Alamo Traces

by Thomas Ricks Lindley

  27 Erasmo Seguin affidavit, November 9, 1839.

  28 John S. Brooks to Mother, March 2, 1836, Goliad, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 485-486.

  29 Dimmtt to Kerr, February 28, 1836.

  30 John A. Wharton to Citizens of Brazoria, February 28, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 458; Moseley Baker to Gail Bordon, February 29, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 460; J. C. Neill to Henry Smith, February 28, 1836, James C. Neill Papers, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library; Moseley Baker to John R. Jones et al., March 8, 1836, Gonzales, Jenkins, ed., Papers, V: 22-23.

  31 Gray, From Virginia, 120.

  32 Ibid., 121; “ ‘Old Setter’ Two Chapters on Political Quackery with Especial Reference to Sam Houston,” 1844, The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, IV: 64. The anonymous writer of the Lamar document reported that Houston’s main concern during the convention was obtaining land titles for the Texas Cherokee and obtaining military assistance from the Cherokee. Houston was not that popular with the colonists. He obtained his military positions through the political process—first, the Consultation; second, the Convention. Whereas, Stephen F. Austin and most of the other military leaders of the revolution obtained their command positions by being elected by the men they commanded.

  After Texas independence was declared on March 2, Houston reported that March 2 was his birthday. There is, however, no other source that verifies March 2 was actually Houston’s date of birth.

  On the other hand, there is one piece of evidence that indicates that Houston’s birthday was not March 2, 1793. In Haley, Sam Houston, 90, we learn that in September 1832, before going to Texas, Houston picked up a United States passport that described him as “General Samuel Houston, a Citizen of the United States, Thirty-eight years of age, Six feet, two inches in stature, brown hair and light complexion.” If Houston’s birthday had been March 2, 1793, he would have been thirty-nine in September 1832, not thirty-eight as listed on the passport.

  33 Travis to Convention, March 3, 1836; Joaquin Ramirez y Sesma to Santa Anna, March 15, 1836, Cibolo Creek, Jenkins, ed., Papers, V: 85; “Connel O’Donnel Kelly” account in James M. Day, compiler, The Texas Almanac 1857-1873: A Compendium of Texas History (Waco: Texian Press, 1967), 600; Morehouse affidavit, May 24, 1836; Sowell, Early Settlers, 9-10.

  That Smith and Martin used the Gonzales road route to the Alamo is speculation based on these sources. After the fall of the Alamo, when Ramirez y Sesma arrived at the Cibolo ford on his way to Gonzales, he made note of the evidence he saw that indicated a large number of men had been at the Cibolo ford in recent days.

  Ballard attempted to enter the Alamo with Martin and Smith but failed to do so. On March 1, 1836, he joined Tumlinson’s unit. Travis, in his March 3 letter, mentioned that only men from Gonzales got into the Alamo. Thus, it appears the Tumlinson rangers remained at the Cibolo to wait on Fannin’s force. Ben Highsmith identified Kimbell, Jackson, Kent, Darst, Mitchell, Cottle, Fuqua, and Gaston as having entered the Alamo with David Crockett. Other evidence shows that Crockett left the Alamo as a scout and returned on the night of March 3. Thus, the men listed by Highsmith do not appear to have entered the Alamo with the March 1 group.

  34 Burleson affidavit, February 29, 1836; Michael Sessum file, PC-TSL; David Haldeman affidavit, March 1, 1882, David Haldeman file, RV 1091, GLO; Kesselus, Bastrop County Before Statehood, 170-171.

  35 Samuel Bastian interview, Brown, Indian Wars, 138.

  36 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 19; Filisola, Memoirs, II: 172-173; Santa Anna to Joaquin Ramirez y Sesma, February 29, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 469. For some unknown reason, Almonte identified the Jimenez battalion as the Allende battalion, a unit for which there is no other evidence to show it was in San Antonio at that time.

  37 Travis to Convention, March 3, 1836; Sowell, Early Settlers, 9-10; Almonte, “Private Journal,” 19-20.

  Santa Anna, clearly aware of and concerned about the reinforcement’s entry route, inspected the sugar mill site at high noon on March 1.

  General Filisola, in Memoirs, II: 81, described the area: “To the North, between the San Antonio River and Alamo creek, the settled part of the city of Bexar extends as far as eight hundred varas [a vara is thirty-three and one third inches] along a collection of streets made up of mud huts, the framework of which is of wood, and it ends in some sugarcane fields where there are two small sugar mills called Zambrano and Garza.”

  38 Ibid.; Morehouse affidavit, May 24, 1836; Bastian interview, Brown, Indian Wars, 137-138. A “norther” is a Canadian cold front that blows into Texas from the north.

