Evening Star Newspaper, December 13, 1931, Page 90

I 6 ) " o S Bt i O S S S S THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, DECEMBER 13, 1931 David Crockett and Fall of the Alamo €ol. Samuel H. Walker, killed at Hua- mantla, Mexico, October 9, 1847. BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. T pays to leave your home town occasion- ally and visit other places—to see new sights and ciiies and g>t new ideas. of course, where we confidently believe Washington to be the grandest place on earth, it would really be a big errer to conclude that it was the acme of perfection, and that it was not susceptible to any im- provement. And so it is with these outings of ours which bring us in contact with the rest of the country and show us how the other fellow does things, and how it looks after it is done. *To the writer the beauty of municipal architecture is especially attractive, and there were new ideas he would like to have brought back to the District of Columbia. A senior high school at San Diego, Calif., would in- deed be a refreshing diversion to the prevail- ing stereotyped Colonial style. It covered much ground, and the walls were entirely hidden with vines. Its effect was unusually beautiful. A unique treatment for a fire engine house was also seen in this California city. It was in a section of very #iice homes, and here any objection to an engine ‘house being built in a residential section was artistically over- come. The building was of the bungalow type, and in front flowers were growing in profusion. The doors which opened to permit the apparatus to leave and enter were entirely concealed by flowers, and no one would ever have suspected the bullding to be an engine house, so completely was ii camouflaged. When the writer's attention was called to this building he immediately thought of the engine house proposed not long ago for upper Sixteenth street, and the kick the folks put up to prevent its being put in their neighbor- kood. It occurred to him that if a photo- graph of the Pacific Coast building had been shown these good people quite likely all objec- tion would have been withdrawn. At Santa Barbara was a magnificent court bouse of the Spanish-Moorish design, consist- ently decorated within and without. This was a new building and would attract attention anywhere because of the pleasing effect pro- duced by the architect. Our own court house, of course, is & very fine building, and of more solid construction, and still the thought as to what might be done further to beautify our city was present, in viewing this temple of Far Western justice. MUNICIPAL auditorium such as Wash- ington is very much in need of was seen in San Antonifo, Tex. 1It, too, is of the Spanish-Moorish style of architecture, covers six and one-half acres and seats 6,500 people. It cost $1,200,000 and was dedicated to the World War herces. A building of this capacity and beauty would certainly fit in well with Washington as a convention city. Of course, what attracted the writer's at- fention most in this last-named city was the Alamo—the cradle of Texas independence. At least it might be so called if i#t is not, for it was here that the pioneers of the State of Texas received one of their most severe and tragic baptizings in human biood. Originally called the San Antonio de Va- lerio, the mission was transpianted from the Rio Grande to near this spot in 1718, and about a year or so later to its present location, when a new ghurch was begun on May 8, 1744—although the front of the Alamo Chapel bears date of 1757. Apparently building at that time did not progress very rapidly, and 80, in 1762, we find it still under construction. After all, however, maybe this delay should not be criticized or regarded as unusual, when even today we find the Cathedral of 8t. John the Divine, in New York City, not completed after being under construction for more years than this, and if we were to look around our own city, no doubt we could find a parallel case in the twentieth century. After 1765 the mission, as such, seems sud- denly to have declined, and a number of years later the walled inclosure and the buildings were occupied by the company De! Alamo de Parras, whence it derived its name, the Alamo. AN early writer, who viewed the locality as far back as 1841, In speaking of the building and its surroundings, tells us that the chapel itself measured 75 feet long, 62 feet Wwide and 22% feet high, with walls of solid Inasonry, four feet thick. “It was originally Some Incidents in Texas History Were Con- nected With Lives of Men Known in Wash- ington—Col. Samuel H. Walker Re- cruited Company in This City for Service in Mexican War. A rare portrait of Col. David Crockett, one of the last survivors of the Alamo. of but one story,” the same author tells us, “and if it then had windows below, they Were probably walled up when the place was pre- pared for defense.” As the writer saw the chapel recently, it did not look nearly so large as these dimensions would indicate. However, the chapel, in 1836, was but a small part of the fortification, which then covered between two and three acres of ground. The city of San Antonio itself, at that time, had a population of about 7,000, mostly Mexicans, the majority of whom were for Texas independence, and the minority for whichever party was in power. As the dragoon regiment of Delores and the three battalions of infantry, commanded by Santa Ana in person, made their appearance in San Antdnio on February 22, 1836, mo doubt the siege of the Alamo began that date, and ended with the massacre of the remaining defenders, on March 6, just six days after the provisional government had declared Texas an independent republic. On the walls of the old Alamo are recorded, on a bronze tablet, the names of those heroic men who died there, that Texas might be wrested from Mexico and become a power unto itself. The writer was very much interested in these lists of names for he thought he might recognize here someone from the District of Columbia or from one of the nearby States. One of the tablets was partly obscured by ably had seen these names so often that to her had possibly lost some of their charm; 80 with many who were reading them first time, and ‘who had come to