Alamo Traces (25 page)

Alamo artillery
Top: gunade twelve-pounder, bottom: Spanish twelve-pounder

Either Martin or Smith probably carried a letter from Major R. M. Williamson to Travis. Most certainly they told Travis that couriers had been sent east, north, and south from Gonzales to spread the news of the Alamo's investment. Also, Travis would have learned that men were assembling at Gonzales to join Fannin's force at the Cibolo ford on the Gonzales road and that those men would soon ride into the Alamo.
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Sometime before daylight, Ben Highsmith, who probably entered the Alamo with Martin and Smith, rode from the Alamo and headed for Goliad. Travis was worried that Fannin might not come to the Alamo's relief. In 1897 Highsmith said that Travis had ordered Fannin “to blow up the fort at Goliad and come to him with his men.”
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Later that day John Ballard, who had been separated from the Martin and Smith detachment of Gonzales rangers during the night, joined Tumlinson's command at the Cibolo ford. The other four men, Bastian, Rigault, and the two unnamed men, remained in the thick brush north of the Alamo on the west side of the river. Bastian claimed: “He [Rigault] went into the town and brought us intelligence. We were about three hundred yards from the fort concealed by brush, which extended north for twenty miles. I could see the enemy's operations perfectly.”
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General Ramirez y Sesma's expedition to cut off Fannin's main force returned to Bexar during the day. The general had sent riders as far as the tinaja, or water hole, which may have been near the ford on Salado Creek. That was the site where Fannin's advance would probably have been if they had continued their march to Bexar. The Mexican horsemen returned to their camp outside the city, and the infantry to a position in the city. Then Ramirez y Sesma informed Santa Anna that he had not found any evidence of an enemy advance from Goliad.
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South of Bexar, among the Tejano ranches on the San Antonio River, Seguin appears to have raised a volunteer company of Mexican-Texians.
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The Tejano volunteers were probably the following men:

Antonio Manchaca, Jose Maria Arrocha, Ambrosio Rodriquez, Eduardo Ramirez, Matias Curvier, Pedro Herrera, Lucio Enriques, Simon Arrerlo, Cesario Carmona, Ignacio Gurrea, Vicente Zepeda, and one or all of the Flores men appear to have been in the Alamo with Seguin at the start of the siege. These men and perhaps other Tejanos seem to have exited the Alamo sometime after Seguin's departure for Gonzales.
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In 1902 Enrique Esparza, the son of Alamo defender Gregorio Esparza, claimed that Santa Anna had called an armistice of three days and that a number of the Mexican-Texians left the Alamo. That year Esparza said only one woman, Trinidad Saucedo, had exited the fort. In 1907 Esparza identified ______ Menchaca, ______ Flores, ______ Rodriquez, ______ Ramirez, ______ Arocha, and ______ Silvero as having left the Alamo during the alleged armistice. Also, Madame Candelaria most likely left with the Tejanos. They probably departed at night and melted back into the Bexar population—except for the men who appear to have moved downriver to the Tejano ranches.
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The total force that awaited Fannin and his artillery at the Cibolo Creek ford on the Bexar/Goliad road is unknown, but it was probably around fifty to eighty mounted men. Colonel Fannin, however, had turned back, but that fact was not known outside of Goliad. Fannin, at 5:00 p.m., penned a missive to Chenoweth and De Sauque. He informed them of what had happened at Goliad since their departure and of the council of war's decision to remain at Goliad. Lastly he did not rule out an attempt to reach the Alamo. He wrote: “If you can . . . communicate with Gonzales and know how many volunteers will form a junction & if informed speedily I will push out 200 [men] and cooperate.”
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At that time twenty Tennessee men were speeding toward Bexar to join the Alamo defenders. The men were part of a unit that had originally
been a company of thirty-five men commanded by a Captain William Gilmore. The men enlisted for six months in the Volunteer Auxiliary Corps on January 14, 1836. On February 9, 1836, Gilmore's company purchased clothing from the Jones and Townsand store in San Felipe. Later that day the command split into two groups. One of the company's members, W. P. Grady, wrote: “. . . at San Felipe his captain became dissatisfied and returned to Tennessee leaving him with twenty other men in the country.”
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The rupture appears to have been over which Texas political faction the men would support. A written agreement shows that ten or more of the men sided with acting governor James W. Robinson and the council:

Nevertheless, government officials at San Felipe continued to think of the unit as “Gilmore's” company. On February 9 the acting governor ordered the group to report to the commanding officer at Copano, who was Captain Chenoweth. On February 14 Robinson wrote Sam Houston that “most of Gilmore's men” had left for Goliad.
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The “Gilmore” company, however, did not depart for Goliad. In late May 1836 James Gillespie, one of Gilmore's men who commanded a company at San Jacinto, wrote of their pre-San Jacinto activities:

As Gilmore's men rode toward San Antonio, the people of Gonzales were busy with their own relief activities. James B. Bonham, Travis's first lieutenant, left Gonzales for the Alamo, probably in the late afternoon. He carried two letters. One missive appears to have been from Governor Henry Smith. The second was a letter of encouragement and hope from Williamson to Travis. Bonham, who had probably been at the convention when he learned of the Alamo situation, also had a verbal message from Sam Houston for the garrison.
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At Washington-on-the-Brazos, William F. Gray noted in his diary that the morning was clear and cold. That evening a rider arrived with Travis's letter of the twenty-fifth to Houston. Gray observed: “Col. Fannin was on the march from Goliad with 350 men for the aid of Travis. This, with the other forces known to be on the way, will by this time make the number in the fort some six or seven hundred. It is believed the Alamo is safe.”
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At San Antonio, the weather was also cold. According to Almonte: “Commenced clear and pleasant – thermometer 34 – no wind.” Lieutenant Manuel Menchaca and a party of soldiers were dispatched to the Seguin ranch to obtain a supply of corn that was reported to be there.
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At Goliad, Ben Highsmith arrived in the evening with Travis's most recent message to Fannin. In response, Fannin appears to have called a council of war to reconsider the idea of reinforcing the Alamo.
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Sometime that day John S. Brooks, Fannin's adjutant, wrote his mother. In regard to the Alamo, he wrote: “If the division of the Mexican army advancing against this place has met any obstructions. . . . 200 men will be detached for the relief of Bexar. I will go with them. Our object will be to cut our way through the Mexican army into the Alamo, and carry with us such provisions as it will be sufficient to hold out until we are relieved by a large force from the Colonies.

“We have just received additional intelligence from Bexar. The Mexicans have made two successive attacks on the Alamo in both of which the gallant little garrison repulsed them with some loss. Probably Davy Crockett ‘grinned' them off.”
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Sometime after Brooks had completed the letter, a group of Fannin's men, mostly former members of Captain Thomas H. Breece's company of New Orleans Greys, perhaps as many as fifty men, left for the Alamo. The Greys had disbanded after the fall of Bexar in December, some remaining under command of Lieutenant Colonel James C. Neill. Most of the Greys, however, joined the Johnson and Grant Matamoros expedition that moved down the road to Goliad. Now the men who had remained in Bexar were part of the Alamo garrison. Fannin's Greys were not just going to the Alamo to help fellow soldiers, they were going to save their friends and former mess mates. Brooks, however, despite his words to his mother, did not ride to the Alamo that day.
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At 11:00 a.m. Bonham entered the Alamo. He rode in without being attacked, having passed between the Powder House, three hundred yards east of the Alamo on a high hill near the Gonzales road, and the enemy emplacement, eight hundred yards northeast of the Alamo, on the Alamo ditch.
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Within minutes, Travis was reading a letter from his good friend Williamson, which reads: