Alamo Traces (24 page)

That night at Bexar a “courier extraordinary” left to locate General Vicente Filisola, second in command of the Texas campaign, who was on the road to San Antonio. The rider carried a Santa Anna letter that reported events at San Antonio up to that date. Among other things, the Mexican general wrote: “From the moment of my arrival I have been busy hostilizing the enemy in its position, so much that they are not even allowed to raise their heads over the walls, preparing everything for the assault which will take place when at least the first brigade arrives, which is even now sixty leagues away. Up to now they still are stubborn, counting on the strong position which they hold, and hoping for much aid from the colonies and from the United States of the North, but they shall soon find out their mistake.” One has to wonder if Santa Anna had received a copy of Travis's missive of February 24 that was addressed to “To the People of Texas & all Americans in the world.”
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The morning was cold at San Antonio, registering forty degrees shortly after daylight. The Tejano spy from Goliad arrived during the day and informed Santa Anna that a Texian force had departed Goliad for Bexar.
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Later in the day Captain J. J. Tumlinson and his Mina rangers rode into Gonzales. Soon afterward, Major Williamson, Captains Martin, Smith, Seguin, Tumlinson, and Lieutenants Jackson and Kimbell probably conducted a council of war to determine the manner in which they would reinforce the Alamo. The officers appear to have decided that Martin, Smith, and Tumlinson would take the relief force to the Cibolo Creek crossing on the Bexar/Gonzales road, twenty miles east of the city. At that location they would wait for Fannin's force. Seguin and his two men
would ride to the Cibolo Creek crossing on the Bexar/Goliad road to rendezvous with Fannin's men and guide them to the Cibolo ford on the San Antonio/Gonzales road. The two ranger companies combined, including the returning Alamo couriers, appear to have totaled sixty men.
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The Gonzales/San Antonio road running west from Sandies Creek

Sometime later, probably late afternoon or evening, Captain Albert Martin, Captain John James Tumlinson, John W. Smith, and Juan Seguin departed Gonzales with fifty-six mounted men. One or two point men probably rode some distance in front of the force to detect any enemy horsemen that might be riding toward them on the same road. Three or four hours later the relief force reached John Castleman's home at the intersection of the San Antonio road and Sandies Creek, about twenty miles west of Gonzales. Seguin, Antonio Cruz, and Matias Curvier split from the group and rode almost due south to the Cibolo crossing on the Goliad/Bexar road to intercept Fannin's advance force. The Tejanos traveled on an old smuggler's road that ran from the well-known water hole at Castleman's to the mouth of Cibolo Creek. Captain Martin, Captain Tumlinson, Smith, and the other rangers continued west toward Bexar. They most likely reached “Forty-mile hole” on Ecleto Creek, about forty
miles east of San Antonio, in late afternoon or early evening. They probably camped there for the night.
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About the same time, Seguin and his men arrived at the Cibolo Creek crossing on the Bexar/Goliad road. Seguin wrote: “. . . I met, at the Ranch of San Bartolo, on the Cibolo, Captain Desac [
sic
], who, by orders of Fannin, had foraged on my ranch, carrying off a great number of beeves, corn, & c. Desac informed me that Fannin could not delay more than two days his arrival at the Cibolo, on his way to render assistance to the defenders of the Alamo. I therefore determined to wait on him. I sent Fannin, by express, the communication from Travis, informing him at the same time of the critical position of the defenders of the Alamo. Fannin answered me, through Lieutenant Finley, that he had advanced as far as ‘Rancho Nuevo,' but, being informed Of the movements of General Urrea, he had countermarched to Goliad to defend that place. . . .”
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Lieutenant Finley and an unknown number of men returned to Goliad with the provisions taken from the Seguin ranch. After the revolution, Erasmo Seguin, Juan's father, filed a claim for “one hundred and twenty-five beeves, twenty-five fanegas of corn, two yoke of oxen, one cart, seven horses, and five mules” taken for Fannin's command at Goliad.