learn ink in a bit of the early history of Lone Star State. ERHAPS it would be best to say something first of the slege and fall of the Alamo, before mentioning the names of those who fought and died there and whose acts of bravery are enshrined im the heart of every true lover of liberty. Capt. R. M. Potter, U. 8. A, writing of this event many years ago, tells us that Lieut. Col. William B. Travis, 'who had commanded the scouting service, was assigned by the Governor to relieve Col. Neill in command of San Antonio. This assignment met with opposition from the volunteers, who proceeded to elect James Bowie a full colonel. This was just about two weeks before the enemy came in sight, and when Travis arrived he found Bowie in command of the garrison, claiming the right to command him and the reinforcements he brought, a matter of “detail” that Col Travis did not agree to. However, this dual authority, due no doubt to the approaching peril, did not cause an open rupture, which otherwise would have taken place. “Travis brought with him,” so Capt. Potter relates, “a company of regular recruits, en- listed for the half-regiment of cavalry which the provisional government had intended to raise. J. N. Seguin, a native of San Antonio, whe had been commissioned as the senior captain of Travis’ corps, joined him at the Alamo, and brought into the garrison the skel- eton of his company, consisting of nine Mexi- recruits, natives, some of the town afore- and others of the interior of Mexico. aforesaid company and squad of enlisted and the two companies of volunteers Bowie formed the garrison of the Alamo, then numbered from 156 to 160. Of the volunteers composed considerably than half, and over two-thirds of thz were men who had but recently arrived country. Seguin and his nine recruits all that represented the Mexican popula- tion of Texas. Of the nine, seven fell In the assault, the captain and two of his men baving been sent out on duty before that crisis. David Crockett, of Tennessee, mar, bad joined the garrison a few weeks be- fore, as had also J. B. Bonham of South Gen. Sam Houston, first President of Texas. Carolina, who had lately come to volunteer in the cause of Texas, and was considered one of the most chivalrous and estimable of its supporters.” HE enemy arrived unexpectedly on Febru- ary 22, and during the evening a shot from the 18-pounder of the fort was answered by a shell from the Mexicans. On the 24th of that month, reinforcements reached Gen. Santa Ana, and from that time to March 6, the investment was complete, About the second day of the siege Col. Bowie was stricken with pneumonia, and this cut short any rivalry which might have existed between him and <Col. Travis, since the nature of the disease was such that death would undoubtedly have resulted from this cause had not such a termination been anti- cipated by the sword. “On the following night, the 12th of March,” says Potter, “a company of 32 men from Gonzales made its way through the enemy’s lines, and entered the Alamo never again to leave ii. This must have raised the force to 188 men or thereabouts, as none of the original number of 156 had fallen. “On the night of the 3d of March, Travis sent out another courier with a letter of that date to the government, which reached its destination. In the last dispatch he says, ‘With an hundred and forty-five mer. I have held this place ten days against a foice vari- ously estimated from 1,500 to 6,000, and I shall continue to hold it till I get relief from my countrymen or I will perish in the attempt. We have had a shower of bombs and cannon balls continuously falling among us the whole time, yet none of us have fallen. We have begn The final assault on the Alamo took place on March 6, and Travis soon fell from a shot in the forehead, while other men rapidly fol- lowed, but not without almost supernatural resistance by the conquered defenders of the fort. HE chapel was the last point taken, and bere the carnage was awful. The body of David Crockett, who no doubt exacted a great toll in life before he died, according to some authorities, was found in the west bat- tery, and Bowie, ere he passed away, enfeebled as he must have been, shot down, iU is said, more than one of his assailants before he was butchered where he lay critically ill. The enemy, now in possession of the fort, trained the guns to fire into the door of the church, and here the last struggle was inde- scribably flerce—there was no quarter asked, and no quarter given. For years, only a part of the roof over the chapel existed, and this condition facilitated access by scaling ladders, and, to repel the invaders, the Texaps sought places of vantage toward the top of the struc- ture. On account of this elevated position, some of the dead Mexican soldiers were found to be shot in the crown of the head, after the engagement. A spectacular event, which occurred as af- fairs in the chapel had reached a crisis, was when Lieut. Dickenson with hifs child in his arms—or iled to his back, as some say—leaped from the embrasure of the mission and both were riddled with bullets. To quote Potter again: “Of those he left behind him, the bay- onet soon gleaned what the bullet had left, and in the upper part of that edifice the last de- fender must have fallen. The morning breeze which received his parting breath probably still fanned his flag above that fabrie, for I doubt not he fell ere it was pulled down by the victors.” Not one of the defenders of the Alamo es« caped alive. Several, at the last moment, at- tempted flight, but with the exception of one who hid himself under a small bridge, where he was detected and later executed, all were killed. Even after all resistance had ceased the five or six men who were found concealed in the building under mattresses, were shot by order of Santa Ana. The wife of Lieut, Dickenson and a few Mexican women, and & negro slave belonging to Col. Travis were the only ones within the inclosure whose lives were spared, and in the case of Mrs. Dickenson there were special reasons for this course of action. It would be impossible definitely to state the casualties in this engagement, so conflicting are the reports. According to Potter, the num-= ber of defenders killed in the Alamo is put ab