Alamo Traces

by Thomas Ricks Lindley

  Likewise, Green B. Jameson, the garrison’s engineer, wrote Governor Smith on February 11: “I have been in the field on actual duty more than four months and have not lost one hour from duty on account of sickness nor pleasure. But have served my country in every capacity I possibly could. When I left home it was with a determination to see Texas free & Independent sink or swim die or perish.”34

  Finally, on March 3, Travis wrote his friend Jesse Grimes, a member of the convention: “If independence is not declared, I shall lay down my arms, and so will the men under my command. But under the flag of independence, we are ready to peril our lives a hundred times a day, and to drive away the monster who is fighting us under a blood-red flag, threatening to murder all prisoners and make Texas a waste desert.”35

  James C. Neill’s Departure From Bexar

  When did Bexar garrison commander Lieutenant Colonel James C. Neill leave Bexar and turn the command over to Travis?

  Neill first left Bexar sometime, probably in the morning, February 11, 1836. Green B. Jameson, on that date, wrote Governor Smith: “Col. Neill left today for home on account of an express from his family informing him of their ill health.” The following day Travis wrote Smith: “In consequence of the sickness of his family, Lt. Col. Neill has left this post, to visit home for a short time, and has requested me to take Command of the Post.”36

  After Neill’s departure a bitter argument erupted between James Bowie and Travis over who would command the troops at Bexar. Neill had commanded both regulars and volunteers. The volunteers had voted to serve under Neill on December 31, 1835. Bowie appears to have believed that because he had declared himself a full colonel of volunteers he had rank over Travis, a regular army lieutenant colonel. Thus the fractious knife-fighter felt that he should have been left in command of the garrison.37

  J. J. Baugh and Travis wrote Smith of the disagreement that took place on February 12 and 13. Baugh wrote: “An Election was consequently ordered by Col. Travis and Bowie was Elected. – without opposition none but the volunteers voted & in fact not all of them – The consequence was, a split in the Garrison, Col. Travis, as a matter of course, would not submit to the control of Bowie and he (Bowie) availing himself of his popularity among the volunteers seems anxious to arrogate to himself the entire control.” Travis wrote that Bowie was “roaring drunk all the time” and had taken total command of the garrison. Travis then added: “I do not solicit the command of this post but as Col. Neill has applied to the Commander in Chief to be relieved. . . . I will do it if it be your order for a time until an artillery officer can be sent here.”38

  Travis’s statement about Neill’s request for a release from command at San Antonio suggests that Neill, in addition to visiting his family, was probably going to confront Governor Smith and Sam Houston about the lack of support for the Bexar garrison. On January 27 Neill had written Smith: “In my communication to the Executive I did not ask for pledges and resolves, but for money, provisions and clothing. There has been money given or loaned by private individuals expressly for the use of the army, and none has been received. . . . We can not be fed and clothed on paper pledges. My men cannot, nor will not, stand this state of things much longer. . . .”39

  Whatever the reason for Neill’s departure, he was in Gonzales on February 13. The Alamo courier that carried the Baugh and Travis letters to San Felipe appears to have encountered Neill at Gonzales and informed him of Bowie’s behavior. Thus Neill was forced to return to the Alamo to settle the clash over command at San Antonio.40

  There is no doubt that Neill returned to San Antonio. The audited military claims collection at the Texas State Library contains seven army discharge documents for Bexar troops that were signed by Neill on February 14, 1836, at Bexar. Also, on February 2, 1838, Neill gave the heirs of I. L. K. Harrison an affidavit placing Harrison at the fall of the Alamo. The document reports: “Col. Neill being called upon states that he knows of I. L. K. Harrison – states that he distinctly knows he was on the Roll of Capt. Harrison’s company – when he relinquished the command to Col. Travis on 14 Feby 1836 and that Capt. Harrison’s Company was enlisted for six months.”41

  That Neill returned to Bexar to settle the fight between Travis and Bowie is reinforced by a Bowie and Travis letter dated February 14, 1836, which closed with: “By an understanding of today Col. J. Bowie has the command of the volunteers of the garrison, and Col. W. B. Travis of the regulars and volunteer cavalry. All general orders and corrispondence [sic] will henceforth be signed by both until Col. Neill’s return.”42

