Benjamin Briggs Goodrich Little attention has been given to how the news of the Alamo's fall was spread from Texas to the United States. The close family ties and community relationships bound the Texans to their former homes. In this letter, Benjamin Briggs Goodrich, who was a member of the Convention meeting as Washinting-on-the-Brazo, informed his family of death of John C. Goodrich--his brother--on March 6, 1836.1 Washington Texas, 15th March, 1836 Dear Edmund, Texas is in mourning, and it becomes my painful duty to
inform my relations in Tennessee of the massacre of my poor brother John. He was
murdered in the Texas fortress of San Antonio de Bexar (known as the Alamo) on
the night of the 6th of this month, together with one hundred and
eighty of our brave countrymen, gallantly defending that place against an
invading army of Mexicans, eight thousand strong; not one escaped to tell the
dreadful tale. The Alamo had been surrounded for many days by a besieging army
of the Mexicans, variously estimated at from 3 to 8 thousand men,2 commanded by Genl. Lopez de Santa Anna in person; the fortress, as before
stated, was besieged, and it fell and every man was put to the sword. They
effected their purpose by a general charge aided by scaling ladders. Upwards of
five hundred of the enemy were killed, and as many more mortally or dangerously
wounded. Col. Travis, the commander of the fortress, sooner than fall into the
hands of the enemy, stabbed himself to the heart and instantly died. P.S. News has just reached that the enemy are on the march to this place and we know not at what moment we shall be compelled to move our women and children beyond their reach. Their mode of warfare is strictly savage; they fight under a Red Banner,5 and we ask nor expect no quarter in the future,--I will advise you from time to time (if alive) and would highly appreciate hearing from you.-- Direct your letters to Cantonment Jessup, pay postage and I will be sure to get them.
Sincerely your brother 2 William Fairfax Gray, Diary of Col. Wm. F. Gray (Houston: Fletcher Young Publishing Co., 1965), 136-141. The number 8000 appears to come from information given to Joe, Travis' slave, during a review of Mexican troops he witnessed at San Antonio several days after the battle. Back to Text 3 The information contained in this letter is consistent with that being spread by Sam Houston. See: Houston to Raguet in Jenkins, ed., Papers of the Texas Revolution, 5:71-72. Back to Text 4 Richard Bruce Winders, Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Establishment in the Mexican War (College Station: Texas A & M Press, 1997), 50-51. Americans at the time of the Alamo believed that citizen-soldiers (militia and volunteers) were true defenders of a republic. Their disdain for standing armies led them to frequently label regular soldiers "hirelings." Back to Text 5 Jenkins, ed., Papers of the Texas Revolution, 4:502-504. The reference to this banner comes from Travis' letter of March 3, 1836, which he sent to the Convention meeting at Washinton-on-the-Brazos: "A blood red banner waves from the church of Bejar, and in the camp above us, in token that the war is one of vengeance against rebels; they have declared us as such; demanded that we should surrender at discretion, or that this garrison should be put to the sword. Their threats have had no influence on me or my men, but to make all fight with desperation, and that high souled courage which characterises the patriot, who is willing to die in defence of his country's liberty and his own honor." On March 6, 1836, the Convention resolved, "That one thousand copies of Colonel W. Barrett Travis's letter be printed in hand bill form by the editors, Messrs. Baker & Bordens, of San Felipe." For a copy of this letter on line, see: http://texinfo.library.unt.edu/lawsoftexas/gltv1.htm, Journals of the Convention at Washington, 1836, Volume 1:845-847.Back to Text |