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At Goliad, Fannin and his remaining men were safely back in the old presidio that they had named “Fort Defiance.” John S. Brooks later wrote his mother: “Our situation became delicate and embarrassing in the extreme. . . . it was concluded to return to Goliad, and place the Fort in a defensible condition. We are hard at work, day and night, picketing, ditching, and mounting cannon, & c. We are hourly in expectation of an attack.”
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Northeast of Goliad, Captain Philip Dimmitt arrived at his store and warehouse on Lavaca Bay at 8:00 p.m. that evening. He quickly sent a rider with a message to James Kerr who lived inland on the Lavaca River. Dimmitt reported the conditions surrounding his departure from the Alamo and closed with: “. . . On the 24th there was heavy cannonading, particularly at the close of the evening. I left the Rovia at 10:00 p.m., on the 25th, and heard no more firing, from which I concluded the Alamo had been taken by storm. On the night of the 24th, I was informed that there were from four to six thousand Mexicans in and around Bexar. [General Jose C.] Urrea was at Carisota, on the Matamoros road, marching for Goliad. If immediate steps are not taken to defend Guadalupe Victoria
[Victoria, Texas—100 miles east of Bexar], the Mexicans will soon be upon our families.”
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Time was running out, not only for the Alamo, but for the rest of Anglo-Celtic Texas. At San Felipe, John A. Wharton, Houston's adjutant general, sent a rider to Brazoria, on the lower Brazos River, with a plea for Alamo relief. He wrote: “I advise all that live in the upper part of the Jurisdiction who can procure horses, to leave immediately for Gonzales. . . . I consider it unnecessary to make appeal to your patriotism, as the information from Bexar, speaks louder than words.” Still, Moseley Baker took his own good time in organizing a company to march to the Alamo. Lt. Colonel James C. Neill, however, moved quickly. He obtained six hundred dollars from Henry Smith and left for Gonzales.
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Up the road at Washington-on-the-Brazos, where the March convention was to take place, William Fairfax Gray, a recent arrival from the United States, took notice of events. He observed that the weather was “cold and drizzling.” In regard to the Alamo, Gray wrote: “Another express is received from Travis, dated the 24th . . . An unconditional surrender had been demanded, which he had answered by a cannon shot. He was determined to defend the place to the last, and called earnestly for assistance. Some are going, but the
vile rabble
here cannot be moved.”
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Sam Houston, commander-in-chief of the Texian military forces, arrived at Washington-on-the-Brazos to take a seat at the convention as a delegate from Refugio. Mr. Gray, who appears to have known nothing of Houston's experiences in Texas, noted: “Gen'l Houston's arrival has created more sensation than that of any other man. He is evidently the people's man, and seems to take pains to ingratiate himself with everybody. He is much broken in appearance, but has still a fine person and courtly manners; will be forty-three years on 3rd of March – looks older.” Houston, instead of concerning himself with the organization of a relief force for the Alamo, met with John Forbes and prepared a report on the unnecessary treaty they had negotiated with the peaceful Indians of East Texas.
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While Houston ignored the Alamo's critical situation, Albert Martin, J. J. Tumlinson, and John W. Smith and their rangers, after riding from Ecleto Creek, probably camped on the Cibolo Creek ford, twenty miles east of Bexar—a five- or six-hour ride to the Alamo. That evening they
readied their weapons, horses, and other equipment for the ride to the Alamo. Lastly, they probably had a cold supper to avoid detection by any enemy spies in the area. Sometime after sundown Martin and Smith departed the Cibolo with at least thirty-four men. It appears that Tumlinson and the Mina rangers decided to wait on Fannin before riding to the Alamo. A number of the Gonzales rangers also appear to have decided to wait on Fannin. Those individuals were First Lieutenant Thomas Jackson, Second Lieutenant George Kimbell, Andrew Kent, Abe Darst, Wash Cottle, Albert Fuqua, John Gaston, and Fannin courier Edwin T. Mitchell.
