Alamo Traces (62 page)

The alleged Pena memoir manuscript has other characteristics that indicate it was not written by Pena. Limited time and space, however, make additional analysis impossible. In the end, the debate boils down to Occam's Razor, a rule of logic that states: “. . . a person should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything, or that the person should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed.”
⁵²
Pena believers can spin all kinds of different theories to explain the many forgery characteristics found in the Pena memoir manuscript and its presentation to the world by Jesus Sanchez Garza, a known counterfeiter of nineteenth-century Mexican coins.
⁵³
There is, however, only one reasonable answer that explains all of the Pena problems: it is a forgery. Lastly, one must remember that old observation about the truth: “if it looks like a
duck, if it quacks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, then it is most likely a duck.” Think about it. The Campaign Diary manuscript has no forgery characteristics. Yet, the memoir manuscript and the manner in which Sanchez Garza published the document are loaded with forgery characteristics. The memoir manuscript sure looks like a duck to this investigator.

They saw the bloody Spaniard near,
His legions gath'ring thick and fast—
“We fall, but it shall cost you dear,”
Words by each soldier briefly past.

For mortal fight they quick prepared,
Undaunted by the num'roas host,
To heaven each sent his dying prayer,
And hastened to his
fatal
post.

A thought to wife and children dear,
On life's rough sea without a guide,
Drew from each eye the “Soldier's Tear,”
Brushed away quick with soldier's pride.

And 'mong the names that Fame has spread,
For daring deeds to every land;
'Mong heroes who have nobly bled,
Crockett in bold relief shall stand,

Like tiger turning on his foe,
When driven to his last retreat,
His hand dealt many a fearful blow,
And
heaps
lay welt'ring at his feet.

Till covered thick with gashes deep,
Borne down by numbers, Crockett fell,
Calmly as to an evening's sleep,
Lull'd by the tolling curfew bell.

His soul from Nature's quarry wrought,
Own'd not the world's adultering mould—
But rough as by the miner bought,
Remained the virgin gold.

And Texas Phoenix-like shall rise,
Shall freedom's pinions proudly spread,
Hail'd by those spirits of the skies,
That on
her
alters nobly bled.

J. A.
⁵⁴

None needed. The poem speaks for itself.

1
Election Returns Collection, TSL.

2
Telegraph and Texas Register
, January 23, 1836, San Felipe. This important document does not appear in
The Papers of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836
. Historian Stephen L. Hardin located the document and shared it with this investigator.

3
Fernando de Leon and Charles Laso to Philip Dimmitt, December 18, 1835, Goliad, Box 2-9-19, Council Papers, TSL. Laso was Dimmitt's father-in-law.

4
Goliad Declaration, December 20, 1835, Goliad, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, III: 266.

5
Hobart Huson,
Captain Philip Dimmitt's Commandancy of Goliad, 1835-1836
(Austin: Von Boeckman-Jones Co., 1974), 198.

6
“Detailed Report of the Names of those persons who volunteered and formed the first Division in the attack on San Antonio de Bexar and entered the House of La Garza on the morning of the 5th of December 1835 under the command of Col. B. R. Milam assisted by Major Morris,” and “Detailed Report of Names of those persons who Volunteered and formed the Second Division in the Attack on San Antonio Bexar and entered the house of Berramander [
sic
] on the night of the 5th of Dec 1835 under Command of Col. F. W. Johnson assisted by Cols J. Grant & WT Austin Adjt N. R. Brister & Jno. Cameron,” Texas Revolution Rolls, Box 401-714, Military Rolls Collection, TSL. Dimmitt's name does not appear on either roll.

7
Paul D. Lack,
The Texas Revolutionary Experience: A Political and Social History 1835-1836
(College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1992), 58.

8
Goliad Declaration, December 20, 1836; Proceedings of General Council, January 3, 1836, Gammel,
The Laws of Texas
, I: 735-736. The federalist Council of Texas became quite disturbed over the Goliad declaration. They refused to allow it to be published in the Texas newspapers and declared that it had been “inconsiderately adopted – without designing to produce the consequence to the country inevitable upon its execution.”

