Death, Exile, or Imprisonment: Punishment and the Texas Revolution

This broadside, dated April 18, 1836, publicized a decree detailing new punishments for rebel Texans.

The above broadside publicized a decree issued on April 14, 1836, by the Mexican General Congress and José Justo Corro, ad-interim President, and put into effect by Secretary of War and Navy José María Tornel y Mendívil (1789-1853). The Library’s copy is an imprint dated April 18; unbeknown to those involved, the Battle of San Jacinto would take place three days later. The broadside was issued by José Gomez de la Cortina (1799-1860), a respected politician and man of letters in nineteenth-century Mexico who at the time was Governor of the Federal District.

The April 14 proclamation stated that

those taken prisoners in the war of Texas to the date of publication of this decree who have incurred the sentence of capital punishment in accordance with the law, will be absolved from the same even though they have been captured with arms in hand.

By this same decree, rebel Texans who surrendered within fifteen days would receive a reduced sentence of perpetual banishment from the Republic of Mexico or a ten-year prison sentence “at an interior post to be designated by the Government to be no less than sixty leagues distant from the coast and frontier areas.”

Some Texans remained “exempt from this indulgence” and subject to execution, including

the principal motivators of the revolution, those who compose the so called General Council of Texas, those who acted as interloping Governor and Vice-Governor, those apprehended in command of any land or maritime armed force, and those who might have committed cold blooded murder.

Many of the precise details involved in carrying out the decree were left to Antonio López de Santa Anna, the “Most Excellent President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army.”

The edict repealed a previous decree Tornel authored with the approval of the General Congress, which was alarmed at the large number of U.S. volunteers immigrating to assist Texian colonists revolting against the Mexican government. Passed in December 1835, the Tornel Decree ordered any non-Mexican citizen captured under arms on Mexican soil to be treated as a pirate and punished accordingly. While many officers in the Mexican Army disagreed with the Decree, Santa Anna insisted that it be precisely followed. He therefore used it to order the execution of Texian prisoners at the Alamo and Goliad, defending his actions by writing, “Law decrees and it is not the magistrate’s responsibility to examine it, but to apply it.” Who, he asked General José de Urrea, “gives me powers to override what the National Government has ordered in such categorical terms, pardoning delinquents of the caliber of these foreigners?” The Tornel Decree first appeared in U.S. and Texan newspapers in February and March 1836, meaning that many of the men who died under its enforcement before its repeal in April 1836 were ignorant of its existence.

References and Further Reading

An English-language translation of the April 14, 1836 decree can be found in The Papers of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836, volume 5.

For additional information about the Mexican government in the 1830s and the key officials involved, see The Central Republic in Mexico, 1835-1846: Hombres de Bien in the Age of Santa Anna by Michael P. Costeloe; Santa Anna of Mexico by Will Fowler; and the encyclopedia The United States and Mexico at War: Nineteenth-Century Expansionism and Conflict edited by Donald S. Frazier.

For more information about the context of the Texas Revolution, see also Sacrificed at the Alamo: Tragedy and Triumph in the Texas Revolution by Richard Bruce Winders; Crisis in the Southwest: The United States, Mexico, and the Struggle over Texas by Richard Bruce Winders; and Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution by Stephen L. Hardin.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

A Largely-Forgotten Commander’s Efforts for the “Troops at Bexar”

A small piece of paper in the library’s archives dated February 28, 1836 helps document the contributions of James C. Neill, a relatively obscure Alamo hero.

Received San Felipe 28th Feby 1836 of Henry Smith Govr of Texas Six hundred Dollars of public money, for the use of the troops at Bexar

J. C. Neill Lt Col of Artilery

Neill was a key participant in the Siege of Béxar and became the commander of San Antonio and the Alamo in December 1835. With the garrison stripped of provisions and manpower to supply the Matamoros expedition, Neill was left to hold the town with fewer than 100 men. He constantly called upon the divided government for reinforcements and supplies, requests that went unanswered. Neill also improved the defenses of the former mission and maintained the morale of his men, a feat Jim Bowie praised and historian Stephen Hardin described as “remarkable.”

Neill left the Alamo in mid-February 1836 after receiving word that his family was seriously ill. In Alamo Traces, Thomas Ricks Lindley surmises that Neill probably also went to “confront Governor Smith and Sam Houston about the lack of support for the Béxar garrison” (310). Leaving William Barret Travis in command, Neill stated that he would return within twenty days.

Santa Anna’s army arrived in San Antonio and besieged the Alamo before Neill could return. However, the receipt in the DRT Library’s collections provides evidence that he never stopped working on behalf of his command. Indeed, in Gonzales on March 6, the day of the final assault on the Alamo, Neill spent ninety dollars of his own money buying medical supplies for his men. He had also mustered 200 volunteers to reinforce the garrison before learning of its fall; this group became the nucleus of Houston’s army at the Battle of San Jacinto.

References and Further Reading

“J. C. Neill: The Forgotten Alamo Commander” by Stephen L. Hardin

Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution by Stephen L. Hardin

Alamo Traces: New Evidence and New Conclusions by Thomas Ricks Lindley

Sacrificed at the Alamo: Tragedy and Triumph in the Texas Revolution by Richard Bruce Winders

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

“A Splendid Piece of Photography”: The Siege and Fall of the Alamo (1914)

A stock certificate for the Siege and Fall of the Alamo Motion Picture Co., November 17, 1913.

A single document (shown above) and a handful of photographs at the DRT Library are thought to provide a crucial record of a lost silent film about the 1836 Battle of the Alamo. No copy of the The Siege and Fall of the Alamo (1914) is known to exist, and earlier generations of historians believed that the film was never made. While this assertion has proven to be false, information is sparse and many questions remain unanswered.

This picture from the DRT Library's collection shows the palisade that scholars believe was reconstructed in front of the Alamo church during filming of The Siege and Fall of the Alamo. (SC98.103)

A synopsis of The Siege and Fall of the Alamo, written for copyright registration, survives at the Library of Congress and is reproduced in its entirety in Frank Thompson’s book Alamo Movies. Unfortunately, Thompson writes, the summary “tells us little about what the film might have been like.” In addition, a review and advertisement in the San Antonio Light (not in the Library’s collection) describe the film’s showing at the Royal Theater on June 1-2, 1914. According to the ad, The Siege and Fall of the Alamo was made in San Antonio with a cast of 2,000 actors “at a cost of more than $35,000.00.” At “five great reels” in length, it was the first feature-length film about the Alamo. Praising the film, the Light called it “a splendid piece of photography, clear in every detail, and the acting is perfect. The play seems to please the patrons and is pronounced by historians as a great production.”

The reconstructed palisade. The Siege and Fall of the Alamo may be the only movie about the 1836 battle filmed at the actual Alamo. (SC98.101)

The production stills below were previously thought to be from The Immortal Alamo (1911). However, the actor shown to be portraying David Crockett (below) is not Francis Ford, who played the famous Tennessean in The Immortal Alamo. The wooden palisade shown in the photographs above appears to be same one behind “Crockett” in the picture below. Other clues in the palisade photos and production stills support the conclusion that these materials show The Siege and Fall of the Alamo, although a lack of definitive corroborating evidence means that this identification remains less than certain.

An unidentified actor portraying David Crockett in front of the reconstructed Alamo palisade. (SC96.601)

Davy Crockett struggling with a Mexican soldier. (SC96.602)

A woman attempts to defend Jim Bowie while Susanna Dickinson protects her daughter. (SC96.600)

Texians firing and reloading rifles. (SC96.603)

References and Further Reading

Books by writer and film historian Frank Thompson include Alamo Movies (1991) and The Alamo: A Cultural History (2001), both available at the DRT Library. Another work by Thompson, Texas Hollywood: Filmmaking in San Antonio Since 1910 (2002), does not discuss The Siege and Fall of the Alamo specifically but provides interesting contextual information. Additionally, the DRT Library has a vertical file on various movies that have been made about the Alamo, and Richard R. Flores’ book Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity, and the Master Symbol (2002) also contains a chapter on the topic.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

A Look Back at the 1911 Battle of Flowers Parade

In honor of today’s Battle of Flowers Parade, this entry highlights some photographs of the 1911 parade. Contained within the Library’s collection of Beckmann family papers, the images show throngs of spectators in Alamo Plaza – some even perched on nearby rooftops, including that of the Alamo! – and the facade of the Alamo church decorated for the parade. Also shown is the float of twenty-one-year-old Helena Dorothea Guenther, the Queen of the Court of Carnival Flowers a century ago.

Helena Guenther on her float in Alamo Plaza during the 1911 Battle of Flowers Parade.

Helena Guenther in the 1911 Battle of Flowers Parade.

Spectators in an undated photograph, believed to show the 1911 Battle of Flowers Parade.

Born in San Antonio in 1889, Helena was the granddaughter of Carl Hilmar Guenther, builder the first flour mill in the city. She attended the German-English School and Miss Wasson’s School for Young Ladies. In 1909, she made her debut with her cousin Regina Augusta Beckmann at a party in the Guenther Home. Regina was the Princess of the Daffodils and Maid of Honor to her cousin the Queen in 1911; John O. Meusebach was Helena’s Prime Minister of the Realm, Robert Ayres and Franklin McIlhenny were pages to the Queen, and Atlee Ayres was court jester. In addition to being Queen in 1911, Helena was the Duchess of de Chataney in the Court of Roses (1910), Duchess of Sylvia in the Court of Lilies (1912), and Princess of the Lilies and Maid of Honor to the Queen in the Court of Spring (1913).

Helena Guenther, Queen of the Court of Carnival Flowers.

The Queen on her float in the 1911 parade.

Helena Guenther married Arthur Hughes Muir (1884-1955) in 1917; the couple had one surviving son. Known as a gardener and gourmet cook, Helena was an active member in a number of San Antonio organizations, including St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and the Alamo Heights-Terrell Hills Garden Club, Junior League, Military-Civilian Club, Symphony Society, and San Antonio Conservation Society. She died in San Antonio in 1977.

References and Further Reading

The five-volume History of the Order of the Alamo, available at the DRT Library, contains information about each court between 1909 and 1989, including photographs of each queen, princess, and duchess and descriptions of each coronation ceremony during that period.

For more information about how the history of the Battle of Flowers Parade is documented in archival collections at the DRT Library, see earlier entries about the event on the “Inside the Gates” blog.

For additional information about Helena Guenther and her family, see The Family of Carl Hilmar Guenther and Dorothea Pape Guenther (2001), available at the DRT Library.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Recap of the Texas History Forum, “Historiography: Texas History Detectives”

DRT Library Director Leslie Stapleton with, from left to right, Dr. Gregg Cantrell, Dr. James E. Crisp, and Dr. Light T. Cummins.

Last Saturday, May 22, the DRT Library held its twenty-third Texas History Forum. Entitled “Historiography: Texas History Detectives,” the program featured three speakers who explored various aspects of the history of Texas history.

Dr. Light T. Cummins, a professor of history at Austin College and the State Historian of Texas, explored historiography in general; the differences between and intersections of myth, memory, and history; and broad contours in the history of Texas historical writing. Henderson Yoakum‘s two-volume History of Texas from Its First Settlement in 1685 to Its Annexation to the United States in 1846 (1855) was the first major history of Texas. In focusing on Anglo Americans in Texas, this work set the tone of early histories about the state. In the early 1900s, the University of Texas at Austin (UT) emerged as the center for Texas history scholarship. By mid-century, however, a fundamental reorientation in histories about Texas reflected changes occurring in the state and in the historical discipline. UT’s preeminence was diminished as scholars at other universities began writing about Texas history. Moreover, the New Social History that resulted in large part from the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s expanded the boundaries of historical investigation to include ordinary people; the histories of women and various racial, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic groups; and human activity beyond military, political, and economic pursuits. This paradigm shift meant that historians writing about Texas history broadened their focus beyond the experiences of Anglo Americans.

Dr. Cummins observed that contemporary public memory does not always match current historical writing about Texas and that it is difficult to reconcile the traditional monolithic, Anglo view of Texas history still held by some people with the New Social History. Moreover, asserted Dr. Cummins, there is a disconnect between modern Texas historiography and public memory. Whereas earlier historiography supported the public memory narrative, current historiography questions it, a situation those who defend public memory find disconcerting.

