The writer was within almost stone-throw of the Alamo during the final assault, was in the fort immediately after, and as Alcalde of the town attended to burying the Mexican dead; was eye-witness to the burning of the bodies of the Texan heroes, and hunted out the bodies of Travis, Crockett and Bowie. 

Mr. Ruiz certainly ought to know the truth, and he is an honest truthful gentleman, the son of one of the signers of the declaration of Texas Independence.  Capt. Potter, is entirely at variance with this account in some very essential particulars—in regard to the numbers, the assault, the resistance and the loss of life.  According to Mr. Potter's statement he was in Matamoras when the event happened and gathered his information from many incorrect sources, which consequently do not deserve the same credence as the statement of a Mexican gentleman of truth and intelligence, who was present and partook in some of the ceremonies of that heroic tragedy.  Mr. Potter does not mention this account given by Mr. Ruiz, and will no doubt for the sake of history, make some very important corrections in his interesting reminiscence, when it is brought to his notice.
            We wish to state that when we noticed Capt. Potter's account we had merely glanced at it, and concluded, very naturally, that, coming from the gifted pen of Capt. Potter, it must be all its publishers claim for it; and besides we had not seen Mr. Ruiz' account, which we repeat comes up with a better show of authority, than any we have yet seen.

1. I had for several years in Texas as a servant, one of the Mexican soldiers captured at San Jacinto, Sergeant Becero, of the Battalion of Matamoros. He was in the assault, and witnessed Dickenson's leap He also saw the body of Bowie on his bed, where he had been killed, and witnessed the execution of the few men who were found in concealment after the action was over. He did not know the names of Bowie or Dickenson, and related the circumstances, not in reply to inquiries, but in a natural way as recollections in narrating his experience. Many absurd stories about the admissions made by Mexicans touching the force of the assailants and the amount of their loss at the Alamo are based on sycophantic statements, drawn by leading questions from prisoners of the lower class.

2. In 1841 the husband of one of the Mexican women who were with the garrison during the siege and assaults pointed out to me the vaulted room referred to, and observed: "During the fight and massacre five or six women stood in that room all in a huddle." He was an intelligent man, but so given to embellishing whatever he related that I did not then rely much on his information; but I have since called it to mind in connection with what is above said. This man did not refer to Evans' attempt, nor did he say that the cell referred to was used for storing, powder, but, according to my recollection, it was the most fitting place for a magazine which I saw about the Alamo.

3. A brief account of the fall of the Alamo, related in legendary style by Francisco Ruiz, who lived at San Antonio when the event occurred, was published in the Texas Almanac of 1860. The narrator shows total ignorance of the details of the assault, which he blends with a cannonade between batteries that went before it, and, if the printer has not blundered for him, imagines that the storming of the fort began at 3 P.M. on the 6th. This is so contrary to the recollection of old residents, that it began at dawn, and was soon over, that I think "P.M." must have been printed in place of A.M. He asserts that after a long attack and repeated repulses, it ended with the scaling of the outer wall, which formed the final success. He has no knowledge of the speedy loss of the outward barriers, or of the main conflict inside. He rates the besieging forces at 4,000, which would be correct if the eight corps, including two of cavalry, numbered 500 each. He sets down Santa Ana's loss at 1,600, and in way to imply that this was the number of killed. Now, estimating the force at 4,000, and leaving out 1,000 cavalry for outside service, the storming masses would consist of 3,000 infantry. If 1,600 were killed, the wounded would cover the remainder, and the total of assailants as well as of defenders must have come down. If he means that the loss was 1,600 killed and wounded, it was heavy enough to render success impossible, and to cripple the army too much for the prompt and active campaigning on which it immediately entered. The battalion of Toloca he says numbered 800, of whom only 130 men were left alive. If 670 were killed, the small remainder must have been disabled. The whole corps went to the graveyard and hospital, yet eight weeks after a part of it was killed and taken at San Jacinto, and a small remnant retreated to Matamoros. So absurd a narrative would not be worth referring to had it not, been quoted in San Antonio newspaper of 1860 as testimony of an eye-witness conflicting with my former publication.

4. General Bradburn was a Virginian, who had been in the service of Mexico since the time of Mina's expedition, in which he held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and took distinguished part. In 1836, when he was on the retired list of the Mexican army, he was ordered, much against his wishes, to join Santa Ana in his campaign against Texas. He reported to Santa Ana soon after the fall of the Alamo, and at his own request was assigned to an unimportant post (Copano landing) where he would not be likely to come into contact with the forces of Texas. Bradburn had a few years before commanded in Texas, and had come unpleasantly into contact with a revolutionary element which did not then culminate in revolution.

5. Colonel Seguin served gallantly as a Captain under General Houston at San Jacinto, and subsequently commanded a regiment. His zealous adherence to the cause of Texas throughout the campaign of 1836, and for some years after, is undoubted; and his subsequent defection from that cause may be palliated by the popular harshness, endangering life, to which he became subject, and which in a manner drove him to a step of which he evidently repented. I have no reason to doubt the candor and correctness of anything which he related in matters whereon I have cited his authority. He had no motive to misrepresent anything which was not personal to himself, nor did he seem to color unduly what was. A man may be a correct narrator in spite of political errors.