9
Chabot,
With The Makers
, 387. Charles A. Herff appears to have been the third son of Dr. Ferdinand von Herff, a German doctor who settled in San Antonio in 1850.

10
Ibid., 300. Peter Gallagher was a builder who was in San Antonio as early as 1841.

11
San Antonio Express
, September 1, 1935.

12
Thomas Lloyd Miller,
Bounty and Donation Land Grants of Texas 1835-1888
(Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1967), 163, 281, 742; Luis Castanon file and Peter Gallagher file, PC-TSL.

13
Jon Winfield Scott Dancy Diary, p. 29 and 31, Box 3N186, CAH. Mr. Smith appears to have been John W. Smith, who served as a guide for the Texians during the storming of Bexar in December 1835.

14
Telegraph and Texas Register
, March 28, 1837. The ceremony took place on February 25, 1837.

15
Jesse Burnam file, OS Box 7, M&P- TSL; William B. Dewees & Benjamin Beeson Claim, August 23, 1848, M&P-TSL. The Dewees and Beeson properties at Columbus were also burned on orders from Sam Houston.

16
“Minutes of the Gonzales Ayuntamiento of 1835,” found in a ledger titled “Deed Records,” Box 2N242, Julia Lee Sinks Papers, CAH.

17
Gonzales Meeting, July 7, 1835, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, I: 214-216; Edward Gritten to Domingo de Ugartechea, Gonzales, July 7, 1835, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, I: 216; Domingo de Ugartechea to Alcalde, August 29, 1835, Bexar, Jenkins, ed.,
Papers
, I: 376.

18
Alejo Perez Garcia statement, June 27, 1836, Matamoros, original in Operaciones, XL/481.3/1150, f. 33-34,
Archivo Historico of the Secretaria de la Defensa Nacional
, Mexico City. The photocopy used came from the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic site in Brownsville. Special thanks to the staff at the location for their help in obtaining the photocopy.

19
Jose Enrique de la Pena, Campaign Diary, 13, Jose Enrique de la Pena Collection, CAH.

20
Pena, Campaign Diary, 15.

21
Pena, Campaign Diary, 21.

22
Memoir Manuscript, Quarto 38, Pena Collection.

23
Memoir Manuscript, Quarto 58.

24
Memoir Manuscript, Quarto 59.

25
Prologue letter, September 15, 2836, Pena Collection.

26
This investigator, Thomas Ricks Lindley, is not a certified document examiner. He, however, hired one—Ms. Lillian I. Hutchison, a court qualified professional, who examined the Woll/Pena document, the alleged Pena prologue letter, a number of pages from the Campaign Diary manuscript, and a number of pages from the memoir manuscript. Based on the differences in the handwriting, she concluded that the Woll/Pena letter and the Campaign Diary were written by the same person. She concluded that the prologue letter and the memoir manuscript were written by the same person, but that person was not the individual who wrote the Woll/Pena missive and the Campaign Diary. Thanks to Joe Musso, Bill Groneman, and Steve Harrigan for their contributions that helped me pay for Ms. Hutchison's professional handwriting analysis.

27
David B. Gracy II, “ ‘Just As I Have Written It': A Study of the Authenticity of the Manuscript of Jose Enrique de la Pena's Account of the Texas Campaign,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
, CV: 280-291.

28
Gracy, “ ‘Just As I have Written It,' ” 277.

29
The word count for each page was complied by professional Spanish translator Ned Brierly of Austin.

30
Joe Nickell,
Pen, Ink, & Evidence: A Study of Writing and Writing Materials for the Penman, Collector, and Document Detective
(Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1990), 188-189.

31
Phone conversation with Dr. James Crisp, June 10, 2001.

32
Jose Enrique de la Pena to the President of Mexico, June 11, 1838, Item 487, Valentin Gomez Farias Collection, Nattie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

33
Ibid.

34
Jose Enrique de la Pena to Editors, December 6, 1838, Guadalajara,
El Cosmopolita
, Mexico City, January 2, 1839.

35
Jose Enrique de la Pena Petition, March 6, 1839, Hospice of Guadalajara, Mexico,
El Cosmopolita
, Mexico City, October 12, 1839. Based on a second petition, dated June 6, 1839, from Durango, it appears the two petitions were sent to a district judge.

