Susanna Dickinson Hanning
The following account appears in an 1875 book by James M. Morphis entitled History of Texas. As in the case of all other accounts by Mrs. Dickinson, this version is recounted by a third party.1
I will now describe the memorable Fall OF THE ALAMO as
related to me by Mrs. Susan Hanning, formerly Mrs. Dickinson, who witnessed it.
"On February 23d, 1836, Santa
Anna, having captured the pickets sent out by Col. Travis to guard the post from
surprise,2 charged into San Antonio with
his troops, variously estimated at from six to ten thousand, only a few moments
after the bells of the city rang the alarm.3
"Capt. Dickinson galloped up to
our dwelling and hurriedly exclaimed: "The Mexicans are upon us, give me
the babe, and jump up behind me." I did so, and as the Mexicans already
occupied Commerce street, we galloped across the river at the ford south of it,
and entered the fort at the southern gate, when the enemy commenced firing shot
and shell into the fort, but with little or no effect, only wounding one horse.
"There were eighteen guns
mounted on the fortifications, and these, with our riflemen, repulsed with great
slaughter two assaults upon them before the final one.
"I knew Colonels Crockett. Bowie
and Travis well. Col. Crockett was a performer on the violin, and often during
the siege took it up and played his favorite tunes.
"I heard him say several times
during the eleven days of the siege: 'I think we had better march out and die in
the open air. I don't like being hemmed up.'
"There were provisions and
forage enough in the fort to have subsisted men and horses for a month longer.
"A few days before the final
assault three Texans entered the fort during the night and inspired us with
sanguine hopes of speedy relief, and thus animated the men to contend to the
last.
"A Mexican women deserted us one
night, and going over to the enemy informed them of our very inferior numbers,
which Col. Travis said made them confident and emboldened to make the final
assault, which they did at early dawn on the morning of the 6th of
March.
"Under the cover of darkness
they approached the fortifications, and planting their scaling ladders against
our walls just as light was approaching, they climbed up to the tops of our
walls and jumped down within, may of them to their immediate death.
"As fast as the front ranks were
slain, they were filled up again by fresh troops.
"The Mexicans numbered several
thousands while there were only one hundred and eighty-two Texans.
"The struggle lasted more than
two hours when my husband rushed into the church where I was with my child, and
exclaimed: 'Great God, Sue, the Mexicans are inside our walls! All is lost! If
they spare you, save my child.'
"Then, with a parting kiss, he
drew his sword and plunged into the strife, then raging in different portions of
the fortifications.
Soon after he left me, three unarmed
gunners who abandoned their then useless guns came into the church where I was,
and were shot down by my side. One of them was from Nacogdoches and named
Walker.4 He spoke to me several times
during the siege about his wife and four children with anxious tenderness. I saw
four Mexicans toss him up in the air (as you would a bundle of fodder) with
their bayonets, and then shoot him. At this moment a Mexican officer came into
the room, and addressing me in English, asked: "Are you Mrs. Dickinson?' I
answered "Yes.' Then said he, 'If you wish to save your life, follow me.' I
followed him, and although shot at and wounded, was spared.
"As we passed through the
enclosed ground in front of the church, I saw heaps of dead and dying. The
Texans on an average killed between eight and nine Mexicans each-182 and 1,600
Mexicans were killed.5
"I recognized Col. Crockett lying dead and mutilated between the church and
the two story barrack building, and even remember seeing his peculiar cap lying
by his side.
"Col. Bowie was sick in bed and
not expected to live, but as the victorious Mexicans entered his room, he killed
two of them with his pistols before they pierced him through with their sabres.
"Col. Travis and Bonham were
killed while working the cannon, the body of the former lay on the top of the
church.6
"In the evening the Mexicans brought wood from the neighboring forest and
burned the bodies of all the Texans, but their own dead they buried in the city
cemetery across the San Pedro [creek]."
Footnotes
1. J[ames]. M. Morphis, History of Texas, From Its Discovery and Settlement (NY: United States Publishing Company, 1875), 174-177. For a biographical sketch of Morphis, see
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/MM/fmo52.html back to text