eAlamo.com
The Texans At The Alamo
We gauge our heros not in normal or average situations
but by the extraordinary feats and battles that they are envolved in.
When less than 200 men decide to stay and fight an army numbering over
3000, the stage is set for a heroic moment in history. The men that fought
for the Alamo knew that they would die but decided to give their lives
so that the greater war for Texas Independance could be won.
Major figures in the defense of the Alamo included Davy Crockett, Jim
Bowie and William Travis.
William Travis
Born August 1, 1809, Travis was practicing law in Alabama
when he decided to leave his pregnant wife and young child to move to
Texas in 1831. He hooked up with the pro Texas independance crowd and
took part in the taking of the Mexican post at Velasco in 1832. Travis
was ordered to led his 40 Texas regular army recruits to the Alamo. On
the way, 9 deserted and took with them supplies taht Travis had bought
with his own money. Travis became commander of the Alamo.
Jim Bowie
Born in 1795, Jim Bowie might be best remembered
for the "Bowie" knife which was actually invented by his brother
Rezin P. Bowie. Bowie's adventures include riding alligators in the swamps,
hunting wild cattle with a knife, duels, Indian fights, lost treasure,
and the designing of the Bowie knife (steel like a mirror, bronze the
color of lightning). Before his death at the Alamo, he fulfilled one of
his late wife's last requests, that he free his slaves. Bowie led the
governor's ranging parties against the Comanches, became a Mexican citizen
and a Catholic, and married Ursula Veramendi the daughter of Don Juan
Martin Veramendi, governor of the province of Texas and vice-governor
of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas on April 23, 1831. While Bowie
was away on a business trip, a cholera epidemic killed the whole Veramendi
family, in September 1833. He returned to the empty Vermandi house in
San Antonio, and turned to the bottle. When war came the Texas government
would not give him a commission, but Houston found him useful and treated
him as a colonel, based on his ranger service for Veramendi. But if he
sent Bowie to the Alamo with the expectation he would evacuate the fort,
he had picked the wrong man. By going back to San Antonio, Bowie was going
home. Retreat would not have occurred to him. At the battle of the Alamo,
Bowie, sick and unable to rise, was slain in his bed, though a second
report adds that he slew two Mexicans with his pistols and more with his
knife before being killed.
Davy Crockett
"You can go to hell -- I'm going to Texas."
Another wild frontiersman, Davy Crockett was born on August
17, 1786 and known by many today as the "King of the wild frontier".
After losing his seat in Congress, Davy Crockett had gone
to Texas looking for more adventure.