 ~Potter's Defense~

In Friday's Daily Herald, Captain Potter attempts to defend his account of "the fall of the Alamo" against the stubborn facts presented in the simple and straight-forward narrative given by Don Francisco Ruis.  We thought to let this matter go until answered by an impartial compilation of the existing facts and knowledge relating to this event, which we shall place before the public as soon as possible, but as Mr. Potter has presented to the public an account which he attempts to defend as infallible against all others, we propose to take a brief review of the two accounts as they now stand.
            In the outset of his narrative, Mr. Potter says that so far as the final assault was concerned, the details have never been correctly given by any of the current Histories of Texas; that the official reports of the enemy cannot be relied on; and that a trust-worthy account can only be compiled by comparing the verbal accounts of assailants with military documents.
            Mr. Potter either was not aware of, or ignores the fact that an account had been given by an eye-witness—Don F. Ruis; declares the accounts of the enemy to be unreliable, and then gives as his authority the narrative of assailants, and the second-hand statements of Mexican officers; to wit:  Gen. Bradburn, who had been driven out of Anahuac by Travis, and whose evidence to Capt. Potter was only hearsay derived from Mexican officers.—The reliability of such authority we must be allowed to doubt when it faces the statements of Mr. Ruis.
            Again, in his estimate of Santa Anna's army he attempts to establish on probability, the actual force.  He says that there were thirteen battalions of foot, and two regiments of cavalry, which, if full, would amount to 22,500 men.  Mr. Potter reduces this number down to 7,500 men.  His reason:
            "The nominal compliment of a Regiment or Battalion is 1500 men; but I have never known one to be full, or to much exceed a third of that number."
            It is quite probable, for we have the Captain's word for it, that these battalions were not full when he saw them, but this does not controvert the probability that they were full or half full when they appeared before the Alamo.
            He makes a few minutes' work for the Mexicans to take the Alamo; and declares that the account given by Yoakum "is evidently one which popular tradition has based on conjecture."  In his defence, in relation to Mr. Ruis' account, he says:  "It is in substance, the very account I refer to as adopted by Yoakum and others."  And Mr. Potter calls this account of Mr. Ruis' a tradition.  The narrative of an eye-witness a tradition?
            In regard to the Mexican loss, Mr. Potter says:
            "The estimate made by intelligent men in the action, and whose candor I think could be relied on, rated their loss at from one hundred and fifty to two hundred killed, and from three to four hundred wounded."
            What is Mr. Ruis' testimony on this point?  He says:
            "The dead Mexicans of Santa Anna were taken to the grave-yard, but not having sufficient room for them I ordered some of them to be thrown into the river, which was done the same day.
            "Santa Anna's loss was estimated at 1600 men.  These were the flower of his army."
            He disposed of the dead; had them carted off, and knew how many a cart would contain, and how many cartloads there were.  We therefore contend he is the best possible authority on this point; and it is absurd for any man to call this statement a "tradition based on conjecture," and to attempt to impeach Mr. Ruis' authority as Mr. Potter has in saying in his defence that "the credulity which can swallow this, cannot be relied on for historical data."  Let us turn the table son the Captain:  The credulity that can swallow the account of such men as Gen. Bradburn and other Mexican [illegible] cannot be relied on for historical data.  We think [illegible]
            Now let us in conclusion [illegible] up the points of difference, briefly:
            The first is as to the time of day.—Mr. Ruis says, "on the 6th of March, at 3 o'clock P.M."  Mr. Potter says just at the peep of day.
            Mr. Ruis says the attacking forces amounted to 4000 men.  Mr. Potter says 2500.
            Mr. Ruis says the Mexicans were twice repulsed.  Mr. Potter says they walked right in.
            Mr. Ruis says the Mexican loss was 1600.  Mr. Potter says only 500.
            Now let us review their capabilities as witnesses:  Mr. Potter was, according to his own admission, several hundred miles away when the storming of the Alamo took place; therefore is of himself no authority, and surely cannot have the face to claim before the people of Texas the same credence for his sources of information as the direct testimony of Mr. Ruis deserves.
            Mr. Ruis is one of our most respected and intelligent Mexican citizens; was Alcalde or Mayor of the City at the time of the fall of the Alamo; was present and as close as a reporter could have been, during the action; disposed of the dead;; know, and was in company with the most prominent actors of that occasion; has been a resident here from that time to this, and would therefore be more likely than any other man to come in possession of all the existing traditions, narratives and incidents in relation to this event, and would hardly make a statement contrary to his knowledge and all the evidence of the case.
            We suppose he gave this account at the solicitation of the compilers of the Texas Almanac, in as condensed and simple a style as possible, without any idea of literary display, or as a correction of any former accounts.  It is simply his straight-forward narrative.
            Mr. Potter was hundreds of miles away from the scene of battle; gathers his statements from indirect sources; and takes the probabilities in the case as truth; therefore we must set him down as probable, not positive authority, however much he may object to the contrary.  If Mr. Potter is desirous of acquiring, or adding to this literary fame as a writer and historian, we have no objections; in fact we wish him success, provided he does not jump to conclusions upon assumed facts, or such as are not entitled to belief; and does not introduce so many probabilities to contradict existing authority

Mexican:

There are wide variations among reports regarding the number of Mexican casualties at the Alamo. However, some historians and military analysts accept those reports which place the number of Mexican casualties at approximately 600. (See below "Mexican Casualties")

Texan:

183 to 250 Texian and Tejano bodies were found at the Alamo after the battle, though Santa Anna's official report back to Mexico City, dictated to his personal secretary Ramón Martínez Caro, stated 600 rebel bodies were found. Historians believe this to be a false claim. All but one of the bodies were burned by the Mexicans; the sole exception being Gregorio Esparza, who was buried rather than burned because his brother Francisco had served as an activo and had fought under General Cos in the Siege of Béxar.

Susannah Wilkerson Dickinson

(1814– October 7,1883) was among the survivors of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution, where her husband and 182 other defenders were killed by the Mexican Army.