DRT Library Director Leslie Stapleton with volunteer Glen Skaggs, whose generous donation in memory of his wife, Rosemary Hoffman Skaggs, funded the speakers' travel arrangements.

Dr. Gregg Cantrell, a professor of history at Texas Christian University, discussed the work of historian-biographers through the case study of his work Stephen F. Austin, Empresario of Texas. He began by examining the two primary types of biographies. On one hand is biography as history. In these works, the story of an individual, usually a famous person, is used as a vehicle for exploring a broader historical context. Consequently, these works focus on the public life of the subject and pay little attention to his or her private life. Eugene C. Barker’s The Life of Stephen F. Austin (1925) is the only other biography of Austin besides Dr. Cantrell’s work and is “a classic of this genre.” The other type of biography is what Dr. Cantrell called the “whole enchilada” approach. Here, the author works to describe the public and private life of the subject and to capture his/her complexity with special attention to his/her motivations, personality, and character. Dr. Cantrell’s biography of Austin fits within this second category. He asserted that, like historians, biographers are detectives. However, because biographers work to solve the ultimate riddle – the inner-workings of the human heart and mind – they face additional challenges in understanding their subject. Within this framework, Dr. Cantrell described how he used extant evidence to formulate educated guesses about Stephen F. Austin’s relationship with his father, Moses, and his cousin, Mary Austin Holley.

Presenting the final lecture of this year’s Forum, Dr. James E. Crisp, a professor of history at North Carolina State University, touched on some of the topics explored in his works Sleuthing the Alamo and How Did Davy Die? And Why Do We Care So Much? Dr. Crisp stated that people who lived in the past leave only evidence that is highly problematic, fragmentary, full of distortions and perhaps lies, self-contradictory, and incomplete. Looking for clues about the past, stated Dr. Crisp, does not lead to other historians’ work but leads to primary sources held in archives or private collections as well as scientific or archaeological evidence. When scholars dig into these materials, he asserted, “the story changes”; this is why, by definition, all historians are revisionist scholars. Using these ideas as a foundation, Dr. Crisp analyzed some of the problems presented by Sam Houston’s speech to volunteer soldiers near Refugio in January 1836; the diary of José Enrique de la Peña; and George M. Dolson’s letter, published in the (Detroit) Democratic Free Press on September 7, 1836.

Thank you to all of our speakers for their compelling and thought-provoking talks!

Fiesta, 1910: “It’s Enough to Make One Want to Live Here Always”

We recently came across a charming item documenting the early history of the Battle of Flowers Parade and the Order of the Alamo court: Mary Ware in Texas, a children’s book published one hundred years ago, provides an example of how each has been portrayed in popular culture.

Mary Ware was a character in Annie Fellows Johnston’s immensely popular and semi-autobiographical Little Colonel children’s series. The books focused on the adventures of Lloyd Sherman, a young girl whose fierce mannerisms echoed the traits of her grandfather, a Confederate colonel in the Civil War, and earned her the moniker “the Little Colonel.” Johnston (1863-1931) based the title character on five-year-old Hattie Cochran, whom she met in Kentucky in the early 1890s. The Little Colonel series eventually comprised twelve volumes published between 1895 and 1912; Shirley Temple played in the title role in the 1935 film adaptation.

The frontispiece illustration in Mary Ware in Texas, showing the title character in a field of bluebonnets.

Johnston introduced the character Mary Ware in Mary Ware: The Little Colonel’s Chum (1908), written in response to a flood of fan inquiries. Johnston wrote both that book and Mary Ware in Texas (1910) towards the end of her eight years residing in Boerne; the latter was finished around the time her stepson, John, died of tuberculosis at age twenty-nine.

Chapter 14 in Mary Ware in Texas focuses on Mary and her friends sightseeing in San Antonio during “San Jacinto Day” (now Fiesta San Antonio). Preliminary research does not indicate how Johnston obtained information about the various events she described. In a letter written from her home in Boerne on April 19, 1908, Johnston stated, “The Carnival begins tomorrow in San Antonio with its Battle of Flowers and parades, and we are thankful we are up in the hills ‘far from the maddening crowd.’” While Johnston may have attended Fiesta events other years during her time in Texas, she may have also relied on secondhand sources (e.g. stories from friends or detailed accounts published in the newspaper).

