Alamo Traces

by Thomas Ricks Lindley

  Cibolo Creek ford on the Gonzales/San Antonio road

  and author’s good friend Donald Hoffman

  Aftermath

  On March 7, probably in the morning, John W. Smith, unaware that the Alamo had fallen, departed Gonzales with fifty volunteers to return to the Alamo. The force seems to have ridden to Bexar on the upper road, which was also known as the “Mill” road. That route ran northwest from Gonzales, then southwest to San Antonio, through the area that became the town of Seguin, Texas.109

  The Gonzales-bound element of the combined force, under command of Chenoweth, De Sauque, and Seguin, arrived at that settlement on March 8.110

  Two men from the combined relief group appear to have ridden northeast from San Antonio to Nacogdoches. The March 29, 1836 issue of the Arkansas Gazette carried this report:

  San Antonio retaken, and the Garrison massacred. – Just as our paper was ready for press, a gentleman who arrived this morning, from Red River, informs us, that, on Thursday night last [March 24], he spent the night, on the Little Missouri, with a man and his family, who had fled from the vicinity of San Antonio after that post was besieged by the Mexicans. This man, he says, informed him, that on his arrival at Nacogdoches, he was overtaken by two men (one of them badly wounded), who informed him that San Antonio was retaken by the Mexicans, and the garrison put to the sword – that if any others escaped the general massacre, besides themselves, they were not aware of it.111

  While it may appear that these two men survived the fall of the Alamo as members of the garrison, one must remember that those men who attempted to enter the Alamo and failed were also participants in the fight for the Alamo. Perhaps the men were in the Alamo. Still, given that one man was seriously wounded, a March 6 escape from the Alamo, which was surrounded by Mexican horsemen, seems unlikely. The two survivors had most likely participated in the March 4 reinforcement of the Alamo. As for their identities, time has yet to reveal that secret. There are, however, two possibilities, Louis and Stephen Rose, which will be discussed in a following chapter.

  History reports that the citizens of Gonzales did not learn of the Alamo’s fall until Anselmo Bergara and Andres Barcena arrived at Gonzales at 4:00 p.m. on March 11. In reality, Bergara and Barcena probably only confirmed what surviving members of the failed relief had already told Lt. Colonel Neill and the people of Gonzales. Undoubtedly, citizens started departing the area on March 9. John G. King, a member of the combined relief force whose son William P. King had entered the Alamo with one of the reinforcements, immediately packed up his family and headed east. On March 10 he was near Peach Creek, about ten miles east of Gonzales.112

  On the night of March 8 or in the early morning hours of March 9, John W. Smith and his volunteers approached Bexar from its west side. One of Smith’s men was Connel O’Donnel Kelly, who had escaped General Jose C. Urrea’s soldiers at San Patricio.113 He described the last relief attempt of the Alamo: “I joined Moseley Baker’s company [at San Felipe]; went to Gonzales, where volunteers were called to go to the assistance of Travis, and volunteered as one to go; went to the Leon [Creek], where we saw about one thousand Mexican camp fires, when they, the Mexicans, opened fire on us, and our party being too small, retreated to the Cibolo, under Capt. [John] W. Smith, where we remained but a short time, and returned to Gonzales, [March 11] where Gen. Sam Houston had just arrived from Washington . . . our captain [Smith] informed him that the Alamo had fallen.”114

  Thus ended the reinforcement of the Alamo. In the end eighty-four or more men had entered the mission fortress as reinforcements during the thirteen-day siege. Those brave men were neither suicidal nor stupid. The first thirty, members of the Gonzales ranger company, entered the Alamo thinking that many more men would soon join them under the leadership of General Sam Houston. The fifty-four that David Crockett apparently guided through Mexican lines probably believed that a large force under the command of Major Williamson and Colonel Fannin would soon join them in the Alamo.

  Few of the reinforcement survivors ever wrote of the relief action. Undoubtedly, some felt great guilt because their friends had died and they had lived. Thus, the painful event was best repressed. Others were probably ashamed of their failure to save Travis and his men. For many the Alamo was a tragic failure best forgotten after the San Jacinto victory. Then others may have been afraid they would be branded as cowards for not having made it into the Alamo to die. Such a view may be hard for many to understand from the comfort of the twenty-first century, but after the fall of the Alamo, Charles and Tom Turner learned the hard way. In September 1836 Tom wrote their mother of their Alamo experience:

  You have no doubt heard of the troubles of late in Texas. Believe me when I say that Charles and I was not involved in any of it. By not fighting, we have opened the door to the people’s verbal attacks. We find it difficult to get even a Small amount of kindness from them people. It is hard to fight for Something that you do not believe in. When those men fought at the Alamo (Bejar), Charles and I was to leave and help them but did not. By the time we started to leave, it was all over for them. I think that God must have saved our lives that Day. Are we to blame? Who would think that Texas could win? If Texas can keep what she had won, in later years, people will remember me as a coward, and call useless dying an Act of glory. We will be home year next. . . .”115

  Turner’s missive clearly defined his situation. As he said, the difference between the Alamo defenders and the Turner brothers was a belief—the idea that there could be an independent Texas for which the defenders were willing to die. Still, the collective death of the Alamo defenders was not some kind of suicide compact as portrayed in the “Moses Rose” tale of Travis drawing a line in the dirt and asking his men to cross and die a glorious death with him. The Alamo garrison had been ordered by their government on January 31, 1836, “. . . in no case to abandon or surrender the place unless in the last extremity.” As with all good soldiers, Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and all their men obeyed that order until the evening of March 5 when it became clear that the “last extremity” was fast approaching.116

  Abandoning the fort, however, was impossible and time had run out. The defenders could only look to the east and wait. Susanna Dickinson summed up their situation with these words: “The enemy gradually approached by means of earth works. . . . Besieged were looking for reinforcements which never arrived.” In the end, the men of the Alamo, with the combat assistance of one black woman and a number of teenage boys, marched into the “last extremity” with the courage of their fathers and grandfathers who had fought and died to create the United States of America. Nevertheless, they probably would have preferred to be home in their warm beds, but that was not their fate that morning.117

  Susanna Dickinson, ca. 1850s

  Photo courtesy of Archives Division — Texas State Library

  Chapter Four Notes

  1 Williamson to Travis, March 1, 1836.

  2 Stephen F. Austin circular, September 18, 1835, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, I: 455-456; Stephen F. Austin to Consultation, October 10, 1835, Gonzales, Jenkins, ed., Papers, II: 81-82; William T. Austin, “Account of the Campaign of 1835 by William T. Austin, Aide to Gen. Stephen F. Austin & Gen. Ed. Burleson,” Texana, IV: 300-302.

  3 D. C. Barrett et al. to James W. Robinson, February 15, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 340-341; D. C. Barrett and J. D. Clements to James W. Robinson, February 15, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 341-342; Stephen F. Austin to Provisional Government, December 22, 1835, Velasco, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 284-286; Stephen F. Austin to R. R. Royal, December 25, 1835, Quintana, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 315-317; Houston to Smith, January 17, 1836; Henry Smith to Sam Houston, December 17, 1835, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 239-240; Sam Houston to James Bowie, December 17, 1835, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 222-223; Citizens’ and Soldiers’ Meeting [at San Antonio], January 2, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 153-155; Sam Houston to John Forbes, January 7, 1836, W
ashington-on-the-Brazos, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 436-437; Sam Houston to James Bowie, January 10, 1836, north of Goliad, in Yoakum, History, II: 57-58; Henry Smith to William Bryan, February 5, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 268-269; Napoleon, “Military Maxims of Napoleon,” in General T. R. Phillips, ed., Roots of Strategy (Harrisburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books, 1985), 413 and 227.

  4 Travis to Smith, January 28, 1836.

  5 Smith to Bryan, February 5, 1836.

  6 D. C. Barrett et al. to James W. Robinson, January 31, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 204-205.

  7 Ibid.

  8 Abbotts to Steele, January 2, 1876; Abbotts to Johnson, April 3, 1880.

  9 Lucy A. Erath, ed., The Battle of San Jacinto (Houston: The Union National Bank, 1936), 7.

  10 Baker to Houston, October 1842, Evergreen.

  11 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 19; Muster roll for the Second Company Permanent of Tamanlipas, October 1, 1835, Box 2S319, Bexar Archives, CAH. In this account the Menchaca name is misspelled as Menchacho.

  12 Fannin to De Sauque and Chenoweth, March 1, 1836; F. Hord to J. P. Borden, May 17, 1839, Box 2-10/2, General Land Office Correspondence, TSL; De la Teja, A Revolution Remembered, 79. The arrival time at the Seguin ranch is an estimate based on when Chenoweth and De Sauque departed Goliad. Given that collection of the livestock and provisions at the Seguin ranch most likely took most the day, Chenoweth and De Sauque probably had scouts north of the ranch watching the Bexar road for any approach of the enemy. Thus, the Texians probably detected the approach of Lieutenant Manchaca and the Mexican troops. Manchaca, after his arrival at the ranch, may have learned of the Texians’ mission. Whatever the situation was at the ranch, there is no evidence that Texians encountered Menchaca’s detachment.