Susannah Wilkerson was born c. 1814 in Tennessee, but little is known of her early life. On May 24, 1829, at the age of 15, she married Almeron Dickinson. He was a DeWitt Colonist and a member of the Old Gonzales 18. Justice of the Peace Joseph W. McKean officiated the ceremony.

She was present in the Alamo compound during the 13-day siege and subsequent Battle of the Alamo, in which her husband Almeron was a casualty on March 6, 1836, in San Antonio Texas. Dickinson's life was spared by General and President Antonio López de Santa Anna and she would later become the most extensively quoted eyewitness source to the final and subsequent events of the Alamo defeat.

During the battle, Susannah was injured in the leg or ankle by a bullet, either stray or intentional. She was found by English-speaking General Juan Almonte who said to her, "If you wish to save your life, follow me." She was escorted from her hiding place in the chapel. Almeron and Susannah Dickinson's 15-month-old daughter Angelina Elizabeth (1834-1871) was also a survivor. According to Susannah, when she was escorted into Santa Anna's quarters, she found Angelina sitting on the lap of the dictator.

Susannah was released and sent to Gonzales, Texas, by Santa Anna. She was escorted by one or more servants with a letter dated March 7, 1836. After her arrival in Gonzales, General Sam Houston burned the town and retreated toward East Texas,  beginning what became known as the Runaway Scrape.

Susannah died in 1883 and was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, Texas,  with the following inscription:

"Sacred to the Memory of Susan A. Wife of J. W. Hannig Died Oct. 7, 1883 Aged 68 Years."

The marble marker was placed there by Hannig. The marble slab was later added by the state on March 2, 1949. Her second husband Hannig was buried beside her after he died in 1890.

A cenotaph honoring Susanna Wilkerson Dickinson was placed in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas.

Juana Navarro Alsbury (1812-1888) is noted for being the one who was a nurse for Jim Bowie at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, and also as one of the few survivors of that battle.

Juana Navarro Alsbury was born in San Antonio de Bexar in 1822, she was one of three daughters of Jose Angel Navarro and his wife Concepcion Cervantes. Her father Jose was a government official of San Antonio de Bexar and he was also a Mexican loyalist during the Texas Revolution.  Her uncle was Jose Antonio Navarro, a loyal Tejano, who was one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. After the death of her mother, Juana was raised by her aunt, Josefa Navarro Veramendi, and her husband Juan Martin de Veramendi , who lived in the Veramendi Palace which was near present day Main Plaza in San Antonio Texas. In 1832, Juana married Alejo Perez Ramigio and the couple had a son named Alejo and a daughter who died in infantcy. Her first Husband Alejo died in 1834 during a cholera epidemic. In January of 1836,  Juana remarried to Horace Arlington Alsbury, brother of Young Perry Alsbury,  who fought at the Battle of San Jacinto. Her cousin Ursula Veramendi married James Bowie, who brought Juana, her baby son Alejo Perez, and her younger sister Gertrudis to the Alamo when Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna arrived at San Antonio de Bexar on February 23,1836. Juana's husband, Horace Alexander Alsbury, left the Alamo that same day with John Sutherland, carrying dispatches. During Jim Bowie’s illness at the Alamo, Juana helped to nurse him. Susanna Dickinson later accused Juana Alsbury of being the legendary Mexican woman who had carried William B. Travis's message to Santa Anna on March 4 from the Alamo. She also stated that Juana had left the Alamo with her father Jose before the siege began on March 6, 1836. But several other sources refute these statements. Juana Alsbury herself stated that she remained at the Alamo throughout the siege. She said that on the final day during the last moments of the siege, she was protected by two men who were killed by the Mexican soldiers, who then broke open a trunk containing valuable items owned by of Juana and her family. Juana stated that after the battle, she and her son, and sister, stayed at her father's home in San Antonio de Bexar. Juana’s second husband Horace Alsbury was marched to Mexico with other San Antonio captives of Adrian Woll’s invasion in September of 1842. Juana traveled to Coahuila to wait for him until he was released from Perote Prison. Horace was later killed in the Mexican-American War in 1847.  After Horace Alsbury's death, Juana married Juan Perez, her first husband's cousin. In 1857,  she petitioned for and received a pension for the belongings she lost at the Alamo and for the services she had rendered there. Juana died in San Antonio, Texas on July 23, 1888. Alejo Perez, Juana's son, became a prominent San Antonio city official, with descendants still living in San Antonio, Texas.

Alijo Pérez, Jr. was the son of Juana Alsbury and her first husband Alejo Pérez, Sr. His mother Juana Navarro Alsbury and stepfather Horace Arlington Alsbury brought him into the Alamo when he was only seventeen days short of his first birthday. He survived the Alamo battle and lived in San Antonio, Texas where he was employed as a policeman. He married Antonia Rodríguez On December 27, 1853,  and they had four children. He died on October 19, 1918,  making him the last known survivor of the Battle of the Alamo.

Angelina Dickinson

Joe the slave of William B. Travis

Sam the slave of Jim Bowie

Gertrudis Navarro

Ana esparza

Enrique Esparza

Francisco Esparza

Manuel esparza

Maria de Jesus castro

Trinidad Saucedo

Petra Gonzales

Brigidio Guerrero

Henry Wornell

Before the war ended, Santa Anna ordered that a red flag be raised from San Fernando cathedral indicating to the defenders that no quarter would be given. According to the controversial José Enrique de la Peña diary, several of those not killed in the final assault were captured by Colonel Manuel Fernández Castrillón and presented to Santa Anna, who personally ordered their executions. It is speculated that Davy Crockett was one of the six prisoners. De la Peña also states that Crockett attempted to negotiate a surrender with Santa Anna but was turned down on the grounds of 'no guarantees for traitors'. However, there is little evidence to support this.