Four duchesses in the 1910 Court of the Roses, from the History of the Order of the Alamo.

In the book, Mary and her friends first attend the coronation of the Court of the Roses. Johnston apparently created characters who were members of the 1909 and 1910 courts in the story but not in real life. However, a comparison of Johnston’s account with details provided in the Order of the Alamo’s official history (shown below) indicates that she did accurately depict the opulence of the coronation 1910 ceremony, which in reality was only the second one held by the Order. “Look at Mary’s rapt expression!” her friend observes during the ceremony. “She’s always adored queens and such things, and now she feels that she’s up against the real article.”

Two pages from the first volume of the History of the Order of the Alamo describe the 1910 Court of the Roses and its coronation.

Following the coronation, Mary and her friends visit the illuminated San Antonio River, described in the book this way:

[Billy Mayrell] led them to a place where they could look across a bend and see one of the bridges. It was strung so thickly with red lights which outlined every part, that it seemed to be made of glowing rubies, and its reflection in the water made another shining ruby bridge below, wavering on the dark current.

Mary leaned over the rail watching the shimming lights, and feeling dreamily that this City of the Alamo was an enchanted city; that the buildings looming up on every side were not for the purpose of barter and trade. They were thrown up simply as backgrounds for the dazzling illuminations which outlined them against the night sky. The horns of the revellers answering each other down every street, the music of distant bands, the laughter of the jostling throngs, all deepened the illusion…

[The city] was a realm given over utterly to “Mirth and Merriment,” where a gracious young queen held sway, where illness and trouble and grief had no part.

“I don’t wonder that the Major wants everybody not already a loyal Texan to see this,” [Mary] said to the Lieutenant. “It’s enough to make one want to live here always” (343-345).

A postcard showing the Alamo decorated for the Battle of Flowers Parade and Helena Guenther, Queen of the Court of Carnival Flowers, 1911.

Finally, the next day, Mary and her friends attend the Battle of Flowers Parade, which they watch from the backseat of an automobile:

Back and forth in front of the Alamo went the two divisions of the parade, meeting and passing and turning to meet and pass again, all the while pelting each other with flowers, till the plaza where they rode was covered deep with them. And the bands played and the people cheered, till the smallest schoolboy in their midst felt a thrill of gratitude to the heroes whose deeds they were commemorating. He might miss the deeper meaning of it all, but he grasped one fact clearly enough: that had it not been for the grim battle which those brave fellows fought to the death, there would have been no San Jacinto Day for him. No pageant-filled holiday to make one feel that it is a great and glorious thing to be a son of the Lone Star State (346).

References and Further Reading

The Little Colonel website, http://www.littlecolonel.com, is authored by Donna Russell and provides a wealth of information about the series, including a biography of author Annie Fellows Johnston, descriptions of real people and places that inspired characters and locations in the stories, and full texts of each work.

Photographs of Annie Fellows Johnston and Hattie Cochran are available through the digitized Kate Matthews Collection, available through the University of Louisville Libraries.

The five-volume History of the Order of the Alamo, available at the DRT Library, contains information about each court between 1909 and 1989, including photographs of each queen, princess, and duchess during that period.

For more information about how the history of the Battle of Flowers Parade is documented in archival collections at the DRT Library, see last year’s entries about the event on the “Inside the Gates” blog. One post focused on the parade’s beginnings and earliest years; another highlighted photographs of participants and floats in the late 1800s and early 1900s, around the time Mary Ware in Texas takes place; and a third featured footage of the 1971 and 1976 parades.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas: 105 Years of Alamo Custodianship

Last week marked the 105th anniversary of the legislation that granted the Daughters of the Republic of Texas custodianship of the Alamo. The act, entitled “Providing for the Purchase, Care, and Preservation of the Alamo,” passed the Texas House of Representatives on January 23 and the state Senate on January 24th before being signed by Governor Lanham on January 26th, 1905.

