Alamo Traces (29 page)

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.

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 deposition, 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.