Three Roads to the Alamo

by William C. Davis

  49. John Borden to Robert Potter, November 21, 1840, in Journal of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas, Fifth Congress, 1840-1841, 356; Houston, Telegraph and Texas Register, February 3, 1841.

  50. “One of Shreveport's Founders Handles Business Deal for James Bowie, Texas Hero”, Hardin Collection, LSU.

  51. Barker, “Land Speculation”, 92-93.

  52. Williams, Animating Pursuits, 64-65

  53. Clipping in Bowie Biographical File, DRT.

  54. Travis to Bowie, July 30, 1835, Yoakum, Texas, I, 343.

  55. Travis wrote the letter July 30, at which time Bowie was already on the trip to chief Bowl. Since Bowie apparently did not come back through Nacogdoches, as evidenced by the rumors there that he had been killed, he would not have seen the letter—addressed to Nacogdoches—until he returned from Natchez in October.

  56. James Bowie bone to William Richardson, October 15, 1835, Deed Book B, 122-23, Colorado County Courthouse, Columbus, Texas.

  57. William T. Austin, Account of the Campaign of 1835 by William T. Austin, Aid to Gen. Stephen F. Austin and Gen. Edward Burleson, UT.

  58. Eugene C. Barker, “The Texan Revolutionary Army”, Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 9 (April, 1906): 247-48.

  59. Smithwick, Evolution, 112-13. Any statement in the Smithwick memoir is subject to question, since that portion of the book attributable to him comes from the recollections of a ninety-year-old man more than sixty years after the fact, while other portions of the book are certainly the inventions or embellishments of his daughter and editor. Nevertheless, the muster roll of Thomas Alley's company, October 19, 1835, Austin Papers, UT, establishes that Smithwick was serving with the army on the Cibolo when Bowie arrived, and thus his comment can be taken as an authentic recollection, though perhaps hyperbolic.

  60. Council of War, October 19, 1835, Jenkins, PTR, vol. 2, 162. The fact that Bowie is not listed as being present establishes that he had not yet reached Austin's camp.

  61. William Austin, Account of the Campaign of 1835, UT.

  62. Menchaca, Memoirs, 21-22; San Antonio Daily Express, January 15, 1905; Rena Maverick Green, ed., Samuel Maverick, Texan, 1803-1870 (San Antonio, 1952), October 21, 1835, 31. In the Express article, quoting Samuel Maverick, the date October 21 is incorrectly stated as April 21.

  63. Austin to Bowie, October 22, 1835, “General Austin's Order Book for the Campaign of 1835,” Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 11 (July 1907): 22.

  64. It has sometimes been assumed that Bowie brought this information with him when he joined Austin on the Cibola on October 19. William Austin, in Account of the Campaign of 1835, UT, states that as of October 28 “Col Bowie had left Sant Antonio but a very few days previously and he was fully informed as to the strength of the fortifications”. Austin must be mistaken in saying this. Bowie was demonstrably in San Felipe on October 15, recording his land sale to Richardson. For him to have gone to San Antonio after that date, he would have had to go right past Austin's army, travel 160 miles in four days, manage to get around San Antonio undetected while surveying preparations, and get out of town once again. It is just barely possible, but highly unlikely. It ispossible that he was in San Antonio before October 15, for no record of his precise date of arrival back in Texas survives, but this means Bowie could have been there no later than October 12-13, in order to be in San Felipe by the fifteenth, and as of that earlier date the Mexican preparations for defence were not as far advanced as Bowie later reported. All elements considered, it simply seems more likely that what Bowie learned of the town's fortifications came from his many informants while he was at Espada.

  65. Bowie and Fannin to Austin, October 22, 1835, Stephen F. Austin Papers UT.

  66. Bowie and Fannin to Austin, October 23, 1835, Barker, Austin Papers, vol. 3, 146-47.

  67. Bowie and Fannin to Austin, October 24, 1835, ibid., 206-7.

  68. Austin to Bowie and Fannin, October 24, 1835, “General Austin' Order Book”, 26.

  69. Bowie and Fannin to Austin, October 24, 1835, Barker, Austin Papers, vol. 3, 207.

  70. Austin to Bowie and Fannin, October 24, 1835, “General Austin's Order Book”, 29-30.

  71. Journals of the Consultation held at San Felipe de Austin, October 16, 1835, (Houston, 1838), 4-5.

  72. Statement of returns for Nacogdoches, October 15, 1835, Election Returns, Secretary of State, Record Group 307, TXSL.