Clara Driscoll, who, with Adina De Zavala, led the DRT's efforts to acquire the Alamo. (SC96.002)

The legislation appropriated $65,000 to Clara Driscoll, who had advanced that amount in personal funds to cover a DRT fund-raising shortfall and to purchase the Alamo convento (today the Long Barracks museum) in her own name. The act also placed title to the convento in the name of the State of Texas; turned custody of the property to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas; and transferred custody of the Alamo church, which the state had purchased in 1883, from the City of San Antonio to the DRT.

The legislation stated, in part:

Section 3: Upon the receipt of the title to said land [the convento], the Governor shall deliver the property thus acquired, together with the Alamo Church property already owned by the State, to the custody and care of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, to be maintained by them in good order and repair without charge to the State, as a sacred memorial to the heroes who immolated themselves upon that hallowed ground.

Several months after the Act was approved – on September 5, 1905 – Clara Driscoll transferred the title to the convento building to Texas; one month later, Governor Lanham conveyed it and the Alamo church to the DRT.

Alamo Plaza looking south, circa 1907. The Alamo church, on the east side of the plaza, is beyond the photograph on the left. It is obscured by the old mission convento, which merchants Charles Hugo and Gustav Schmeltzer purchased in 1880 and operated as a wholesale warehouse and grocery. (SC8317.4)

 

The 1905 legislation followed decades of efforts to preserve the Alamo and a five-year campaign on the part of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, led by Adina De Zavala and Clara Driscoll, to raise money for the preservation of the Alamo. Development of downtown San Antonio began in earnest following the Civil War. Photographs (like the one above) and maps (like this 1904 Sanborn map of Alamo Plaza, available as a PDF document) show the Alamo surrounded by commercial structures by the late 1800s and early 1900s. Additionally, the Alamo church was in deplorable condition following years of being repurposed, neglected, and damaged. San Antonians feared that the site would eventually be demolished altogether.

The Alamo church and the Hugo & Schmeltzer building (the old mission convento) in an undated photograph, circa 1877-1912. (SC95.044)

A photograph from the late 1800s showing a saloon immediately to the south of the Alamo church. (SC13523)

 

At the fourteenth annual meeting of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas – held in La Grange, Texas, in April 1905 – Second Vice-President Cornelia Branch Stone of Galveston described the Daughters’ efforts in the weeks prior to the passage of the “Alamo Purchase Bill.” Speaking on behalf of the absent Clara Driscoll, Stone reported that

the committee were [sic] well received by the Senate and House of Representatives, where they found many warm supporters of the measure. Miss Driscoll and Mrs. Stone addressed the Committee on State Affairs in both houses, and Miss De Zavala spoke to the House Committee on State Affairs, as the Alamo Purchase Bill has been referred to this committee. Every courtesy was shown by the two committees, and unanimous endorsement was given to the bill. The Senate was unanimous in support of the bill, and while there was some opposition in the House, the bill had so many strong supporters it was passed by a large majority. Those who most conspicuously advocated this measure were Speaker Seabury, Messrs. Kyle, Glen, Blount, Brelsford, Onion, Robertson, Hudspeth, Judge Terrell and others. [Sam Ealy Johnson, father of President Lyndon B. Johnson, was another supporter of the bill.] Mrs. Looscan and Miss De Zavala were present at the final passage of the bill. Mrs. Stone and Miss Driscoll, having been assured of its safety, left Austin after having spent a week there. The committee did good work, and were [sic] constantly advised by Judge Clarence Martin, whose wise counsel was of great value.

Adina De Zavala in 1924. (SC95.316det)

In another address to the Daughters assembled in LaGrange, Cornelia Branch Stone asserted that the legislation would “require renewed activity on our part to meet [the] demand” placed on them. This, indeed, has proven to be the case in the 105 years since the state granted custodianship of the Alamo to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

For further reading, DRT Library:

The general collections of the DRT Library contain books, annual meeting proceedings, vertical files, photographs, and other materials that document the history of the DRT and its custodianship of the Alamo. Additionally, the library also has several archival collections of personal papers and scrapbooks by, to, and about women who held leadership positions in the organization. Additional information about these materials can be found by searching the library’s online catalog. A few resources that describe the context of the DRT’s early preservation efforts and custodianship are listed below.