Still, some people believe that Davy Crockett was killed by Santa Anna's men after the 12 day struggle. A contemporary history summarizes the battle thus: "They fought all one bloody night, until he [Travis] fell with all the garrison but seven;--and they were slain, while crying for quarter!"  This history, while not providing proof that Crockett was among those who survived the assault, does corroborate de la Peña's diary entry. However, two eyewitness survivors attested that Crockett did die in the battle. Susanna Dickinson, the wife of an officer, said that Crockett was killed in the assault and that she saw his body between the long barracks and the chapel, and Travis' slave Joe said that he also saw Crockett lying dead with the bodies of slain Mexican soldiers around him.

Most sources indicate Crockett and all the Alamo defenders were cremated en masse. There were unconfirmed reports that some of the Mexicans who were hired to burn and bury the dead removed Crockett to a secret, unmarked location and buried him there before his body was burned. Some say that he was secretly transported back to Tennessee to prevent Santa Anna from using his body as a trophy. These reports are all unconfirmed. Conspiracy theories aside, Crockett's body was most likely cremated with the other Alamo defenders on a mass funeral pyre after the fall of the Alamo.

On his tombstone, it says: "Davy Crockett, Pioneer, Patriot, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, State Legislator, Congressman, Martyred at The Alamo. 1786 - 1836".

The Alamo
San Antonio
Bexar County
Texas, USA

Birth: Aug. 17, 1786

Death: Mar. 6, 1836 
US Congressman, Frontiersman, American Legendary Figure.

Defender of the Alamo.

He was born at the confluence of Limestone Creek and Nolichuckey River in the State of Franklin, which a few years later became Greene County, Tennessee, August 17, 1786. He commanded a battalion of mounted riflemen under General Andrew Jackson in the Creek Campaign in 1813 and 1814. His popularity won him a seat in the Tennessee State House of Representatives, in which he served from 1821 to 1823. He then was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1825 to the Nineteenth Congress but later was elected to the Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses, serving from March 4, 1827 tp March 3, 1831. He lost reelection in 1830 to the Twenty-second Congress. Later on he was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-third Congress, and served that term from March 4, 1833 to March 3,1835. He lost his finally reelection in 1834 to the Twenty-fourth Congress. From there he went to Texas to aid the Texans in their struggle for independence in 1836; joined a band of 186 men in the defense of the Alamo.

Following the Siege of the Alamo, Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered that, with one exception, the bodies of the Alamo defenders be burned. Two funeral pyres were set. One at what is now the location of the Alamo Cenotaph and the other at the location of East Commerce and Rusk Streets. According to legend, some of the ashes were recovered and are now kept within the San Fernando Cathedral.

William Barret Travis

(August 1,  1809 – March 6,  1836 ) was a 19th Century lawyer and soldier. He commanded the Republic of Texas forces at the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution from the Republic of Mexico.

In May 1831, upon his arrival in Mexican Texas, a part of Northern Mexico at the time, Travis purchased land from Stephen F. Austin and started a law practice in Anahuac.  He played a role in the growing friction between American settlers and the Mexican government and was one of the leaders of the "War Party," a group of militants opposed to Mexican rule. He was a pivotal figure in the Anahuac Disturbances, which helped to precipitate the war.

The Texas Revolution started in October 1835 at the Battle of Gonzales. Travis took a small part in the Siege of Bexar in November. On 19 December , Travis was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel of the Legion of Cavalry and became the chief recruiting officer for the Texan army. This force was to consist of 384 men and officers, divided into six companies. Despite his rank, Travis now had to actively recruit the men who were to serve under his command, and he had a hard time finding willing colonists to enlist. "Volunteers can no longer be had or relied upon ...," he wrote to acting governor Henry Smith.

On January 21,  1836, he was ordered by the provisional government to go to the Alamo with volunteers to reinforce the 120-130 men already there. Initially Travis did not want to go to San Antonio: "I must beg your excellency will recall the order for me to go on to Bexar in command of so few men," he wrote to Smith.

On February 3, Travis arrived in San Antonio with eighteen men as reinforcements. On 12 February, as the next highest ranking officer, Travis become the official commander of the Alamo garrison. He took command of the regular soldiers from Col. James C. Neill, of the Texian army. Neill had to leave to care for his ill family, but he promised to be back in twenty days. James Bowie, (1795-1836) would command the volunteers and Travis would command the regulars.

Col. James Bowie

(probably April 10,  1796 - March 6,  1836), aka Jim Bowie, was a nineteenth century pioneer and soldier who took a prominent part in the Texas Revolution and was killed at the Battle of the Alamo. He was born in Kentucky and spent most of his life in Louisiana before moving to Texas and joining the revolution.

Bowie is also known for the style of knife he carried, which came to be known as the "Bowie knife". Stories of his frontier spirit have made him one of the most colorful folk heroes of Texas history.

During the War of 1812 Bowie and his brother Rezin Jr. joined the Louisiana militia company of Colonel Colman Martin to fight the British at New Orleans. By the time the pair arrived in New Orleans in January 1815, the war had ended. They returned home, and, despite the fact that the United States had outlawed the importation of slaves over seven years previously, entered the slave trade, purchasing illegally-acquired slaves from pirate Jean Lafitte and selling them in St. Landry Parish. Once they had collected $65,000, the brothers opted out of the slave trade and began speculating in land.

Apart from his sudden wealth, Bowie became known for his fiery temper. In 1826 Bowie challenged Norris Wright, the Rapides Parish sheriff and local banker, to a fight for refusing to make Bowie a loan. Bowie survived the fight by luck, as a bullet that Wright fired at him at point-blank range was deflected. To help ensure his safety, his older brother Rezin gave him a large knife to carry.