  73. Frank sparks account in San Antonio Daily Express, December 8, 1935.

  74. Moseley Baker to Houston, 1844, Moseley Baker Papers, UT.

  75. Moses A. Bryan to James F. Perry, October 26, 1835, Barker, Austin Papers, vol. 3, 211-12.

  76. San Antonio Daily Express, January 15, 1905; Samuel Maverick Diary, October 26, 1835, UT.

  77. Austin to Bowie, October 27, 1835, “General Austin's Order Book”, 32-33.

  78. Ham, “Recollections”, UT; Wooten, Texas, 185-87.

  79. Austin, Campaign of 1835; Moses A. Bryan, Reminiscences, Moses A. Bryan Papers, UT.

  80. Ham, “Recollections,” UT; James De Shields, Tall Men with Long Rifles (San Antonio, 1935), 37. It is apparent that these two sources, differing in details, are describing the same incident. Rohrbaugh, “James Bowie,” 29-30, questions the Creed Taylor statement contained in De Shields, but having Ham as an additional, and earlier, source, would seem to confirm it.

  81. Unidentified clipping in James Bowie Biographical File, DRT. This clipping is so vague that it does not identify what fight it describes, but only the night before the Concepcion engagement seems to fit.

  82. Except where otherwise cited, this account of Concepción is based on Bowie and Fannin's report, October 30 [misdated October 20], 1835, Adjutant General's Office, Army Papers, Record Group 401, TXSL.

  83. De Shields, Tall Men, 38.

  84. Smithwick, Evolution, 114, contains a description of the fight including his assessment that “Bowie was a born leader.” However, Smithwick's company was not engaged in the battle, and thus what he—or his daughter—has to say about this phase of it is probably pure invention.

  85. De Shields, Tall Men, 39-40; Sowell, Rangers and Pioneers, 130-31.

  86. Davis, Travis Diary, 71, 79n; De Shields, Tall Men, 41.

  Chapter 18 Travis 1835

  1. Travis to Burnet, April 11, 1835, PTR, vol. 1, 63.

  2. Travis to Burnet, January 20, 1835, Philpott Collection Catalog, item no. 212.

  3. Brazoria Texas Republican, February 14, March 14, 21, 1835.

  4. Roark, “Robert Wilson,” 18-20.

  5. Oath, April 10, 1835, Oaths of Colonists, Milam's Colony, 1835, 21; Contract, April 10, 1835, Mina, Spanish Archives, vol. 14, 185, General Land Office records, TXSL.

  6. Kuykendall, Sketches of Early Texians, Kuykendall Family Papers, UT. Kuykendall's is not only the earliest authority for this episode, being written about twenty years after the fact, but it is also the only authoritative account, for he encountered Travis and Charles on their way back to San Felipe, in Columbia. Family stories, handed down no doubt from Rosanna, told many years later that she took both children with her, and that she demanded of him then a clear statement of whether or not he intended to return to his family, and that if not she demanded a written statement of his intention. This is obviously a false recollection, since by the time of her September 1834 letter to Dellet it was already plain that Travis had given her such a statement previously. However, it is possible that her attorney did ask for such a statement in writing to use in the proceedings. M. J. DeCaussey to William B. Travis Chapter, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, January 31, 1895, Asbury Papers; Clarence R. Wharton to Mixon, March 27, 1929, Mixon Papers, UT. McDonald, Travis, 96, relying on Travis's diary, incorrectly states that Travis got Charles in March 1834. Travis engaged somebody to pick up the boy then, but it never happened.

  7. Bill of sale, May 29, 1835, William B. Travis Legal Documents, DRT; Travis title bond, May 16, 1835, Philpot
t Collection Catalog, item no. 215; Will of William Barret Travis, May 25, 1835, Domestic Correspondence, TXSL. It may be worth noting that in his will Travis specifies that his estate is to go to “my two legitimate children.” Possibly nothing should be read into this, since it may have been simple pro forma wording. If not, though, then it suggests that much later rumors that he suspected Susan was not his are unfounded. And/or it could also suggest that he might have fathered an illegitimate child by one of his numerous sexual liaisons in Texas, or anticipated the possibility of it happening in future.