  39 Bastian interview, Brown, Indian Wars, 138; Morehouse affidavit, May 24, 1836; Travis to the Convention, March 3, 1836.

  40 Gray, From Virginia, 121; Almonte, “Private Journal,” 19.

  41 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 17 and 19; Caro, “A True Account of the First Texas Campaign” in Castaneda, trans. and ed., The Mexican Side, 104; Susanna (Dickinson) Belles affidavit, December 9, 1850, Houston, David P. Cummings file, C-1936, Court of Claims collection, GLO; Filisola, Memoirs, II: 178.

  Caro’s group of four that entered the Alamo at night were probably from the Martin and Smith reinforcement of March 1. The Mexicans most likely only saw four men because of the darkness. The daytime group of twenty-five men were probably Alamo soldiers who had been scouting for headright sites on the Cibolo. According to Susanna Dickinson, Travis sent a courier out to locate and bring those men back to the Alamo. Almonte reported that during the night of February 24 thirty men from Gonzales entered the Alamo. Given that the Alamo soldiers who had been on the Cibolo would have approached the city from the east, the Mexicans probably assumed they had come from Gonzales, when in fact they had been on the Cibolo.

  42 Williamson to Travis, March 1, 1836; Fannin to De Sauque and Chenoweth, March 1, 1836.

  43 Sowell, Early Settlers, 9-10; “List of Men who have this day volunteered to remain before Bexar,” November 24, 1835, Bexar, Austin Papers, CAH; “Colonel J. C. Neill’s Alamo Return,” Ca. December 31, 1835, Bexar, Muster Rolls book, 20; Alamo voting list, February 1, 1836. That Highsmith left at the time given in the narrative is speculation based on the data for the time frame that he detailed to Sowell. Highsmith is alleged to have taken part in the siege and storming of Bexar, and afterward joined the Alamo garrison. The name “______ Highsmith” is listed as a member of R. M. Coleman’s company on the list of men who volunteered to remain at Bexar on November 24, 1835. The name Highsmith does not appear on Neill’s Alamo return of about December 31, 1835, or the February 1, 1836, Alamo voting list, which suggests that, like many soldiers, he returned to his home after the fall of Bexar on December 9, 1835.

  44 Morehouse affidavit, May 24, 1836; Bastian interview, Brown, Indian Wars, 138. The location of the Texians on the west side of the San Antonio River is speculation based on the sources and period maps.

  45 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 19. A tinaja is a water hole in impervious rock.

  46 De la Teja, A Revolution Remembered, 80 and 136, Appendix document 20; Hipolito Montoyo file, Jose Alemeda file, Juan Rodriquiz file, Philip Coe file, and Antonio Balle file, PC-TSL; Lucio Enriques file, Andres Barcenas file, Ignacio Guerra file, and Nepomuceno Flores file, AMC-TSL; Macedonio Arocha file, RV 951, GLO; Bexar bounty grant, 1238 and Bexar donation grant, 1161 and 1204 for Manuel Maria Flores, Archives, Texas General Land Office, Austin. Seguin never claimed that he organized his company from the San Antonio River ranches. However, when he reported to Sam Houston at Gonzales after the fall of the Alamo, Seguin had a twenty-five-member company of Tejanos. It is only logical that the unit was organized while Seguin was at the family ranch.

  47 Ibid.

  48 Barnes, “The Alamo’s Only Survivor.”

  49 Ibid.; Petition to State of Texas for Pension for Andrea Castanon de Villanueva (Madame Candelaria), March 1889, and John S. Ford to Governor L. S. Ross, March 25, 1889, San Antonio, M & P-TSL; Candelario Villanueva deposit
ion, August 26, 1859, San Antonio, Timothy M. Matovina, The Alamo Remembered: Tejano Accounts and Perspectives (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995), 35-36; Walter B. Stevens, Through Texas – A Series of Interesting Letters (St. Louis: St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 1892), 77. The Arocha that left the Alamo appears to have been Jose Maria Arocha. Macedonio Arocha joined Seguin’s unit on March 1, 1836.

  Most likely a definitive answer in regard to Madame Candelaria’s presence in the Alamo during the siege will never be determined. Candelario Villanueva, her future husband, claimed in his Republic of Texas pension application that he had been a member of Seguin’s company but was prevented from being in the Alamo because Seguin had sent him to “lock up” Seguin’s house, and “whilst performing that duty Santa Anna’s soldiers got between” him and the Alamo. If that statement is true, Madame Candlaria may have entered the Alamo while her “to-be” husband hurried to the Seguin home. Another possibility is that both entered the Alamo and departed with the other Bexar citizens during the siege. After all, it would have done little good for Seguin to have locked his home. Once Santa Anna learned that Seguin was in the Alamo, he would have had the house broken into by his troops.

  The 1889 petition shows the signatures of a number of influential San Antonio citizens, including Mary Maverick, wife of Alamo delegate to the March 1 convention Samuel Maverick, John S. Ford, and Alamo custodian Tom Rife, who believed that the old woman had been in the Alamo. Rife, however, in 1892 denounced Candelaria as a liar, claiming that she had not been in the Alamo. Rife failed to explain what had caused him to change his mind about the woman.

  Given the praise from San Antonio citizens found in an 1871 petition (same file as the 1889 petition) to the legislature, Candelaria appears to have been the Mother Theresa of San Antonio.

  50 De la Teja, A Revolution Remembered, 79-80; Fannin to De Sauque and Chenoweth, March 1, 1836.

  51 Nacogdoches Enlistments, Muster Roll book, 114-115; Forbes to Robinson, January 12, 1836, Nacogdoches, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 498; Townsend Receipt, February 9, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 297; James W. Robinson to Sam Houston, February 14, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 337; W. P. Grady petition, n.d., M & P-TSL; “Gilmore unit members agreement with Acting Governor Robinson and Council,” [February 16, 1836?], Records of the Permanent Council, TSL.

  52 “Gilmore unit members agreement,” February 16, 1836.

  53 Robinson to Houston, February 14, 1836.

  54 James Gillespie to Thomas J. Rusk, May 29, 1836, Victoria, Jenkins, ed., Papers, VI: 407-408. Given that acting governor James W. Robinson had ordered all reinforcements to rendezvous at Gonzales, the Gilmore unit most likely traveled to San Antonio through Gonzales.

  55 Lieutenant James B. Bonham Republic of Texas pay record, May 15, 1838, James B. Bonham file, AMC-TSL; Williamson to Travis, March 1, 1836; Thomas Ricks Lindley, “James Butler Bonham: October 17, 1835 - March 6, 1836,” The Alamo Journal, August 1988.

  The Bonham pay document identifies Bonham as a “lieutenant of cavalry.” Contrary to what many historians and writers believe, Travis did not send Bonham out as a courier during the February and March 1836 siege of the Alamo. Travis, on March 3, 1836, wrote: “Colonel Bonham, my special messenger, arrived at La Bahia fourteen days ago, with a request for aid, and on the arrival of the enemy in Bexar, ten days ago, I sent an express to Colonel F. . . .” The rider sent to Goliad on February 23 appears to have been John Johnson.

  56 Gray, From Virginia, 123-124.

  57 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 19-20.

  58 Sowell, Early Settlers, 9-10; Brooks to Mother, March 2, 1836.

  59 Brooks to Mother, March 2, 1836.

  60 “Muster Roll, Captain Thomas H. Breece’s Co.”; Webb, Carroll, and Branda, eds., Handbook, II: 273; Brooks to Mother, March 2, 1836; Bennett McNelly petition, April 23, 1838, Houston, M & P-TSL.

  61 Travis to Convention, March 3, 1836.

  62 Williams to Travis, March 1, 1836.

  63 Bonham Jr., “James Butler Bonham: A Consistent Rebel,” 129.

  64 The belief that the reinforcement force used this route is speculation. However, given the circumstances, it would have been the safest route to Cibolo ford on the San Antonio/Gonzales road. Second, it was the most direct route to join the ranger company from Bastrop. Lastly, with Santa Anna sending local militia units to obtain provisions from the Seguin and Flores ranches, riding on the Goliad/Bexar road would have been too dangerous.

  65 The men were John W. Thomson and George Olamio. Thomson is on the current Alamo list. Olamio is not listed. See note 87 for more information on Olamio.

  66 Sowell, Early Settlers, 9.

  67 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 20.

  68 Travis to Convention, March 3, 1836.

  69 Travis to Ponton, February 23, 1836; Thomas B. Rees to Gerard Burch, Goliad, March 8, 1836, Jenkins, ed., Papers, V: 28-29; B. H. Duval to William P. Duval, March 9, 1836, Goliad, Jenkins, ed., Papers, V: 33-34; Joseph B. Tatom to Sister, March 10, 1836, Goliad, Jenkins, ed., Papers, V: 44; John Cross to Brother and Sister, March 9, 1836, Goliad, John Cross papers, DRT Library; David P. Cummings to Father, February 14, 1836, San Antonio, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 334; Susanna (Dickinson) Belles affidavit, December 9, 1850, Houston, David P. Cummings file, Court of Claims records, C-001936, GLO.

  Historians, in spite of Dickinson’s claim that Travis had sent an express rider to get Cummings, continue to claim that Cummings returned to the Alamo with the first Gonzales reinforcement that entered the Alamo on March 1.