  February 28 found Neill in San Felipe where he obtained six hundred dollars from Governor Smith for the support of the garrison. Then, Neill, anxious to assist his men at the Alamo, hurried to Gonzales and assumed command of the Alamo reinforcement effort until March 11, when he turned the command over to Sam Houston.43

  Chapter Nine Notes

  1 Norman Mailer, Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery (New York: Random House, 1995), 515-516. This book is an excellent piece of research and writing. Mr. Mailer makes a convincing presentation that Lee Harvey Oswald most likely acted alone in the killing of John F. Kennedy. Still, I don’t believe it.

  2 Lord, A Time, 198.

  3 The Dallas Morning News, November 12, 1996.

  4 Lord, A Time, 210-211; Tyler, Barnett, Barkley, Anderson, and Odintz, eds., The New Handbook, IV: 998-999. The New Orleans Greys flag was made by a group of Texas women who greeted the Greys between San Augustine and the Sabine River in November 1835 and presented the flag to the volunteers from the U.S.

  5 Ibid; Almonte, “Private Journal,” 16-17.

  6 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to Jose Marto Tornel, March 6, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, V: 11-12; Michael P. Costeloe, “The Mexican Press of 1836 and the Battle of the Alamo,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XCI: 539. When Mexico’s minister of war presented the Greys flag to the Mexican Congress, some of the members showed “their patriotic bravery” by throwing it on the floor and trampling it.

  7 Francis W. Johnson to Julia Lee Sinks, June 2, 1874, Round Rock, Julia Lee Sinks Papers, CAH; Edgar William Bartholomae, “A Translation of H. Ehrenberg’s Fahrten und Schicksale eines Deutschen in Texas, with Introduction and Notes” (M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1925), 95.

  8 Philip Dimmitt to Stephen F. Austin, October 27, 1835, Goliad, Jenkins, ed., Papers, II: 234; Philip Dimmitt to Stephen F. Austin, October 15, 1835, Goliad, Jenkins, ed., Papers, II: 134-135.

  9 Stephen F. Austin affidavit (William Scott discharge), November 18, 1835, Bexar, William Scott file, AMC-TSL; Peter Duncan, Captain of the Color Guard, affidavit, September 1836, Luke Moore file, AMC-TSL; “List of the names of those who fell in the Alamo at San Antonio De Bexar,” Muster Roll book, 2; Edward Gritten to Alcalde, Ayuntamiento and People of Gonzales, October 4, 1835, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, II: 38; Edward Gritten claim for expenses for A. Anderson as express rider to Gonzales, Edward Gritten file, AMC-TSL; Alamo voting list, February 1, 1836; “List of men who have this day volunteered to remain before Bexar, November 24, 1835,” Austin Papers, CAH.

  10 Horatio A. Alsbury to Sam Houston, December 30, 1835, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 367-368.

  11 Robert Morris to Sam Houston, November 29, 1835, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 31-32.

  12 Henry Smith to William Ward, January 6, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 427-428.

  13 James C. Neill to Sam Houston, January 14, 1836, Bexar, William C. Brinkley, ed., Official Correspondence of the Texian Revolution, 1835-1836 (2 vols.; New York and London: D. Appleton-Century Company Incorporated, 1936), I: 294-295. Jenkins failed to include the complete text of this letter in The Papers of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836.

  14 Sam Houston to John Forbes, January 7, 1836, Washington-on-the-Brazos, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 436-437.

  Ironically, Stephen F. Austin on the same date, Austin to Houston, January 7, 1836, New Orleans, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 432-433, informed
Houston: “I now think the time has come for Texas to assert her natural rights; and were I in the convention I would urge an immediate declaration of independence.”

  Previously, Austin had supported James W. Robinson and the Council’s political goal of uniting with northern Mexican federalists through the Matamoros expedition. In sum, Austin appears to have been the driving force behind the Council’s plans for Matamoros.