  8. Travis to Burnet, February 6, 1835, Christie's Catalog no. 844K (May 1966), n.p.

  9. Travis to Burnet, April 11, 1835, Jenkins, PTR, vol. 1, 63.

  10. Mary A. Holley, Notes, Austin Papers, UT.

  11. Wilson to Travis, May 13, 1835, Franklin Papers, ibid.

  12. Travis to Burnet, May 21, 1835, Philpott Collection Catalog, item no. 216; Clarinda Pevehouse Kegans Memoirs, Nita Stewart Haley Library, Midland, Tex. The quotations from the letter to Burnet are based upon a transcription from the illustration of the letter, and differ from the incomplete and inaccurate text appearing in the same catalog.

  13. Parker, Trip to the West, 207.

  14. Barker, “Public Opinion,” 222; José María Tornel, Tejas y los Estados-Unidos de America un Sus Relaciones con la Republica Mexicana (Mexico City, 1837), in Carlos E. Castañeda, com, The Mexican Side of the Texas Revolution (Dallas, 1928), 334-35.

  15. Agreement to Meet at Harrisburg, June 4, 1835, Lamar Papers, TXSL.

  16. Travis to Smith, June 19, 1835, Gulick, Lamar Papers, vol. 1, 204.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Wilson to Travis, June 9, 1835, Franklin Papers, UT.

  19. Agreement, June 22, 1835, Lamar Papers, TXSL.

  20. The above account of the Anahuac affair is based on Travis to Smith, July 6, 1836, Brown, Smith, 59-61; Travis to the Public, September 1, 1835, [William Harris], Account of the ejection of Tenorio, 1835, Lamar Papers, TXSL; Eugene C. Barker, “Difficulties of A Mexican Revenue Officer in Texas,” Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 4 (January 1901): 198-200; Antonio Tenorio to Ugartechea, July 1835, in Eugene C. Barker, ed., “William Barret Travis, The Hero of the Alamo,” Publications of the Southern History Association 6 (September 1902): 416-17.

  21. Anonymous account of Anahuac, June-July 1835, Lamar Papers, TXSL.

  22. Yoakum, Texas, vol. 1, 343.

  23. Travis to Smith, July 6, 1835, Brown, Smith, 60-61; James Cox to Col. Barrett, July 11, 1835, Jenkins, PTR, vol. 1, 149.

  24. Harris, “Reminiscences, II,” 160.

  25. James H. C. Miller to John W. Smith, July 26, 1835, Domestic Correspondence, Record Group 307, TXSL.

  26. Thomas Thompson, proclamation, July 26, 1835, Brown Smith, 63.

  27. James H. C. Miller to John W. Smith, July 25, 1835, Domestic Correspondence, Record Group 307, TXSL.

  28. Brazoria Texas Republican, July 18, 1835.

  29. Miller to John W. Smith, July 25, 1835, Domestic Correspondence, Record Group 307, TXSL.

  30. Travis to Smith, July 26, 1835, Streeter Collection, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

  31. Travis to Bowie, July 30, 1835, Yoakum, Texas vol. 1, 343.

  32. Travis to Smith, July 6, 1835, Matagorda Bulletin, October 11, 1837.

  33. Tenorio to Ugartechea, July 15, 1835, Béxar Archives, UT; Tenorio to Commissioner at San Felipe, July 15, 1835, Tenorio to Committee of San Felipe and Columbia, July 19, 1835, Tenorio to Miller, July 26, 1835, Nacogdoches Archives, TXSL.

  34. Travis to Ugartechea, July 31, 1835, Barker, Austin Papers, vol, 3, 95.

  35. Cós to Political Chief in Department of Brazos, August 1, 1835, Cós to Ugartechea, August 1, 1835, Béxar Archives, UT.

  36. Ugartechea to Political Chief Department of Brazos, August 4, 1835, Nacogdoches Archives, TXSL.

  37. Travis to Smith, August 5, 1835, Streeter Collection, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

  38. Johnson, Texas, vol. 1, 240.

  39. Barker, “Public Opinion,” 226-27.

  40. Moseley Baker to Houston, October 1844, Austin Papers, UT.

  41. Ugartechea to Chief of Department of Brazos, August 8, 1835, Ugartechea to Cós, August 8, 1835, Cós to Ugartechea, August 20, 31, 1835, Béxar Archives, UT; Affidavit, August 29, 1835, Brown, Smith, 67.

  . Wiley Martin to Ugartechea, August 16, 1835, Béxar Archives, UT.

