by On to the Alamo: Col. Crockett's Exploits;Adventures in Texas
2 Colonel Travis. William B. Travis (1809-1836) was a native of South Carolina practicing law in Texas when, opposing Mexican rule, in 1835 he led a company of volunteers and successfully attacked the fort at Anahuac, recently garrisoned by the Mexican government as a gesture of its authority over increasingly restive settlers. Though many Americans in Texas disavowed this action, it in effect was the start of the revolution against Mexican rule. Once the revolution proper began, Travis was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of cavalry and ordered to assume joint command of the fort with Colonel James Bowie. Twenty-seven years old at the time, Travis was a handsome, charismatic leader, who apparently deserved Smith’s epithet, “gallant.”
3 Santa Anna. Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794-1876), a career soldier and politician, was born in Vera Cruz, the province that he governed after Mexico overturned Spanish rule in 1821. He was instrumental in making his country a federal republic, but in 1832, having led a successful revolt against President Bustamante, Santa Anna abolished the federal constitution and declared himself dictator. Although he commenced his political career as a liberal, he now pursued a reactionary policy, including the establishment of Mexican garrisons in Texas, a step that only strengthened the colonists’ resolve to gain full independence. (See Smith’s account, pp. 101-105 below).
Following the surrender of the fort at Anahuac and the fall of the garrison at San Antonio (see next note), Santa Anna led a large army north with the intent of quelling the American revolt. Victorious at the Alamo and Goliad, he was defeated by Sam Houston at the battle for San Jacinto, and though his conduct of the campaign warranted his execution, Santa Anna was set free on the condition that, as dictator of Mexico, he would use his influence to guarantee Texan independence. During this period, he traveled to Washington and paid a visit to Andrew Jackson, who was impressed by the bearing, dress, and suave manner of his fellow general-president. Santa Anna was likewise impressed by Jackson, but proved to be a slippery negotiator regarding the extension of the U.S. border to include what had been Mexican territory. Despite his dictatorial status, the general deferred to the power of the Mexican congress, which, after Santa Anna’s return (facilitated by a U.S. warship), refused the surrender of Texas on any terms. (See Remini, 312-13.)
For a time Santa Anna retreated to his Santa Cruz estate, but when the province was attacked by the French in 1838, he was instrumental in its defense, exhibiting (as always) great courage and suffering the loss of a leg. In 1844 he once again became dictator of Mexico, was overthrown in 1845, and sought refuge in Cuba until 1846. He was then recalled to command the forces defending Mexico against the invading American army, hostilities attending the formal annexation by the United States of Texas, still regarded by the Mexican government as its property. He was defeated at the Battle of Buena Vista in 1847 by General Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), resulting in a return to exile for Santa Anna and the successful candidacy for president of Taylor in 1848, in the grand Whig tradition of nominating old generals for that office.
In 1853 Santa Anna was brought back to Mexico and was given the title Serene Highness, signaling his appointment as president for life, an office that ended in 1855, though Santa Anna lived on for another twenty years, seeking through various means to regain power, whether legitimately or by revolution. Eventually he was able to return to Mexico, having been granted amnesty on the grounds that he was too old to pose a threat to the then and future governments. He died in obscurity in 1876.
A thorough account of Santa Anna’s political and military career would occupy several more pages, for he seems to have combined the political agility of Van Buren with the autocratic personality and military bravado of Andrew Jackson, to which must be added an extra measure of arrogance and pride. Though Santa Anna was fully justified in his invasion of Texas, which was still Mexican territory, his merciless cruelty at the Alamo and Goliad served to arouse the patriotism of all Americans, eventually contributing to his defeat and capture at the battle of San Jacinto. Whatever the consequences of his several adventures and administrations for Mexico, it must be said that he had a powerful influence on Texan and U.S. affairs, though much different from that which he intended. Certainly it can be said that without Santa Anna there would never have been a mythic Davy Crockett. For a succinct account of the Mexican general’s own “legend,” including the inspiration for the minstrel song, “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” see Nofi, 160-65.
4 General Burlison. Edward Burleson (1798-1851) was a native of North Carolina who as the text states was the victorious commander of the attack on San Antonio in 1835; he subsequently fought at the battle for San Jacinto, became a state senator in 1836, and was elected vice president of the Texas republic in 1841.
5 Colonel Milam. Benjamin F. Milam (1791-1835), Texas pioneer and surveyor, led the successful attack on the Mexican garrison at Goliad a week after the revolution had begun. Later, he figured in the week-long siege of the garrison at San Antonio that ended with the surrender of the Mexican defenders. “Old Ben,” age forty-four, died in the battle and is honored with a square named after him and a larger-than-life-size statue placed therein.
6 General Cos. Martin Perfect de Cos, having fought for Mexican independence, and having married Santa Anna’s sister, was advanced to the rank of brigadier general and assigned the military and political command of Texas, a rank and responsibility “for which he was wholly unsuited” (Nofi, 28). General Cos, despite the terms of surrender, participated in the siege of the Alamo, commanding the First Column of Santa Anna’s army.