Preservation Pioneers: The Daughters of the Republic of Texas compiled by Laura T. Beavers

90 Years of the Daughters: History of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas

Saving San Antonio: The Precarious Preservation of a Heritage by Lewis F. Fisher

A Line in the Sand: The Alamo in Blood and Memory by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson

100 Years of Custodianship by Madge Thornall Roberts

“Alamo History Chronology,” a timeline compiled by the staff of the DRT Library

For further reading, other institutions:

Several other Texas repositories contain archival collections of personal papers by, to, and about early leaders of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Many of these collection, such as the Adina De Zavala papers at the University of Texas at Austin, can be found by searching Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO). Others, such as the Adele Briscoe Looscan papers at the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Library and the Adina De Zavala papers at the University of the Incarnate Word, can be found through Internet search engines.

Saturday, December 12, 2009: Alamo Special Event

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the Alamo invite you to Bexar: December 1835–Prelude to the Alamo, a special after-hours event to be held this coming Saturday, December 12th. During this program, visitors will be escorted through the Alamo grounds to view a series of historical vignettes that tell the story of the Siege and Battle of Béxar and the events that led to the second battle for San Antonio, the Battle of the Alamo.

From October until early December 1835, an army of Texan volunteers laid siege to a Mexican army in San Antonio de Béxar. After five days of fierce house-to-house fighting throughout the town’s streets (December 5-10), the Texans succeeded in forcing General Martín Perfecto de Cos to surrender .  However, it was a victory that president and general Antonio López de Santa Anna could not let stand.  The “Napoleon of the West” arrived on February 23, 1836, ready to take his revenge.

The Saturday event will run from 6:30 pm until 10:30 pm. Groups will leave from the Alamo gift shop every ten (10) minutes, and each will spend approximately forty-five (45) minutes viewing the vignettes.

Space is limited, so purchase your tickets early. Individual ticket price is $10.00 each; children under twelve years old can attend the event for free. To order tickets or receive additional event and ticket information, contact Assistant Curator Ernesto Rodriguez by email at erodriguez@thealamo.org or by phone at 210-225-1391, ext. 28.

We hope to see you there!

Some information for this entry was provided by Ernesto Rodriguez.

Newspaper Accounts of the Battle of the Alamo

Last Friday, March 6, marked the 173rd anniversary of the final assault on the Alamo garrison. In 1836, those living in Texas and beyond learned about this event (and the general course of the Texas Revolution) through published newspaper accounts. The information contained in these articles was gathered from named and unnamed sources such as Almaron Dickinson’s wife, Susanna; William Barret Travis’s slave, Joe; Ben, the servant to the Mexican officer Colonel Almonte; and Andres Barsena and Anselmo Bergara, Tejanos who based their statements on testimony given by Antonio Pérez, who was in San Antonio on March 6.

The second page of the Telegraph and Texas Register from March 24, 1836. The article about the Alamo begins on the right-hand column under the heading "More Particulars Respecting the Fall of the Alamo."

The DRT Library’s newspaper collection includes papers published in the spring of 1836 containing “news from Texas.” While the majority of these materials were published in American cities, also included is a photocopy of the Telegraph and Texas Register published in San Felipe, Texas, on March 24, 1836. According to Todd Hansen, editor of The Alamo Reader, this document “is probably the most influential single account of the fall of the Alamo by virtue of being the first in print, its access to authoritative sources, and its near universal dissemination” (551). Indeed, argues Hansen, this account “would be the picture of the fall for Texans (and the United States) and the starting point for all later secondhand accounts” (565).

According to Todd Hansen, the casualty list included in the Telegraph and Texas Register account is "particularly valuable" because it was "based on the most authoritative sources known in Washington-on-the-Brazos" at the time (565).

Another important newspaper account of the fall of the Alamo in the library’s collections can be found in the Diario del Gobierno de la Republica Mexicana published on March 21, 1836. The draft of a 1968 press release announcing the library’s acquisition of the document states that it is “a rare copy of a Mexican newspaper containing the earliest known official announcement of the fall of the Alamo.”

Front page of the Diario del Gobierno de la Republica Mexicana from March 21, 1836.

