Another Alamo Story.

This story of the Alamo was taken from the following book.  

A HISTORY
OF
Central and Western
Texas
Compiled from Historical Data Supplied by Commercial
Clubs, Individuals, and Other Authentic Sources,
Under the Editorial Supervision of
CAPTAIN B. B. PADDOCK
OF FORT WORTH
X
ILLUSTRATED,
VOL. I
V.I
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO NEW YORK
1911

February 23d Santa Anna arrived at the head of his army and the same day entered the town. Travis withdrew his men across the river and took his final stand in the old Alamo mission, on the walls of which he hoisted the tri-colored Mexican flag, "with two stars designated to represent Coahuila and Texas." Thus Travis and his men fought for the constitution of 1824, though the declaration of independence had been signed four days before the flag fell from the walls. The place known as the Alamo contained the usual buildings of a mission. The building familiarly called the Alamo is the old mission church, and was only one feature of the group of buildings and enclosures which composed the Alamo mission. To the north of the church was the walled convent yard, on the west side of which was situated the convent itself, a long and narrow, two-storied building, divided by partitions into rooms which were used for barracks. To the west of the convent, and also extending some distance north and south, was the square or plaza of the mission, rectangular in shape and enclosed with walls of masonry several feet thick. From the southeast corner of this square ran a diagonal stockade to connect with the church. This was the scene of the Alamo siege. It was invested by the army of Santa Anna on February 23, and for a week was bombarded without effect, the Texans using their limited supply of ammunition only when the enemy came in range. On March i thirty-two men under Captain J. W. Smith made their way through the enemy's lines into the fort. Thus, there were, according to the best estimates, one hundred and eighty-three men to hold this fortress, against five thousand Mexicans. Among the heroes destined to shed their life-blood in this place were the well-known names of Travis, who had been throughout one of the most eager and consistent advocates of Texas independence; Col. James Bowie, a veteran of many frontier battles ; Davy Crockett, pioneer statesman, hunter and soldier; and J. B. Bonham, of South Carolina, besides many others of not less dauntless courage.
At the beginning of the siege, Travis sent a letter to his fellow citizens which shows the spirit that animated the patriots. The letter, written February 24. was addressed to "the people of Texas and all Americans in the world," and was as follows: Fellow Citizens and Compatriots—I am besieged by a thousand or
more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for twenty-four hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or Death.
For a week the siege went on, each day the position of the garrison becoming more critical. Three days before the end Travis sent to the president of the convention, then meeting in Washington, the last official report of the siege. Since the 25th, he said, the enemy had continued the bombardment from their battery on the opposite side of the river in the town. They had also encircled the Alamo with entrenched encampments,
at the La V'illeta on the south, at the powder-house on the southeast, at the ditch on the northeast, and at the old mill on the north.
Yet up to hat time not a man of the garrison had been killed. "The power of Santa Anna is to be met here, or in the colonies ; we had better meet them here, than to suffer a war of desolation to rage in the settlements. A blood-red banner waves from the church in Bexar, and in the camp above us, in token that the war is one of vengeance against rebels. . . . Their threats have had no influence on me, or my men, but to make all fight with desperation, and that high-souled courage which characterizes the patriot, who is willing to die in defense of his country's liberty and his own honor."
After the ineffectual bombardment Santa Anna called a council of war and determined to carry the walls by general assault. Sunday, March 6th, was the fateful day of the fall of the Alamo. Twenty-five hundred Mexicans were arranged in four columns on all sides of the fort, and at daybreak hurled their strength against the walls so weakly manned as to numbers. But the calm courage of the Texans, their unerring marksmanship, and the hail of lead from their cannon, twice brought the assailants" lines to halt and repulse. Then came the final charge. The columns were deployed to the north wall of the square and to the stockade on the south, and, driven on by their officers, the Mexicans crowded up under the walls below the cannon, rushed through the breaches or climbed over by ladders, and brought the conflict into a melee of hand-to-hand struggle. Travis was shot down while working a cannon, Crockett fell near the stockade, and Bowie, too ill to rise from his bed, was found and bayoneted, but not till he had dispatched several of the enemy with his pistols. From the plaza and stockade the heroes retired to the convent, where in final desperation they held each room until overpowered by the superior forces, and the fight to death went on in close quarters, where man touched man, clubbed with his musket, and slashed right and left with his knife, dying with the ferocity of the cornered wild beast. The church was the last point taken, and within an hour after the first assault the Alamo tragedy was over and its defenders had breathed their last. The few who did not fall fighting were butchered in cold blood by the ruthless order of Santa Anna, and of all who had been in the beleaguered fort but six lives (three women and three children) were spared, including the wife of Lieutenant Dickinson and her infant daughter. She was supplied with a horse and allowed to depart, bearing a proclamation from Santa Anna and the tale of the Alamo massacre to the colonists. Upon the heaped-up bodies of the Texans was piled brush and wood, and on this funeral pyre was soon consumed all that was mortal of the Texas patriots. But their spirit and the memory of their sacrifice were destined to survive all time and awake a vengeance from which was born the Texas republic.

If you ever ate at the Pit BBQ on West 5th, you could have seen pictures of the wife of Lieutenant Dickinson.  After the Alamo, she eventually moved to Austin and lived there at the site of the Pit.