  13 “A List of Votes taken at an Election held on the 1st day of February 1835 [1836] for the purpose of Electing two Delegates . . . ,” February 1, 1836, Gonzales, Election Returns, TSL; Alamo List (Gonzales men) in Telegraph and Texas Register, (San Felipe) March 24, 1836; Bennet, “The Battle of Gonzales, the ‘Lexington’ of the Texas Revolution,” II: 314; James Taylor and Edward Taylor affidavit (copy), March 3, 1836, Cibolo Creek and J. C. Taylor affidavit (copy), September 6, 1890, Deed Records, Vol. 10: 203, Montgomery County Records, Conroe, Texas; George Taylor affidavit, February 2, 1836, and J. C. Taylor affidavit, August 7, 1890, Deed Record E, Somervell County Records, Granbury, Texas; James Taylor, Edward Taylor and William Taylor affidavit (copy), March 3, 1836, Cibolo Creek, and J. C. Taylor affidavit (copy) August 7, 1890, Deed Records, Vol. 19: 596, Liberty County Records, Liberty, Texas; Petition pertaining to the deaths of brothers James and William George at the Alamo, n.d., Bexar, and Interrogation of Benjamin McCulloch, n.d., Bexar, Court of Claims file, C-3103, GLO; Samuel Bastian account, n.d. but circa 1887-92, in John Henry Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas (Austin: L. E. Daniel, 1896), 138.

  The Taylor documents place the Taylors and David Crockett on the Cibolo Ceek on March 3, 1836, in a ranger company described as being with Fannin’s command.

  William George is not listed on the official Alamo list of defenders. The evidence for his Alamo death, however, is as good as the evidence the Daughters of the Republic of Texas officials accepted for Damacio Jimenes, the last addition to the list.

  Ben McCulloch’s answers to the interrogation about James and William George cannot be located. Still, the fact that the children of James George asked McCulloch to verify that their father and uncle had died at the Alamo suggests that McCulloch was part of the company. Otherwise, how would he have been in a position to have known that James and William George died at the Alamo.

  Clearly, there were other men who joined the Gonzales company, but their names are currently lost to history. For example, Benjamin Kellogg was probably part of the reinforcement but did not enter the Alamo or die in the attempt.

  14 G. C. Kimbell to Stephen Smith, February 27, 1836, Stephen Smith file, AMC-TSL.

  15 Foote, Texas and The Texians, II: 225; Seguin, Personal Memoirs, 9.

  16 James W. Fannin Jr. to James W. Robinson, January 28 [27], 1836, Goliad, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 455-456. This document appears to be a second version of Fannin’s letter to Robinson. The first version is found in Papers, IV: 443-444. Based on content analysis of both documents, it appears that they are incorrectly dated February 28, 1836.

  17 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 19.

  18 Fannin to Robinson, February 27, 1836, second version of this letter.

  19 Henry Smith to Public, February 27, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 450.

  20 Thomson and Pattillo to Robinson, February 26, 1836; Burleson affidavit, February 29, 1836. That the San Felipe rider arrived at Mina on February 27 is based on the fact that the order for sending Tumlinson’s company to the Alamo was written on February 26, and the ride from San Felipe to Mina could have been made in twenty-four hours or less.

  21 William F. Fisher statement in regard to J. J. Tumlinson’s ranger service, February 27, 1837, Columbia, J. J. Tumlinson file, AMC-TSL; James P. Gorman file, PC-TSL; J. P. Gorman to Mrs. J. B. Robertson, May 11, 1873, Bastrop, Texas Veterans Association Papers, Box 2H119, CAH; J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, Hugh M. Childress file, AMC-TSL; J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, July 12, 1836, location not given, James Curtis Sr., file, AMC-TSL;

  J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, July 25, 1836, James Curtis Jr., file, AMC-TSL;

  J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, April 17, 1836, Gany Crosby file, AMC-TSL;

  J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, April 27, 1836, Joshua Gray file, AMC-TSL;

  J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, April 16, 1836, Thomas Gray file, AMC-TSL;

  J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, May 17, 1836, Novet Haggard file, AMC-TSL;

  J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, April 27, 1836, James Haggard file, AMC-TSL;

  J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, June 6, 1836, William Leech file, AMC-TSL;