  43. Brown, Smith, 71-72.

  44. Travis to J. W. Moore, August 31, 1835, Houston Morning Star, March 14, 1840.

  45. Travis to Smith, August 4, 1835, Brown, Smith, 62; Travis to Smith, August 5, 1835, Streeter Collection, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

  46. Travis to Smith, August 24, 1835, Brown, Smith, 72-73.

  47. Travis to J. W. Moore, August 31, 1835, Houston Morning Star, March 14, 1840; Travis to Burnet, August 31, 1835, Jenkins, PTR, vol. 1, 379; Travis to Briscoe, August 31, 1835, Mixon, “Travis”, 409-10; Travis to Smith, September 1, 1835, Lamar Papers, TXSL.

  48. Travis to New York Christian Advocate and Journal, August 17, 1845, in Texas Christian Advocate, April 4, 1861.

  49. A. J. Lee, “Rev. J. W. Kenney,” Texas Methodist Historical Quarterly1(1884-1885): 48-49; William Smith account of camp meeting, transcript in Mixon Papers, UT; Macum Phelan, A History of Early Methodism in Texas (Nashville, 1924), 44-46; Kegans Memoirs, Haley Library. The Clarinda Kegans reminiscence, obviously girlhood recollections written many decades after the fact, is at best confused. The barbecue she mentions took place “the fall before the war began,” she says, suggesting autumn of 1835, and this is probably accurate, She has James Bonham attending as Travis' friend, however, even though Bonham did not come to Texas until November 1835, and Travis spent all of that month away with Austin's army at Béxar, and December organizing his cavalry command. Bonham and Travis were in San Felipe briefly at the same time in December, but since hostilities had been going on since October, this would hardly qualify as being “before the war began,” and besides Travis would hardly have been attending parties at the Pevehouse place south of San Felipe with all he had to do getting his cavalry together. Besides, with the war in full sway, there was hardly any need for the men at any party in December to disguise their politics from suspected spies, as Kegans suggests. Kegans also has Mexican Colonel Juan Almonte attending the barbecue as a spy, but this is surely a false recollection based on Almonte's visit to Texas in the spring and summer of 1834. Obviously she was unconsciously embellishing a recollection of a single event in which Travis is the central character, and which probably did take place in fall 1835. The addition of Bonham reflects persistent Texan folklore in her time and later that make the two childhood friends, even though there is no evidence at all to establish a connection between them prior to 1836. The addition of Almonte either confuses and condenses the Mexican's genuine 1834 trip into an 1835 recollection of Travis, or else reflects some now lost folk tale having Almonte traveling in Texas incognito as a spy. These are common characteristics of elderly reminiscences involving noted persons and events. One thing is certain; On no occasion were Travis, Bonham, and Almonte, all in the same place at the same time except during the siege of the Alamo in February-March 1836.

  50. Travis to the Public, September 1, 1835, Lamer Papers, TXSL.

  51. Cós to Austin, October 4, 1835, ibid.

  52. Eugene C. Barker, The Life of Stephen F. Austin (Austin, 1949), 483; Minutes of San Felipe Meeting, September 12, 1835, Barker, Austin Papers, vol. 3, 122-140.

  53. Travis to Smith, September 18, 1835, Brown, Smith, 74-75.

  54. Travis to Austin, September 22, 1835, Barker, Austin Papers, vol. 3, 133-35.

  55. Barnard E. Bee affidavit, December 18, 1839, William Barret Travis Certificate of Service, Miscellany File, TXSL.

  56. Travis to Randall Jones, October 3,1845, Travis Papers, UT. In this letter Travis did not address Jones as “Captain,” nor did he sign it as “Lieutenant,” which Travis, a stickler
for formality, and a man somewhat bedazzled by military titles, would surely have done if they had been elected to their future positions prior to that time. Also the content of Travis's letter includes nothing to suggest that he felt himself as yet a part of an organized company, leading to the conclusion that Jones's company did not organize until after October 3, and perhaps not until word came of the Gonzales emergency on October 4.

  57. Travis to Jones, October 3, 1835, Travis Papers, UT.

  58. William B. Travis voucher to “Mrs. Kenner,” October 5, 1835, Michael D. Heaston, Texas in the Nineteenth Century, catalog no. 27 (Austin, 1997), item 298. This document does not establish that Travis and his company were actually on the road to Gonzales on October 5, when he impressed the horse, but it is possible.