  Colonel Juan N. Almonte, “Private Journal,” 17, reported that thirty men from Gonzales entered the Alamo on the night of February 24. Given that the returning Cummings group would have entered the Alamo from the east, having traveled on the Gonzales road, it is easy to understand why Almonte might have believed they were reinforcement from Gonzales.

  70 Williamson to Travis, March 1, 1836; “Testimony of Mrs. Hannig,” September 23, 1876; Travis to Convention, March 3, 1836. In regard to Fannin, Travis wrote: “Col. Fannin is said to be on the march [R. M. Williamson letter of March 1] to this place with reinforcements, but I fear it is not true, as I have repeatedly sent to him for aid without receiving any.”

  71 “Testimony of Mrs. Hannig,” September 23, 1876, Morphis, History of Texas, from its Discovery and Settlement, 174-177. According to Morphis, Susanna Dickinson reported: “I heard him [Crockett] say several times during the eleven days of the siege: ‘I think we had better march out and die in the open air. I don’t like to be hemmed up.’ ”

  72 David Harmon affidavit and J. B. Pevito affidavit, RV 1205, VD-GLO. Pevito described Harmon’s enlistment with these words: “I saw David Harmon the applicant go off from his home, on Cow Bayou as a soldier to join the army. His father went with him to see him mustered in. Dave was quite young & a mere stripling of a boy, & I asked his father at the time where he was going with David, & he said that David was young but he had to learn, & he was going to see him mustered in the army.”

  73 J. C. Neill’s Alamo roster, Muster Rolls book, 20; “List of the names of those who fell in the Alamo at San Antonio de Bexar,” Muster Rolls book, 2; Alamo voting list, February 1, 1836; The Telegraph and Texas Register, March 24, 1836. Neill’s return and the February 1, 1836 Alamo voting list, show Major Evans’s first name to be George. The T&TR list and the page two list in the Muster Rolls book show Evans’s first name as Robert. The page two list appears to have been taken from the T&TR list. Neill’s Alamo roster and the voting list are the more reliable lists. Thus, it appears that Evans’s first name was George, as so identified by David Harmon’s affidavit.

  74 “Sheet” appears to be a euphemism for feces or Harmon’s pronunciation of Crockett’s pronunciation of shit.

  75 Ibid.; Robert Whittock affidavit, RV 1153, VD-GLO. It appears that the additional men Harmon was able to enlist were in Captain William W. Logan’s company. They joined Sam Houston’s army at Beeson’s Ferry on the Colo
rado River after the Alamo had fallen.

  76 Ibid.; Sowell, Early Settlers, 9; James Taylor and Edward Taylor affidavit, March 3, 1836; J. C. Taylor affidavit, September 6, 1890, George Taylor affidavit, February 2, 1836 and J. C. Taylor affidavit, August 7, 1890; James Taylor, Edward Taylor, and William Taylor affidavit, March 3, 1836; “War News: Texas and Florida,” Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock), April 12, 1836; Adina de Zavala, The Alamo: Where the Last Man Died (San Antonio: The Naylor Company, 1905), 35; Mark Derr, The Frontiersman: The Real Life and the Many Legends of Davy Crockett (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1993), back flap of the dust jacket; W. D. Grady petition to the Legislature of the State of Texas, n.d., M & P-TSL.

  The Zavala book quotes part of a late nineteenth-century poem by James Jeffrey Roche that reports Crockett entered the Alamo with the Gonzales reinforcement. W. D. Grady stated that he had been employed as a printer with the Texas Telegraph and Register at San Felipe when expresses from Travis and Crockett arrived from the Alamo. William Patton, Crockett’s nephew, is a good guess as the person who carried the package of letters to Gonzales. Patton appears to have been with Crockett at the Alamo, but he did not die there. At least the family never made any claims that Patton died with Crockett.

  77 Jose Urrea, Diario De Las Operaciones Militares De La Division Que Al Mando Del General Jose Urrea Hizo La Campana De Tejas (Victoria de Durango: Imprenta Del Gobierno & Cargo de Manual Gonzalez, 1838), 54-55.

  78 Sowell, Early Settlers, 9; James Taylor and Edward Taylor affidavit, March 3, 1836; J. C. Taylor affidavit, September 6, 1890, George Taylor affidavit, February 2, 1836, and J. C. Taylor affidavit, August 7, 1890; William B. Travis to Jesse Grimes, March 3, 1836, Alamo, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 504-505; William B. Travis to David Ayres, March 3, 1836, Alamo, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 501; William B. Travis to Rebecca Cummings, March 3, 1836, Alamo, reference to the letter in Holley, Interviews, 20; Williamson to Travis, March 1, 1836; Fannin to De Sauque and Chenoweth, March 1, 1836.