Colonel Jose Vicente Minon commanded an advance element of Santa Anna’s force as they dodged the Texian rifle balls in front of the church of San Antonio. Santa Anna later reported: “. . . the national troops took possession of this city with the utmost order, which the traitors shall never again occupy; on our part we lost a corporal and a scout, dead, eight wounded.”24

  Meanwhile, outside the city a local Mexican encountered Dimmitt and Noble. He told the two Texians that Bexar was invested by the Mexican army. Later, a Tejano sent by Dimmitt’s Mexican wife told the men they would be killed if they attempted to return because “two large bodies of Mexican troops were already around the town.” Dimmitt and Noble’s location at that time is unknown. They were, however, most likely on the Laredo road that ran south of Bexar—the wrong road on which to have spotted the enemy. Santa Anna entered San Antonio by the Leon Creek road, west of the city. The two Alamo soldiers then rode to the “Rovia,” a nearby location, to wait and see what developed.25

  Two other Alamo men were prevented from returning to the fortress that first day. A. J. Sowell, a Gonzales blacksmith, and Byrd Lockhart, a Gonzales surveyor, had departed the Alamo that morning in a search for cattle and other provisions. The enemy arrived while they were out on the supply-gathering expedition. Thus, Sowell and Lockhart rode to Gonzales, a loss of two more men for Travis.26

  Another man who was caught outside of the Alamo that day was Luciano Pacheco. He went into the Alamo with Juan N. Seguin. Seguin then realized he had left an important trunk at his city home. He sent Pacheco out to get the trunk. By the time Pacheco had retrieved the luggage, the Mexican troops had taken possession of the city streets. Thus, Pacheco could not get back into the Alamo. Pacheco, however, was most likely not a loss for Travis. He had probably never been included in Travis’s count.27

  Travis, probably after he had entered the Alamo, wrote a short note to Judge Andrew Ponton at Gonzales: “The enemy in large force is in sight. We want men and provisions. Send them to us. We have 150 men and are determined to defend the Alamo to the last. Give us assistance. . . . Send an express to San Felipe with news night and day.” An experienced man with a good horse was needed for the eighty-mile shot to Gonzales. It would, however, take almost an hour before a rider hit the road with Travis’s plea for reinforcements.28

  Santa Anna’s centralist force probably entered the city’s main plaza around 3:30 p.m. From the Alamo, Travis welcomed the enemy soldiers with an iron ball blast from the Alamo’s eighteen-pounder. One diarist in the Mexican force reported that the Texians had two cannon aimed toward the city, an eighteen pounder and an eight pounder. Unfazed, Santa Anna had his troops spread out until occupation of the city, except for the Alamo, was complete. Cavalry commander Ventura Mora took half of the cavalry to mission Concepcion to secure that location. By 4:00 p.m. a blood-red flag had been hoisted from the church’s bell tower; the banner’s meaning was clear—no quarter, no mercy, and a Texian surrender would have to be unconditional. Travis responded with untroubled defiance by firing a round shot at the red flag with the eighteen-pounder. At that time, Colonel Juan N. Almonte was on his way to the Alamo with a flag of truce to initiate negotiations with the Texians. Almonte, however, understood the finality of the cannon blast and retreated. Minutes later a five-inch howitzer set up below Bexar began lobbing bronze bombs into the air over the Alamo compound.29

  San Antonio de Bexar, Main Plaza

  Photo courtesy Library of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas at the Alamo

  Travis, either before firing on the flag or right afterward, sent out his letter to Gonzales. The courier was Dr. Launcelot Smither, an old settler who spoke Spanish and knew the lay of the land. At that point Bowie and Travis appear to have believed that they faced two thousand Mexican soldiers, commanded by General Ramirez y Sesma.30

  Bowie, however, was not ready to fight and wanted to know what the enemy had to offer the Texians. On February 2, 1836, Bowie had boldly declared to Governor Henry Smith that he would “rather die in these ditches than give it [the Alamo] up to the enemy.” Also, in the same missive and seldom mentioned by Alamo historians, Bowie observed: “Our force is very small, the returns this day to the Comdt. is only one hundred and twenty officers & men. It would be a waste of men to put our brave little band against thousands.” Thus, Bowie, with that thought in mind and apparently too sick to write, dictated a short note in Spanish to Juan Seguin. Bowie wanted to know if it was true that the enemy had requested a parley before Travis had fired on the flag. Bowie then signed the message with an unsteady hand and had Green B. Jameson, the garrison’s sharpshooting engineer, meet with Almonte under a white flag.31

  Mexican lancer

  Photo courtesy Joseph Musso collection

  Of the meeting on the bridge over the San Antonio River, Almonte reported: “I conversed with the bearer . . . he informed me of the bad state [150 effectives versus 1,541 troops] they were in at the Alamo, and manifested a wish that some honorable conditions should be proposed for a surrender.” Almonte sent Bowie’s note to Santa Anna, who instructed another aide, Jose Batres, to answer Bowie and Jameson. Batres wrote: “. . . the Mexican army cannot come to terms under any conditions with rebellious foreigners to whom there is no other recourse left, if they wish to save their lives, than to place themselves immediately at the disposal of the Supreme Government from who alone they may expect clemency after some considerations are taken up.” The “considerations” would have been the immediate execution of Travis, Bowie, most of their officers, and the United States volunteers.32