In January 1836, Bowie arrived in Bexar with a detachment of thirty men. Although his orders were to demolish the fortifications there, Bowie wrote to the Governor urging that the Alamo be held as it was a strategic spot. Bowie and his men joined the seventy-nine men already at the Alamo, and were joined in the next few weeks by William Travis, with thirty men, and Davy Crockett, with twelve additional men. After the Alamo's commander, Colonel James C. Neill,  left the mission, the men elected Bowie as their commander. He celebrated by getting drunk. After that spectacle, Bowie agreed to share responsibility with Travis.

The Mexican army, with 1,500 cavalrymen, arrived in Bexar in late February and demanded that the Texans surrender. Bowie refused, but collapsed on February 24, most likely from advanced tuberculosis, and was confined to a cot in his quarters. He perished with the rest of the Alamo defenders on March 6th, when the Mexicans attacked. Bexar mayor Francisco Ruiz identified his body, and Santa Anna chose to personally observe his corpse to verify that he was dead.

Addressed to:
The People of Texas,
and all Americans in the world

The Travis Letter of February 24, 1836

Among the original ink on paper war documents that have survived to our time, the Travis Letter from the Battle of the Alamo has no comparable equal in textural content and value to future generations of Texans and Americans. The Letter not only records Lt. Colonel William Barret Travis' appeal to "The People of Texas and all Americans in the world", but also carries two additional signed postscripts.

The first is from Captain Albert Martin and is located on the right hand side of the second page of Travis's Letter and appears in a darker color ink that has not transformed to the brown color on the rest of the Letter caused by water evaporating from the ink. The martin postscript could also have been written in pencil. Captain Martin was selected by Travis to carry this to Gonzales his hometown. He arrived in Gonzales on February 25th with the postscript already added as follows:

True to his word Albert Martin returned to the Alamo with a small relief force on or about March I, 1836 and died in at the Alamo on March 6, 1836. There are few accounts in military history of personal dedication that surpasses Captain Martin's brave ride through the Mexican Armies lines and a return to almost certain death with his fellow patriots at the Shrine of Texas Liberty.

The second is from Lancelot Smither. He had been sent by Travis the day before Martin left with an estimate of the growing strength of the Mexican troops. Martin gave the February 24th Letter to Smither to carry out the order of the Letter shown on the extreme left hand side of the first page to take to San Felipe "by express day and night." Smither added a note to the back of the Letter located running at a ninety degree angle below Martin's postscript as follows:

Smither carried the Letter to San Felipe after forty hours of hard riding and delivered the appeal to a citizens' committee. Printed copies of the Travis Letter were made which were not faithful to the original Letter. At some point after the war the Travis Letter was returned to his family. Smither lived until 1842 having served as a city treasurer of San Antonio and as mayor pro pro-tem for a short period. He was killed by invading Mexican troops at Sutherland Springs in September of 1842. The final courier would also die at the hands of Mexican troops.

There were other letters sent out of the Alamo by Lt. Colonel Travis. However, the originals of these documents have vanished and most likely have not survived. The sources for these letters come from John H. Jenkins set of books entitled "Papers of the Texas Revolution". Mr. Jenkins cites his sources for these letters as having been taken from newspapers and books. The fact remains that the only original document written from the Alamo is the February 24th Letter and it must remain as the only authentic source on the thoughts and actions of the Commander of the Alamo.

The Travis Letter and the Alamo are forever linked together and they continue to provide Texans and all Americans with a sense of pride and respect for sacrifice, honor and dedication to country. In this regard, the Travis Letter continues to be a treasure for our time and a beacon from a distant past, which inspires all those who fight against tyranny, and oppression in the world.

Santa Anna to McArdle, March 16, 1874
Letter Explaining Why the Alamo Defenders Had to Be Killed

D. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

Santa Anna's forces killed 187-250 Texian defenders at the Battle of the Alamo  (February 23- March 6, 1836) and executed 342 Texian prisoners at the Goliad Massacre (March 27, 1836)

Santa Anna was soon defeated by Sam Houston's soldiers at the Battle of San Jacinto, (April 21, 1836), with the Texian army shouting "Remember Goliad, Remember the Alamo!" A small band of Texas forces captured Santa Anna the day after the battle on 22 April.

After the battle, Santa Anna reported that he had suffered 70 dead and 300 wounded, while many Texian accounts claim that as many as 1,500 Mexican lives were lost. While many quickly dismiss Santa Anna's account as being unrealistic (since Santa Anna had plenty of reasons to lie about the number of men he lost), the Texian account of 1,500 dead also lacks logic. Most Alamo historians agree that the Mexican attack force consisted of between 1,400 and 1,600 men, so a count of 1,500 sounds improbable, although 1,500 killed during the entire time of the siege could well have been achieved. The accounts most commonly accepted by historians are the ones that place the number of Mexican dead around 200 and the number of initial Mexican wounded around 400. These losses (at about 43% casualties) would have been considered catastrophic by the Mexican Army, while still being realistic to today's historians.

KENT, ANDREW

(ca. 1798-1836).

Andrew Kent, Alamo defender, son of Isaac and Lucy (Hopkins) Kent, was born in Kentucky in the late 1790s. In 1816 he married Elizabeth Zumwalt of Kentucky in Montgomery County, Missouri. Later, he and his family immigrated to Texas and settled in Gonzales, where Kent farmed and may have also done carpentry. On February 23, 1836, he and his son, David, were mustered into the Gonzales Ranging Company of Mounted Volunteers. Kent rode to the relief of the Alamo with this group and arrived on March 1, 1836. His son stayed behind in Gonzales. Kent died in the battle of the Alamoqv on March 6, 1836. Kent County, established in 1876, was named for him.