  On December 22 Austin had written: Austin to Provisional Government, December 22, 1835, Quintana, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 315-317, the government: “The best interests of Texas, I think require that the war should be kept out of this country and beyond the Rio Grande. . . . There are about 200 volunteers here, and probably will be a 1000 or more in a month. . . . I think that head quarters should be fixed at Goliad, and that a federal auxiliary army should be collected there, and offered to the federal party should it be needed by them. . . . I give my opinions frankly and refer you to Col. Fannin for a further explanation of them, I believe that this meritorious officer and myself do not differ materially on these subjects.”

  Austin, Robinson, Fannin, and the Council represented the third political view behind the conquest of Matamoros: Texas’s continued participation in the Mexican nation as a state independent from Coahuila in a federalist country versus Houston, Bowie, and Smith’s goal of an independent nation that could be taken to the U.S., and the Johnson and Grant proposal of a new nation composed of Texas and northern Mexican states. Clearly, the Texas insurrection was a continuation of the centralist/federalist civil war until March 2, 1836, when Texas representatives voted for independence.

  15 Henry to William Bryan, February 5, 1836, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 268-269. Smith had commenced his campaign against the Mexican federalists with his rejection of assistance from federalists Jose Antonio Mexia and Augustin Viesca in December 1835.

  16 Sam Houston to Henry Smith, January 8, 1836, Washington-on-the-Brazos, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 446.

  17 Henry Smith to Sam Houston, December 17, 1835, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 239; Sam Houston to James Bowie, December 17, 1835, San Felipe, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 222-223; James Bowie to Sam Houston, January 10, 1836, North of Goliad, found in Yoakum, History, II: 57-58. The actual southwestern boundary of Texas was the Nueces River, not the Rio Grande.

  18 Neill to Houston, January 14, 1836, Bexar, Brinkley, ed., Official Correspondence, 295.

  19 Robert Maberry Jr., Texas Flags (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001), 31-32; David Crockett, The Life of David Crockett: The Original Humorist and Irrepressible Backwoodsman (New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1902), 393. This book includes Col. Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures in Texas, Written by Himself.

  Maberry believes the Alamo flag might have been one that was described in Col. Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures published in the summer of 1836. The book was supposed to be based on Crockett’s Alamo diary that had survived the fall of the Alamo. For many years the alleged diary was believed to be authentic. Today it is known to be spurious. The fake diary reports: “We have had a large national flag made; it is composed of thirteen stripes, red and white, alternately, on a blue ground with a large white star, of five points, in the center, and between the points the letters Texas.”

  The “Crockett” flag appears to have been a cross between the 1836 United States flag and the Lorenzo de Zavala Republic of Texas flag that was adopted by the Convention of 1836. The de Zavala flag is reported to have been a blue field with a white five-pointed star in the center, with the letters T-E-X-A-S, one letter between each star point.

  The “Crockett” flag would have made a great Alamo flag. There is, however, no evidence that such a flag was ever at the Alamo.

  20 Almonte, “Private Journal,” 16-17. Ultimately, we do not know why Almonte believed that the flag represented Texas and Coahuila. However, if he asked Bexar citizens what the banner stood for, it is doubtful they would have said “independence.” The safer course for Tejanos would have been to claim that it represented the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, be that entity centralist or federalist. For an excellent review of Tejanos’ attitudes toward the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas see Chapters VI and VIII in Andres Tijerina’s Tejanos & Texas Under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1994).

  21 Webb, Carroll, and Branda, eds., Handbook, I: 607. Previous to the fall of Bexar in December 1835, the “star” as a symbol of independence had already been used in one Texas flag. The banner was William Scott’s flag, which represented the desire for a complete break with Mexico and probable annexation to the United States. The standard was made of blue silk with a white star in the center and the word Independence under the star. Charles Lanco, an Italian who later died at the Alamo, painted the star. The flag was most likely at the siege of Bexar, but it is extremely doubtful that Austin would have included it in the color guard because of its promotion of an independent Texas at a time when Austin was supporting federalism and continued participation in the Mexican nation. Of course after the revolution when Texas stood alone as an independent nation, a single star was used to represent that status.

  22 Matovina, The Alamo Remembered, 74. Matovina deserves credit for pulling all of these accounts together, but as he indicated in his introduction the evidence cries for “critical assessment.”