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At Mina, Edward Burleson detached Thomas McGehee, Martin Walker, Andy Mays, David Heldeman, and Michel Sishum from Jesse Billingsly's volunteer company to operate as spies to scout the San Antonio road between Mina and Bexar to give the Mina citizens quick notice of any enemy advance. McGehee commanded the scout detachment. They remained out in that service until March 20, when they joined Houston's army at Beeson's Crossing (Columbus) on the Colorado River.
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In the Alamo that night, Travis, concerned that seven couriers had been sent out for assistance and not a single man had returned, put another man on the road to Gonzales. The rider was Samuel G. Bastian, a former resident of Alexandria, Louisiana, who probably departed shortly after dark for Gonzales “to hurry up reinforcements.”
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On the Mexican side that night, Santa Anna posted the Jimenez battalion to the east side of the Alamo. Near midnight Santa Anna sent General Ramirez y Sesma with the Dolores cavalry and the Jimenez infantry to locate and attack Fannin's force, which was supposed to be on the march to San Antonio. The general's last words to Ramirez y Sesma were: “Try to fall on them at dawn in order that you may take them by surprise. In this war you know there are no prisoners.”
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The first hours of the day found John W. Smith, Albert Martin, and thirty-four mounted men, after having crossed the San Antonio River someplace north of the town, positioned north of San Antonio on the west side of the river and about a thousand yards northwest of the Alamo. That approach to the Alamo appears to have been the only avenue to the fortress that was not obviously blocked by Mexican soldiers.
The Texians were someplace above two sugarcane mills that were due west of the Molino Blanco, a gristmill on the river about eight hundred yards north of the Alamo. There was an enemy encampment at the Molino Blanco. A second Mexican detachment was located next to the Alamo
acequia
(irrigation ditch) eight hundred yards northeast of the old mission. Sam Bastian, who had left the Alamo the previous evening, had encountered the Gonzales men and joined them to enter the Alamo. Smith and Martin, however, were well acquainted with the area as they had entered the city from the Texian camp at the Molino Blanco during the storming of Bexar in December 1835.
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Sometime before 3:00 a.m., with a cold norther blowing at their backs, the Texians edged their horses toward the Alamo across the San Antonio River. The rebels, however, before crossing the river, were detected by the Mexicans. The rangers probably rode into, if not over, an enemy encampment or a roving patrol. At that point, they probably made a run for the Alamo.
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Sam Bastain, ______ Rigault, the Spanish Creole, and two other men were separated from the unit by enemy soldiers. Bastian described the event with these words: “. . . When near the fort we were discovered and fired on by the Mexican troops. Most of the party got through; but I and three others had to take to the chaparral to save our lives.” A fifth ranger, John Ballard, was also separated from the company. He, however, appears to have made his way back to the Cibolo ford. Otherwise, Martin, Smith, and thirty men rode into the Alamo at 3:00 a.m. that morning.
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The norther, which probably included a dark sky and perhaps rain, served the mounted rangers well that morning. Gray, at Washington-on-the-Brazos, described the weather with these words: “In the night the wind sprung up from the north and blew a gale, accompanied by lightning, thunder, rain and hail, and became very cold. In the morning the thermometer was down to 33 degrees. . . .” At daylight in Bexar, Almonte reported that the temperature was thirty-six degrees.
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The available evidence indicates the enemy did not know exactly what had occurred on their northern line. Almonte, if he was aware of it, made no mention of the rebels' mad ride through the Mexican line. In 1837 Ramon Martinez Caro, Santa Anna's civilian secretary, reported: “. . . two small reinforcements from Gonzalez that succeeded in breaking through our lines and entering the fort. The first consisted of four men who gained the fort one night, and the second was a party of twenty-five
who introduced themselves in the daytime.” Thirteen years later General Vicente Filisola, second in command of the Texas campaign, wrote about “. . . 32 people of the Town of Gonzalez who under the cover of darkness joined the group two days before the attack on the fort.”
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