Enrique Esparza, who tells one of the most interesting stories ever narrated, works a truck garden on Nogalitos street between the southern Pacific Railroad track and the San Pedro creek. Here he lives with the family of his son, Victor Esparza. Every morning he is up before daybreak and helps load the wagons with garden stuff that is to be taken up town to market.

He is a farmer of experience and contributes very materially to the success of the beautiful five acres garden, of which he is the joint proprietor.

While claims of Enrique Esparza have been known among those familiar with the historical work done by the Daughters of the Republic, an organization which has taken great interest in getting first-hand information of the period of Texas Independence, the old man was not available up to about five years ago, for the reason that he resided on his farm in Atascosa county. This accounts for the fact that he is not well enough known to be included in the itinerary when San Antonians are proudly doing the town with their friends.

Esparza tells a straight story. Although he is a Mexican, his gentleness and unassuming frankness are like the typical odd Texan. Every syllable he speaks to uttered with confidence and in his tale, he frequently makes digressions, going into details of relationship of early families of San Antonio and showing a tenacious memory. At the time of the fight of the Alamo he was 8 years old. His father was a defender, and his father's own brother an assailant of the Alamo. He was a witness of his mother's grief, and had his own grief, at the slaughter in which his father was included. As he narrated to a reporter the events in which he was so deeply concerned, his voice several times choked and he could not proceed for emotion. While he has a fair idea of English, he preferred to talk in Spanish.

"My father, Gregorio Esparza, belonged to Benavides' company, in the American army," said Esparza, "and I think it was in February, 1836, that the company was ordered to Goliad when my father was ordered back alone to San Antonio, for what I don't know. When he got here there were rumors that Santa Ana was on the way here, and many residents sent their families away. One of my father's friends told him that he could have a wagon and team and all necessary provisions for a trip, if he wanted to take his family away. There were six of us besides my father; my mother, whose name was Anita, my eldest sister, myself and three younger brothers, one a baby in arms. I was 8 years old.

"My father decided to take the offer and move the family to San Felipe. Everything was ready, when one morning, Mr. W. Smith, who was godfather to my youngest brother, came to our house on North Flores street, just above where the Presbyterian church now is, and told my mother to tell my father when he came in that Santa Ana had come. (Northeast corner of Houston and N. Flores Streets.)

"When my father came my mother asked him what he would do. You know the Americans had the Alamo, which had been fortified a few months before by General Cos.

"Well, I'm going to the fort" my father said.

"Well, if pop goes, I am going along, and the whole family too.

"It took the whole day to move and an hour before sundown we were inside the fort. Where was a bridge over the river about where Commerce street crosses it, and just as we got to it we could her Santa Anna's drums beating on Milam Square, and just as we were crossing the ditch going into the fort Santa Anna fired his salute on Milam Square.

"There were a few other families who had gone in. A Mrs. Cabury[?] and her sister, a Mrs. Victoriana, and a family of several girls, two of whom I knew afterwards, Mrs. Dickson, Mrs. Juana Melton, a Mexican woman who had married an American, also a woman named Concepcion Losoya and her son, Juan, who was a little older than I.

"The first thing I remember after getting inside the fort was seeing Mrs. Melton making circles on the ground with an umbrella. I had seen very few umbrellas. While I was walking around about dark I went near a man named Fuentes who was talking at a distance with a soldier. When the latter got near me he said to Fuentes:

"Did you know they had cut the water off?"

"The fort was built around a square. The present Hugo-Schmeltzer building is part of it. I remember the main entrance was on the south side of the large enclosure. The quarters were not in the church, but on the south side of the fort, on either side of the entrance, and were part of the convent. There was a ditch of running water back of the church and another along the west side of Alamo Plaza. We couldn't got to the latter ditch as it was under fire and it was the other one that Santa Anna cut off. The next morning after we had gotten in the fort I saw the men drawing water from a well that was in the convent yard. The well was located a little south of the center of the square. I don't know whether it is there now or not.

"On the first night a company of which my father was one went out and captured some prisoners. One of them was a Mexican soldier, and all through the siege, he interpreted the bugle calls on the Mexican side, and in this way the Americans know about the movements of the enemy.

"After the first day there was fighting. The Mexicans had a cannon somewhere near where Dwyer avenue now is, and every fifteen minutes they dropped a shot into the fort.

"The roof of the Alamo had been taken off and the south side filled up with dirt almost to the roof on that side so that there was a slanting embankment up which the Americans could run and take positions. During the fight I saw numbers who were shot in the head as soon as they exposed themselves from the roof. There were holes made in the walls of the fort and the Americans continually shot from these also. We also had two cannon, one at the main entrance and one at the northwest corner of the fort near the post office. The cannon were seldom fired.

"I remember Crockett. He was a tall, slim man, with black whiskers. He was always at the head. The Mexicans called him Don Benito. The Americans said he was Crockett. He would often come to the fire and warm his hands and say a few words to us in the Spanish language. I also remember hearing the names of Travis and Bowie mentioned, but I never saw either of them that I know of.

"After the first few days I remember that a messenger came from somewhere with word that help was coming. The Americans celebrated it by beating the drums and playing on the flute. But after about seven days fighting there was an armistice of three days and during this time Don Benito had conferences every day with Santa Anna. Badio, the interpreter, was a close friend of my father, and I heard him tell my father in the quarters that Santa Anna had offered to let the Americans go with their lives if they would surrender, but the Mexicans would be treated as rebels.