  23 Ibid., 96.

  24 Lord, A Time, 212; Anexo No. 32, “La Bandera De Alamo,” Jose Enrique de la Pena, La Rebelion De Texas: Manuscrito inedito de 1836 Por Un Oficial de Santa Anna. With Santa Anna in Texas, J. Sanchez Garza, ed, (Mexico City: A. Frank de Sanchez, 1955), 299-300. An English translation of this document was furnished to this investigator by Alamo scholar Bill Groneman.

  25 Lord, A Time, photograph section between pages 112 and 113. The excellent black and white photo of the Greys flag before restoration fails to show any damage, tie strings, or eyelets. Long, Duel, 171, also has a supreme photograph of the flag.

  26 Ibid., Interview with Jesus F. de la Teja, professor of history at Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, May 11, 1996, for the origin of the motto “God and Liberty”; Travis to the People of Texas and All Americans, February 24, 1836.

  In Lord, A Time, photograph section, we see that in Bowie’s short note to the enemy on February 23, he first wrote, “Dios y Federacion Mexicano” indicating loyalty to God and the Constitution of 1824, then he crossed that out and wrote, “Dios y Texas” meaning God and Texas. In Jose Batres to Bowie, February 23, 1836, we see Santa Anna’s answer to Bowie. Batres signed off with “God and Liberty!” The two documents show that a motto supporting Mexico or Mexican federalism was not valid during the siege of the Texian Alamo.

  27 De la Pena, La Rebelion, 299-300.

  28 Tyler, Barnett, Barkley, Anderson, and Odintz, eds., New Handbook, IV: 998-999.

  29 Lord, A Time, 212. The IMAX Theater is a special motion picture house that presents short historical or special interest films, using an extremely large film format.

  30 Alsbury to Houston, December 30, 1835; William R. Carey to Brother and Sister, January 12, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, III: 493-494.

  31 M. Hawkins to Henry Smith, January 20, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 88.

  32 Amos Pollard to Henry Smith, January 27, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 160.

  33 Amos Pollard to Henry Smith, February 13, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 324-325.

  34 G. B. Jameson to Henry Smith, February 11, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 303.

  35 Travis to Grimes, March 3, 1836, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 504-505.

  36 Jameson to Smith, February 11, 1836; W. Barret Travis to Henry Smith, February 12, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 318.

  37 “Meeting of the troops of the Bexar Garrison: December 31, 1835, Telegraph and Texas Register, January 23, 1836, San Felipe; Edward Burleson affidavit, November 9, 1836, Columbia, James Bowie file, AMC-TSL. At the December meet
ing the volunteer soldiers resolved: “That we approve and recognize colonel Neill as commander-in-chief. . . .” Burleson listed Bowie’s service as a colonel in the volunteer army as being from October 20 to December 15, 1835.

  Ordinarily, a full colonel would have commanded a regiment, not a small company like Bowie took to the Alamo. Because Bowie was not in the regular army and had been discharged from the volunteer force at Bexar on December 15, it appears his Alamo rank of full colonel was some kind of unofficial rank that was contingent on him raising a volunteer force to attack Matamoros.

  Bowie, after his arrival at Bexar on January 18, appears to have commanded the troops that came with him, but otherwise he seems to have functioned as an advisor to Lt. Colonel Neill. Bowie, in Bowie to Smith, February 2, 1836, referred to Neill as the “Col. Comdt.” Thus, it appears that Bowie did not consider himself as in command of Bexar while Neill was in San Antonio. Therefore, Bowie could not have had any authority over Travis, who like Neill was a regular army officer.

  38 J. J. Baugh to Henry Smith, February 13, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 320-321; W. Barret Travis to Henry Smith, February 13, 1836, Bexar, Jenkins, ed., Papers, IV: 328. Travis wrote Smith that two small companies had voted to serve under Bowie. One of the companies Bowie commanded was a detachment of Captain John Chenoweth’s United States Invincibles that traveled to San Antonio with Bowie under the command of William C. M. Baker of Clinton, Mississippi. Bowie’s second company was most likely William H. Patton’s Columbia company, which as of February 12 had only five or six men.