Sam Houston
Sam Houston arrived at Washington-on-the-Brazos on February 29, 1836, where
he served as a delegate to the constitutional convention. On March 6, Travis'
final request of help (dated March 3) reached the convention. Houston, who had
been reconfirmed in his role of commanding-general of the Texas Army, told his
fellow delegates to continue their important work and that he would help the men
of the Alamo. Houston and his staff arrived at Gonzales on March 11, where he
found a relief party already gathered. Within hours of reaching the town,
however, word of the Alamo's fall arrived.1
To Colonel J. W. Fannin, commanding at Goliad2
Headquarters, Gonzales, March 11, 1836
Sir:
On my arrival here [Gonzales] this
afternoon, the following intelligence was received through a Mexican, supposed
to be friendly, though his account has been contradicted in some parts by
another, who arrived with him. It is therefore only given to you a rumor, though
I fear a melancholy portion of it will be found true.
Anselmo Borgara states that he left
the Alamo on Sunday, the 6th inst.; and is three days from Arroche's rancho:
that the Alamo was attacked on Sunday morning at the dawn of day, by about two
thousand three hundred men, and carried a short time before sunrise, with a loss
of five hundred and twenty-one Mexicans killed, and as many wounded. Colonel
Travis had only one hundred and fifty effective men out of his entire force of
one hundred and eighty-seven. After the fort was carried, seven men surrendered, and called for Santa Anna and quarter. They were murdered by
his order. Colonel Bowie was sick in bed, and also murdered. The enemy expected
a reinforcement of fifteen hundred men under General Condelle, and a reserve of
fifteen hundred to follow them. He also informs us that Ugartachea had arrived
with two millions in specie for payment of the troops. The bodies of the
Americans were laid together and set on fire. Lieutenant Dickinson, who had a
wife and child in the fort, after having fought with desperate courage, tied his
child to his back and leaped from the top of a two story building. Both were
killed in the fall.
I have little doubt but the Alamo has
fallen--whether the above particulars are true may be questionable. You are
thereby referred to the enclosed order.
I am sir, &c., SAM HOUSTON
In corroboration of the truth of the fall of the Alamo, I have ascertained
that Colonel Travis intended firing signal guns at three different periods each
day until succor should arrive. No signal guns have been heard since Sunday,
though a scouting party have just returned who approached within twelve miles of
it, and remained there forty-eight hours.
Footnotes
1. William Fairfax Gray, From Virginia to
Texas, 1835: Diary of Col. Wm. F. Gray (Houston: Fletcher Young Publishing Co.,
1965), 121, 125. back to text
2. Henderson Yoakum, Historu of Texas (2 vols.; NY: Redfield, 1855), 2:471-472. back to text