"During the armistice my father told my mother she had better take the children and go, while she could do so safely. But my mother said:

"No!, if you're going to stay, so am I. If they kill one they can kill us all.

"Only one person went out during the armistice, a woman named Trinidad Saucedo.

"Don Benito, or Crockett, as the Americans called him, assembled the men on the last day and told them Santa Anna's terms, but none of them believed that any one who surrendered would get out alive, so they all said as they would have to die any how they would fight it out.

"The fighting began again and continued every day, and nearly every night,. One night there was music in the Mexican camp and the Mexican prisoner said it meant that reinforcements had arrived.

"We then had another messenger who got through the lines, saying that communication had been cut off and the promised reinforcements could not be sent.

"On the last night my father was not out, but he and my mother were sleeping together in headquarters. About 2 o'clock in the morning there was a great shooting and firing at the northwest corner of the fort, and I heard my mother say:

"Gregorio, the soldiers have jumped the wall. The fight's begun.

"He got up and picked up his arms and went into the fight. I never saw him again. My uncle told me afterwards that Santa Anna gave him permission to get my father's body, and that he found it where the thick of the fight had been.

"We could hear the Mexican officers shouting to the men to jump over, and the men were fighting so close that we could hear them strike each other. It was so dark that we couldn't see anything, and the families that were in the quarters just huddled up in the corners. My mother's children were near her. Finally they began shooting through the dark into the room where we were. A boy who was wrapped in a blanket in one corer was hit and killed. The Mexicans fired into the room for at least fifteen minutes. It was a miracle, but none of us children were touched.

"By daybreak the firing had almost stopped, and through the window we could see shadows of men moving around inside the fort. The Mexicans went from room to room looking for an American to kill. While it was still dark a man stepped into the room and pointed his bayonet at my mother's breast, demanding:

"Where's the money the Americans had?"

"If they had any,' said my mother, "you may look for it.'

"Then an officer stepped in and said:

"What are you doing? The women and children are not to be hurt.

"The officer then told my mother to pick out her own family and get her belongings and the other women were given the same instructions. When it was broad day the Mexicans began to remove the dead. There were so many killed that it took several days to carry them away.

"The families, with their baggage, were then sent under guard to the house of Don Ramon Musquiz, which was located where Frank Brothers store now is, on Main Plaza.(Southeast corner of Soledad and Commerce Streets, now a parking lot, 1991). Here we were given coffee and some food, and were told that we would go before the president at 2 o'clock. On our way to the Musquiz house we passed up Commerce street, and it was crowded as far as Presa street with soldiers who did not fire a shot during the battle. Santa Anna had many times more troops than he could use.

"At 3 o'clock we went before Santa Anna. His quarters were in a house which stood where L. Wolfson's store now is.(Middle of Commerce Street, north side, between Main Avenue and Soledad Street). He had a great stack of silver money on a table before him, and a pile of blankets. One by one the women were sent into a side room to make their declaration, and on coming out were given $2 and a blanket. While my mother was waiting her turn Mrs. Melton, who had never recognized my mother as an acquaintance, and who was considered an aristocrat, sent her brother, Juan Losoya, across the room to my mother to ask the favor that nothing be said to the president about her marriage with an American.

"My mother told Juan to tell her not to be afraid.

"Mrs. Dickson was there, also several other woman. After the president had given my mother her $2 and blanket, he told her she was free to go where she liked. We gathered what belongings we could together and went to our cousin's place on North Flores street, where we remained several months."

Charles Bledsoe, aged Texan, reaches the city from Arizona and relates history of famous fight - tells of his escape.

Stooping and gray, weatherbeaten from the suns of divers countries, torn by Mexican bullets, minnie balls of the Civil war, and by lances of hostile Indians, and above all, upsetting with his claims the history of the Alamo fight, Charles Bledsoe, an old time Texan, and companion of Big Foot Wallace, and a survivor, he claims, of the battle at the Alamo, is now at Fest's wagonyard on North Flores street.

Bledsoe, who says he is 82 years of age, came into the city Friday, traveling in his battered wagon, drawn by half-starved ponies, having come across the country from Arizona. He came he says, "because he wanted to see if all his old friends were dead." He has been away from Texas for fifty years he says, and wanted to see some of them before he died.

From here he purposes going to Austin, where he had a cousin years ago. It has been suggested by those who have heard this veteran's story that a movement be started for his relief.

According to the old man's story, his entire life has been one of adventure, beginning with skirmishes with the Mexicans while a boy of 12 years, in company with two uncles from Missouri, immediately followed by the battle of the Alamo, and with adventures following in quick succession up to a tamer life at mining in later years, and a life at present of scant pleasure, and practically penniless old age, in which a bare living is eked out by peddling from his old canvas covered wagon. It includes wealth secured by mining in Colorado, poverty and hardship in filibustering expeditions to Nicaragua, hard service in the Civil war and labor as a hostler in the war with Mexico, beside.

Eighty-two years ago he was born near Lexington, Ky., his people moving while he was a child to Missouri. Here while he was a boy of 10 or 12 years, well grown for his age, he ran away with his two uncles Jim and John Bledsoe who had joined a party of adventurers bound for Texas under the leadership of a man named Blair. These thirty men came from Missouri and Arkansas. They had heard of the adventures of Crockett and Bowie and other pioneers in Texas history, and determined to cast in their lot with them.

Their journey was not without adventure. They met while in Texas small bands of Mexican soldiers, and several skirmishes took place, until one morning at a place called Little Creek near San Antonio, they encountered another band of soldiers, and while engaged with them heard the firing of the pioneers who were hotly pursued by an overwhelming force of Mexicans.

Battle at the Alamo.