As the official newspaper of the Mexican government, the Diario celebrated the bravery and success of Mexican officers and soldiers in achieving what is described as a complete and brilliant victory. “Long Live the Mexican Republic!” proclaimed the headline of this article, “Long live General Santa Anna and the brave army, victors of the Fort of the Alamo in Texas!”

The report on the fall of the Alamo appears on the fourth page of the March 24th Diario.

A supplement to this edition of the newspaper contained additional details about the Alamo, specifically General Santa Anna’s report about the battle, his March 5th General Order outlining the plan for the assault, and a March 3rd letter from General Urrea to Santa Anna describing the former’s victory over James Grant’s men at San Patricio. The article also includes a Spanish translation of Robert McAlpin Williamson’s March 1st letter to Travis. Taken from Travis’s body or his quarters, the letter concludes with Williamson’s impassioned statement, “For God’s sake hold out until we can assist you.” The Diario supplement may be the first printing of the text of the letter; since the original manuscript of this letter has never been found, the publication is significant for revealing its existence.

First page of the "Suplemento al Diario del Gobierno de la Republica Mexicana" for March 24, 1836.

Like other primary sources describing the siege and battle of the Alamo, newspaper accounts contain some confusing, problematic, and contradictory statements that researchers are still exploring, analyzing, and debating. For example, the report published in the Diario del Gobierno de la Republica Mexicana claimed that more than 600 Texans were killed, an estimation three times the actual number. Additionally, while only seventy deaths are attributed to the Mexican force, actual losses are estimated to be up to 600 soldiers.

Click here for a full citation of documents and images included in this entry.

The Alamo and DRT celebrate Texas Independence Day

The Alamo and the DRT commemorate Texas Independence Day with a ceremony in Alamo Plaza.

On Monday, March 2, the Alamo and the DRT celebrated Texas Independence Day with a ceremony in Alamo Plaza. The ceremony, held by the Alamo Mission Chapter of the DRT, featured a speech from DRT Library Director Leslie Stapleton. Mrs. Stapleton spoke about the library’s history and collection. Specifically, Mrs. Stapleton discussed the great primary sources that the library has in its archives.

Leslie Stapleton, DRT Library Director, speaks about the library's history and collection.

Among the one-of-a-kind documents is a letter written by Alamo defender Daniel William Cloud on December 26, 1835 to his brother, John B. Cloud. A lawyer from Kentucky, Daniel William Cloud joined David Crockett’s Tennessee Volunteers to help in the fight for Texas Independence. He describes what many of these young men might have been feeling when he writes,

If we succeed, the Country is ours. It is immense in extent, and fertile in its soil, and will amply reward all our toil. If we fail, death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by our side, and choice guns they are, we know what awaits us, and are prepared to meet it.

This letter was donated to the library by the Cloud family in 1979. Click here for a previous post about the Cloud letter.

Another great document in the collection is a letter written by Abishai Mercer Dickson written to his wife from New Orleans on December 29, 1835 on his way to Texas. He writes to her,

My Dear, my lips have not been wet with spirits of any description since I left you and I do hope they never will again and I think this trip will not only wean me entirely from it but will give me a new constitution.

He closes the letter by writing:

I have some hopes of making a little fortune. I feel more anxious than I ever did.

Dickson joined the Alabama Red Rovers and served under Col. Fannin at Goliad, where he was killed by the Mexican army along with more than 340 other Texan soldiers.

Lastly, another unique document in the collection is Samuel Augustus Maverick’s copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Maverick was an early Texas land baron, legislator, and leading citizen of the Republic. He lived at the corner of Alamo Plaza and Houston Street and played a large role in the Siege of Bexar in December 1835. He was chosen as one of two representatives from the Alamo to go to the independence convention on March 1, 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

Maverick left on March 2 but did not arrive at the convention until March 5. By that day, the Declaration had already been drafted and adopted. Maverick printed his name as well as the names of the other late arrivals to his broadside copy of the Declaration. Although one thousand broadside copies were originally printed, today only thirteen are known to exist. The DRT Library is fortunate to have two of these known copies. Click here for a previous post about the Maverick copy of the Declaration of Independence.

After the ceremony, Mrs. Stapleton invited all guests to visit the library, which is not usually a browsing collection, to view these and other special primary sources from the library’s collection.

Library visitors look at items on exhibit from the collection.