36
Jose Enrique de la Pena Petition, June 6, 1839, Durango, Mexico,
El Cosmopolita
, Mexico City, October 19, 1839.

37
Jose Enrique de la Pena to the Editors, October 7, 1839, House of the Holy Office,
El Cosmopolita
, Mexico City, October 12, 1839.

38
Campaign Diary, 21; Memoir Manuscript, Quarto 58.

39
Campaign Diary, 21.

40
Memoir Manuscript, Quarto 58.

41
Signatures A and B, Alejo Perez Garcia statement, June 27, 1836; Signature C, Jose Enrique de la Pena to Mariano Mando, September 15, 1836, Pena Collection, CAH; Signature D, Jose Enrique de la Pena declaration, December 14, 1836, volume 200, f. 210-213v,
Archivo de Guerra Groupo Documental, Archivo General de la Nacion
, Mexico City. Thanks to Jack Jackson for furnishing this investigator with a photocopy of signature D.

42
Meeting with Jack Jackson, August 22, 2002, Austin, Texas.

43
Pena Collection, CAH. The Campaign Diary. This manuscript also includes 38 endnotes. Notes 1-7 are embedded in the text of the Diary. Notes 8-38 were written as endnotes on six separate pages. The six pages of notes, however, are not archived with the Diary manuscript. They are misplaced in the larger Memoir manuscript. The notes are written in the authentic Pena handwriting, thus there is no doubt about their authenticity.

44
Gracy, “ ‘Just As I Have Written It,' ” 261.

45
Lic. Lenero
to Commander-in-Chief, December 17, 1838,
El Cosmopolita
, Mexico City, January 2, 1839.

46
Groneman,
Defense of a Legend
, 36-37; Jose Bravo Ugarte, “La ‘Resena y Diario de la Campana de Tejas' por el Teniente Coronel Jose Enrique de la Pena y su Primera Edicion (1955),”
Memorias De la Academia Mexicana De La Historia
, XVI, Mexico City. Groneman furnishes a complete review of the Memoir manuscript's provenance as it was known in 1994. Whereas, Ugarte, in his 1957 review of Sanchez Garza's Spanish language publication of the memoir manuscript, reports that the document came out of
La Lagunilla
, Mexico City's ancient flea market.

47
Pena,
With Santa Anna
, 54-55.

48
Interview with Don Finch, professional mortician, September 8, 2002; Bill Groneman, author of
Defense of a Legend: Crockett and the de la Pena Diary
and
Death of a Legend: The Myth and Mystery Surrounding the Death of Davy Crockett
, is the fireman I talked with about the burning of bodies.

49
Francisco Becerra account in Bill Groneman,
Eyewitness to the Alamo
(Plano: Republic of Texas Press, 1996), 92-93.

50
Moses Austin Bryan to Editors, August 24, 1873, Independence,
Galveston News
, date not given, found in
Texas Scrap-Book
, 169.

51
Dan Kilgore,
How Did Davy Die?
(College Station and London: Texas A&M University Press, 1978), 35; Groneman,
Eyewitness
, 93.

52
The quotation is from
The Academic American Encyclopedia
, on-line edition, Grolier Electronic Publishing, Danbury CT., 1991.

53
Jose Tamborrel interview,
The De La Pena Diary
(film), Brian Huberman, 2000, Brian Huberman interview with author, November 27, 2002

54
The Morning Star
(Houston), Saturday, May 18, 1839. The poem first appeared in the
Red Lander
, San Augustine, Texas. Thanks to Jack Jackson for sharing this interesting research find with me.

Archives Division, Texas General Land Office, Austin, Texas

Bounty and Donation Land Grant Records

Character Certificate Records

County Clerk Returns Records

Court of Claims Records

First Class Headright Land Grant Records

Lost Book of Harris County

GLO Land Grant Indexes

Muster Rolls Book

Republic of Texas Veteran Donation Grant Applications Collection

Spanish Land Grant Index

Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin, Texas

Alamo Papers

Alamo Strays

Adjutant General Correspondence

Army Papers

Audited Military Claims Collection

Audited Military Claims Ledger

Department of State Papers

Election Returns Collection

General Land Office Correspondence

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