The two bands came together during a running fight of several hours and were pursued by the Mexican forces to the Alamo. With the Mexicans on their heels, the panting men rushed into the Alamo and barricaded the doors. Several were shot down while they were crushing in.

At once the building was surrounded by troops. Mexicans climbed on the old earthern (sic) roof and began to tear holes in it and the Texans fired through the roof into them until blood dripped in and the red stains ran down the walls in streams.

Texans, shot through the head as they tried to fire through the windows, fell back upon their comrades and the building reeked with powder smoke. There was no water, and the men fought with powder-blackened faces and parching tongues from early in the afternoon until dusk.

Outside, through the windows in lulls of the firing, could be seen rows upon rows of dead Mexican soldiers, the wounded crawling off to shelter. Little by little the firing of the Americans ceased, for their powder was giving out, until only an occasional shot was fired through the blood spattered windows. The floor was slippery with blood, and the dead and wounded were so thick on the floor that movement was impossible.

"Open the door for God's sake." some one shouted, and the Texans, throwing down their useless flintlocks, drew their long knives and made for the heavy door on which the Mexicans had already begun an assault with timbers. Other soldiers climbed in the windows and shot down the men inside.

The door was forced open little and the long knives and Spanish bayonets clashed in the opening, red with blood. The firing had almost ceased, and the heavy breathing of the men could be heard.

Escapes Beneath Weapons.

As the door opened, Bledsoe dodged under the clashing weapons, ran around the building and made for the river. Several soldiers saw him and followed shouting, but he gained the river in safety, and notwithstanding a jagged wound across the soldier made by a bullet earlier in the day, managed to swim or crawl for several miles below where he crawled out on the shore, almost dead from fear and exhaustion. Before him loomed the gray walls of a Spanish mission. He thought it a Spanish castle or house, and climbed a mesquite tree to see if there were Mexicans about. Then he followed the river, coming out several miles lower down.

From a tree he saw another body of men, who proved to be Cherokee Indians. They surrounded him, and through one who spoke a little English, he learned that they had been fighting Mexicans also, and that they regarded him as a friend, and would take care of him.

With this band of Indians he went across the Arkansas river. They had plenty of horses. He did not hear of his companions in the Alamo until long afterward, when their fate was told him in New Orleans.

With these Indians he made his home until war was declared with Old Mexico. He then joined a party of traders bound for New Orleans, and while there was engaged by Gen. Taylor to care for his horse. Troops were pouring into New Orleans to take part in the war. He acted as servant to Gen. Taylor throughout the war, but took no part in the fighting.

Meeting With Wallace.

After the war he came to San Antonio, where he met Big Foot Wallace, who was then acting as a sort of ranger, making up parties to go out within a radius of forty miles of San Antonio wherever hostile Indians were reported. The little commands of from two to eight or ten men under Wallace had innumerable fights with the Indians, in one of which Bledsoe received a lance thrust under his ribs on the left side, and still bears a long white scar.

After peace was declared, he joined Wallace, who was known as "Cap," and who was acting as guard or escort to the stage line carrying the mail between San Antonio, through old Fort Franklin, now El Paso, and Albuquerque, N.M. The guards of the stage rode on horseback with it, and drove before them a bunch of mules in order to change with those drawing the stage. On the second trip a fight took place with Indians at Devil's river, in which two men with the stage were killed. This was six miles up the river from what is known as Painted Cave.

Some time after this a man named French organized in San Antonio a company of filibusters to go to Nicaragua. They intended to join Gen. Walker, a filibuster. The company formed in this city, and the men were enrolled in front of the Alamo. Bledsoe became a member of the company. This party marched to Port Lavaca and took passage to Graytown on a steamer. At Greytown (sic) they met a man named Kinney, said to have been a Texan, who claimed the whole country.

After eighteen months in Nicaragua, Bledsoe returned through Texas and entered the Union army, joining the Fiftieth infantry under Major White at Rio Grande del Norte. This command went to Fort Leavenworth, and was afterward ordered to Salt Lake. This was about 1855 or 1856.

In the Civil War.

Bledsoe served in the Union army with the Western division under Generals Rosecrans and Blunt, taking part in a number of battles. Near Fayetteville, Ark., he received a ball in the hip, and his hand was shattered by a minnie ball near Little Rock. Bledsoe believes the troops were opposed to Generals Cooper and Kirby Smith in this fight, but is not sure.

Even now, he says, when he thinks of that fight at the Alamo he sometimes finds himself cursing the Mexicans. He says he can still see the blood dripping down, and can hear the awful hell of noise inside the walls, but he remembers little of the outside view, for he was "in too big a hurry" when he got out. He saw the bodies of several Mexicans, though, as he ran.

"And they murdered them." he said. "They murdered them next day. There was not one left. Of course now we are at peace, but if ever this country is at war with Mexico and I am alive I will not be too old to remember that fight. Oh I will remember it, and I won't be too old to fight either. That was murder; cold-blooded murder."

He says he can almost hear the cheering, and the bullets whizzing through the windows and flattening against the walls.

"When they told me," he said, "away over there in New Orleans that both my uncles had been murdered, I can't tell you how I felt. Maybe I will be able to show it some day."

The old man says he never married, and that his whole family consists of his two ponies and his dog. His wagon, which is standing in the wagon yard, is one of the old-fashioned canvas covered sort in very bad repair, though it has served its owner for a house for many years while traveling.

Bledsoe says that years ago he acquired considerable money in mining in Colorado, and had a good bank account in Denver, but that it has been wiped out long ago. He is now too old, he says, to look for gold and beside is almost paralyzed from his wounds.

He will be at the wagon yard for some days, and would like those who may have known of him or his friends to ta