  As the day edged toward the night, Travis maintained his boldness and sent Captain Albert Martin out with another offer for the Mexican officer. According to Almonte: “He [Martin] stated to me what Mr. Travis said, ‘that if I wished to speak with him, he would receive me with much pleasure.’ I answered that it did not become the Mexican government to make any propositions through me, and that I had only permission to hear such as might be made on the part of the rebels. After these contestations night came on, and there was no more firing.”33

  Sometime during the negotiations with Almonte, Travis’s scout John W. Smith returned to the Alamo. Seguin, in his old age, said that Smith returned at “about five o’clock saying ‘there comes the Mexican army composed of cavalry, infantry, and artillery!’ ” Travis, however, already had a pretty good idea of what he and his men faced across the San Antonio River.34

  Soon afterward Travis is said to have called his soldiers together for a short address. Little is known about the talk. Historian Reuben M. Potter claimed: “When informed of this [the Mexican demand for an unconditional surrender], Travis harangued his men and administered to them an oath that they would resist to the last.”35

  That night Santa Anna’s soldiers set up a second artillery battery for two long nine-pounders on the river. The site was on the west side, near the Veramendi house, Bowie’s Bexar home.36

  In the Alamo, Travis undoubtedly worried about the people in his charge. He only had 150 men to fight over 1,500 of the enemy. Six men had departed since Travis and B
owie had written Fannin that morning. At the minimum fourteen men were in the fort’s hospital. Escape was impossible and the defenders knew it. They could not abandon the women and children. Their only chance was the possibility that sufficient reinforcements might arrive in time to ensure a Texian victory. Even at that, many of the defenders would surely die.37

  Besides the Alamo soldiers, a large number of civilians were in the Alamo. Some were family members. Anthony Wolf’s two boys, aged eleven and twelve, were there. Men on the Texas frontier considered such boys as being close to full grown. Texian mothers, however, might have viewed sons in that dangerous situation as their “darling baby boys.”38

  Other citizens were a number of Tejanos who, as volunteers, had fought against the Mexican army in the siege and storming of the town in 1835. They, however, were not members of Bexar garrison or soldiers in the Texian army on entering the Alamo. The group appears to have included Juan N. Seguin, Antonio Menchaca, Ambrosio Rodriguez, Eduardo Ramirez, Pedro Herrera, Salvador Flores, Manuel Flores, Simon Arreola, Cesario Carmona, Vicente Zepeda, Jose Maria Arocha, _____ Silvero, Matias Curvier, Antonio Fuentes, and Antonio Badillo. Addition of the men’s family members probably made their total twenty or more.39

  The last civilians to enter the Alamo that day appear to have been members of the Gregorio Esparza family who entered an hour before sunset. The accounts vary, but it appears that John W. Smith, sometime that morning, had advised the family to enter the Alamo. Gregorio, who was twenty-seven, was probably a member of Bowie’s makeshift crew. Besides Gregorio, there was his wife, Ana Salazar Esparza, and their four children: Maria de Jesus, ten years old; Enrique, eight years old; Manuel, five years old; and Francisco, an infant.40

  Enrique Esparza, in his old age, would remember others who had been in the Alamo. He listed: Juana Losoya Melton, wife of defender Eliel Melton; Concepcion Losoya, Juana’s mother, and her sons, Juan and Toribio; Vitorina de Salina and three little girls; Madame Candeleria; a woman named Trinidad Saucedo; and an old woman called Petra Gonzales. There may have been other women and children in the Alamo, but their names have not survived in the known records and accounts of the fall of the Alamo.41

  In addition to the soldiers, dependents, and civilians in the fortress that first day, the compound housed individuals who were not there by choice but because of forced circumstance—the slaves. Joe, in his early twenties, was Travis’s manservant. Sam and Betty, who belonged to Bowie, were most likely house servants from the Veramendi house, Bowie’s home in San Antonio. Joe later identified another slave, a black female, whose name and owner are unknown.42

  Alamo reinforcement routes

  Map courtesy of Jack Jackson

  As the Alamo inhabitants consumed their first supper in the old mission that night, Dr. Alsbury, A. J. Sowell, and Byrd Lockhart arrived at Gonzales, on the Guadalupe River, eighty miles due east of San Antonio. The Gonzales ranger company was quickly notified. The provisional government had only created the unit on February 4. Three commissioners, Matthew Caldwell, Byrd Lockhart, and William A. Matthews, had been instructed to raise and organize two platoons of twenty-eight men each, for a total company strength of fifty-six rangers. The company was to be commanded by a captain. Each platoon was under the direct command of a first lieutenant. The captain was paid $60 per month, the lieutenants $55. The noncommissioned officers were the first sergeant or orderly sergeant, second sergeant, and a corporal for each platoon. Each platoon would have had a first lieutenant and a second lieutenant. The platoons would have been divided into two squads of fourteen troopers each, with a lieutenant as the squad leader. The officers would have been chosen by company election. The term of enlistment was three months. Privates received $1.25 per day for themselves, horse, arms, and ammunition and $5.00 per month for provisions. The force was part of the ranger battalion commanded by Major R. M. “Three-Legged Willie” Williamson, Travis’s former law partner and probably his best friend in Texas.43

  Second Day — Wednesday, February 24

  Travis probably knew it on the first day, but clearly the weight of the garrison’s critical situation wore heavy on him the second day. For on that day he wrote the most famous letter sent from the Alamo during those fateful thirteen days. The document reads:

  Commandancy of the Alamo,

  Bexar, Feby. 24th, 1836

  To the People of Texas & all Americans in the world – Fellow Citizens & Compatriots – I am besieged by a thousand or more Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & every thing dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due his own honor & that of his country. VICTORY or DEATH.

  William Barret Travis

  Lt. Col. Comdt.

  P.S.

  The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses 80 to 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves.44

  Today the dramatic missive is admired as the paramount expression of American sacrifice in a combat situation. Writer Jeff Long, however, saw the letter in a different light. He wrote: “Certainly it was Travis’s masterpiece, romantic, pointed, and abundant with ego. Travis repeated its suicidal melody in the next (and last) four dispatches he sent from the Alamo, but never quite captured the high tragedy of this February 24 message.”45

  The key word in Long’s statement is “pointed,” for it is doubtful that Travis or contemporary readers thought of the letter as romantic. Travis had a concise and singular point to get across: If a sufficient number of armed men did not arrive in time, he and his men would have to fight to the death. In a time when there were only two methods of communication, speech and the written word, Travis used language to emotionally move the people. The missive, more than reflecting Travis’s ego, showed his urgent need to influence citizens of a like mind to speed to the garrison’s rescue. At least one contemporary writer left his impression of Travis’s missive. William F. Gray wrote: “Another express is received from Travis, dated the 24th, stating that Santa Anna, with his army, were in Bexar, and had bombarded the Alamo for twenty-four hours. An unconditional surrender had been demanded, which he had answered by a cannon shot. He was determined to defend the place to the last, and called earnestly [italics added] for assistance.”46

  Long’s use of the phrase “suicidal melody” is certainly without foundation. Travis was the stereotypical man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had not wanted to go to Bexar and had done everything, short of disobeying orders, to return to his home in San Felipe. If events had gone Travis’s way, he might have died trying to reinforce the Alamo, but he would not have died as its commander.47

  During that second day the Gonzales rangers continued their recruitment. Unfortunately, little information has survived concerning the Gonzales company. Initial organization of the unit appears to have occurred around February 8, 1836. Though Albert Martin was in the Alamo at the start of the siege, he seems to have been the unit’s captain. Thomas Jackson was first lieutenant of the company. George C. Kimbell was the second lieutenant.48

  A muster roll was supposed to have been submitted to the government, but only a partial list exists today. The roster was completed after the fact on June 20, 1838. The document does not appear to be complete and may not be totally correct. The roll identifies twenty-two men as being mustered on February 23 by Byrd Lockhart. Despite the date, most of the men probably join
ed the unit between February 8 and 23, 1836.49 The men were:

  George C. Kimbell

  John Ballard

  William A. Irwin

  James Nash

  Jesse McCoy

  William Morrison

  William Fishbaugh

  Galba Fuqua

  John C. King

  Andrew Duvalt

  Daniel McCoy Jr.

  John Harris

  Jacob C. Darst

  Andrew Kent

  Frederick E. Elm

  Isaac Millsaps

  Prospect McCoy

  William E. Summers

  Marcus Sewell

  David Kent

  Robert White

  John Davis50

  Joseph Kent and James Gibson, while not listed, also appear to have been members of the unit. Clearly, there were other men in the company, but at this time evidence has not been found that identifies those soldiers.51

  Although the unit was organized at Gonzales, all of the members were not from that settlement or the Green De Witt colony. Sewell and Harris were from Nacogdoches. Millsaps and Summers were from the upper Lavaca River on the western edge of Stephen F. Austin’s colony. White and Duvalt had been members of James W. Fannin’s Brazos Guards during the siege of Bexar; thus they were also most likely from Austin’s colony. After the Texian victory at San Antonio in December 1835, a number of the Brazos Guards remained in the city and reorganized as the Bexar Guards. The unit disbanded on February 14, 1836, with White, Irwin, and Ballard traveling to Gonzales. Irwin, first sergeant of one of the Gonzales ranger units, had been a member of Captain George English’s company at the siege and storming of Bexar. That company was from San Augustine in East Texas. Ballard had been a member of James Cheshire’s company in the same actions in 1835. Cheshire’s unit came from Bevil’s Settlement in far East Texas, between the Neches and Sabine Rivers.52