7 Morales. Like General Cos, Colonel Juan Morales, commander of the San Luis Potosi Battalion, participated in Santa Anna’s attack on the Alamo.
8 General Ugartechea. Domingo de Ugartechea was in command of the Mexicans at Fort Velasco, and having refused to allow the Texan rebels free passage on the Brazos River with artillery for the siege of Anahuac, was himself attacked shortly thereafter and after eleven hours of fighting surrendered his garrison.
9 Colonel Bowie. James Bowie (1796-1836), one of the three immortals associated with the defense of the Alamo, is perhaps best remembered for the large knife of his brother’s invention. Born in Tennessee, raised in Louisiana, Bowie settled in San Antonio in 1828, becoming a citizen of Mexico, a Roman Catholic, and the husband of Maria de Veramendi, daughter of a prominent Mexican family. He had already made a fortune in the slave trade, had a dubious reputation for crooked land deals, and after the death of his wife, in 1832, he allied himself with the revolutionary element. In 1836, he was in joint command with Travis of the American garrison at the Alamo, but by the time of the Mexican attack, was bedridden with typhoid fever. According to the legend propagated by Smith’s account (among others), the colonel was armed with loaded pistols, firing them at the soldiers as they came through the door before being killed, but by all dependable accounts, he was already near death before Santa Anna’s men arrived.
10 Mina. In 1816, Francisco Xavier Mina joined Don Luis Aury, another soldier of fortune and filibuster, at Galveston, which was being used by Aury as a base for ships attacking the Spanish merchant fleet. Seeking to gain advantage during Mexico’s ongoing war of independence from Spain, they planned an invasion of the Mexican coast, but the two leaders quarreled, and Aury pulled out, leaving Mina and his men to their fate.
11 only live to tree him. It is language like this that validates Slotkin’s thesis that frontier hunters (as in Woodworth’s song) were nascent soldiers waiting for the right occasion. But as Smith’s narrative tells us, after his defeat at San Jacinto, Santa Anna fled, and being pursued, was found to “like a hard pressed bear have taken [to] a tree” (p. 125), explaining the words put into Crockett’s mouth before the event.
CHAPTER XIII.
1 Gunter’s … scale. Edmund Gunter (1581-1626), English mathematician and inventor. Gunter’s scale was an instrument used for purposes of navigation and trigonometric calculations, hence a byword for exactness.
2 the steamboat and alligator breed. Wha
t follows is a typical frontier boast, associated with Crockett himself in Clarke’s Life, Paulding’s play, and the almanac anecdotes. Mark Twain renders a luxuriant example in the raftsmen episode taken from the manuscript of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and published in Life on the Mississippi (1883).
3 Tampico. The reference is to an attempt by Spain to regain control of Mexico in 1829. Though the soldier’s story does not mention it, the invasion was successfully repulsed by Santa Anna. The point of the story is to emphasize the barbarity with which prisoners of war were handled by Mexican authorities.
4 General Sesma. Joaquin Ramirez y Sesma was in command of the Mexican cavalry.
5 national flag. See the note to p. 97.
6 Colonel Fanning. James Walker Fannin [sic] (1804-1836), a native of Georgia, briefly attended West Point, and by 1834 had settled in Texas with his wife and two children. Prospering in slave smuggling and land speculation, he naturally was drawn to the revolutionary faction, and participated in a number of early battles of the war, culminating in the attack on San Antonio in December, 1835. He was then placed in charge of a force gathering in Goliad with the intention of invading Mexico, an event that never came off but which was responsible for Fannin’s failure to commit any of the four-hundred-odd men under his command for the relief of the garrison at San Antonio. (His eventual fate is recounted on p. 125, below, the massacre at Goliad serving as a powerful motive for revenge against Santa Anna, second only to the fate of the Alamo.
7 Upas. Antiaris toxicaria, a large tree native to Java, the sap of which was used to poison arrows, but which was not so deadly as to kill anything within range of its branches, a fable promulgated by Erasmus Darwin’s “Loves of the Plants” (1789).
CHAPTER XIV.
1 General Houston. Samuel (“Sam”) Houston (1793-1863) was born in Virginia but raised in Tennessee, in Cherokee country. He served under Jackson in the Creek War, was wounded, and having served as a Democratic representative to Congress (1823-1827), he was in 1827 elected governor of Tennessee. When his wife left him for unknown reasons, he resigned his office and went to live with the Cherokees as an adopted member of the tribe, whose removal he opposed but not to the point of breaking with Jackson. In 1835, he became identified with the Texan revolution and commanded the rebel army. His Fabian strategy was unpopular, but Houston’s reputation was redeemed after his victory over Santa Anna at San Jacinto. As president of the Republic of Texas, he negotiated the recognition by the United States of the new republic in 1836 and, though not in favor of annexation, did not oppose it. He represented the state as U.S. senator from 1846-1859, when he was elected governor of Texas. An ardent Unionist, he refused to swear allegiance to the Confederacy, and resigned his office, still believing that Texas was an independent nation.
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