  R. M. Coleman affidavit, Andrew Dunn file, AMC-TSL; L. W. Alexander to Edward Clark, La Grange, June 2, 1858, L. W. Alexander file, Unpaid Claims Collection, TSL; J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, April 25, 1836, Joseph Cottle file, AMC-TSL; J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, n.d., Joseph Weakes file, AMC-TSL; J. J. Tumlinson affidavit, April 17, 1838, Houston, Robert Owen file, AMC-TSL; William Johnson file, PC-TSL; Felix W. Goff file, PC-TSL; Erath, “Memoirs of Major George Bernard Erath,” 231; Merrett and Saul statement, July 1838; J. J. Tumlinson listings on the Republic of Texas Claims Name Index, TSL; Alamo voting list, February 1, 1836.

  The Republic of Texas Claims Name Index lists A. R. Bowen, George M. Kerby, Flood McGrew, James Edmunson, and Henry P. Redfield as members of Tumlinson’s ranger company. This investigator, however, was not able to determine when these men served in the company because the records are not available to the public at this time. Thus, it is possible that some of the men participated in the Alamo reinforcement.

  The names of Bastrop Alamo defenders Robert E. Crochran, Lemuel Crawford, James Kenny, James Northcross, Charles S. Smith, Ross McClelland, and James E. Stewart do not appear on the February 1, 1836, voting list, making it appear that they entered the fort after that date. Thus, they appear to have been members of the Tumlinson ranger unit.

  The departure date and time for the Mina rangers is speculation based on the fact that the company was already organized and would have wasted no time in riding to Gonzales.

  22 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 19; Santa Anna to Vicente Filisola, February 27, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 447-449.

  23 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 19.

  24 “Ben Highsmith account” in Sowell, Early Settlers, 9-10; Captain A. J. Sowell, “Frontier Days of Texas: Pathetic Incidents of the Battle of the Alamo – The Losing of the Little Cannon that Brought on the Texas Revolution,” The San Antonio Light, August 18, 1912; Seguin to Fontaine, June 7, 1890; [Letter from Gonzales about reinforcement of the Alamo], Telegraph and Texas Register, San Felipe, March 5, 1836; Sutherland, “The Fall of the Alamo,” Williams Papers, CAH;
Seguin, Personal Memoirs, 9; Williamson to Travis, March 1, 1836; “A list of the Gonzales Ranging Company,” February 23, 1836; Colonel Edwin Morehouse affidavit concerning John Ballard’s service in the Gonzales ranger company, May 24, 1836, John Ballard file, AMC-TSL.

  This investigator’s belief that the Tumlinson unit joined the Gonzales rangers at Gonzales and rode to Bexar with them is based on three pieces of evidence. First, Major R. M. Williamson claimed that as of March 1, 1836, sixty men had left Gonzales for the Alamo. Second, the Gonzales rangers muster roll indicates they did not have sixty men. Third, the Morehouse affidavit shows the Tumlinson company was outside of San Antonio on March first.

  Highsmith reported that: “David Crockett went into the Alamo with George Kimble, A. J. Kent, Abe Darst, Tom Jackson, Tom Mitchell, Wash Cottle, and two 16-year-old boys named Albert Fuqua and John Gaston.” Mitchell was Edwin T. Mitchell, a member of Fannin’s command at Goliad, who had been sent to Gonzales as a courier. Crockett was in the Alamo on the morning of March 1 when the first relief group from Gonzales entered the Alamo. He, however, was out of the Alamo on March 3 on the Cibolo Creek, twenty miles east of the Alamo. Thus, it appears that Kimbell and the other men did not enter the Alamo on March 1, but rather on a later date. That a council of war was conducted at Gonzales is speculation. However, given the situation, it would have been a reasonable action on the part of Williamson and the other officers.

  25 McComb to ______, October 5, 1835, Gonzales, Jenkins, ed., Papers, II: 48; R. F. Hord to J. P. Borden, May 17, 1839, Box 2-10/2, General Land Office Correspondence, TSL.

  26 Seguin, Personal Memoirs, 9; Seguin to Fontaine, June 7, 1890. Seguin also said that Fannin ordered him to fall back to Gonzales where General Sam Houston was located. At that time Houston was on the road to Washington-on-the-Brazos from Nacogdoches. Also, in his Memoirs, Seguin claimed that he had been sent to Goliad, not Gonzales. In that case, Seguin does not appear to be telling the truth. Seguin, however, made it clear in his letter to Fontaine that he had been sent to Gonzales and that he played a part in getting reinforcements to the Alamo. The complete identity of Finley is unknown at this time.