This Day In Texas History - February 23

[joe817]

1836 - Santa Anna's army arrives at the Alamo. He hoists a blood-red flag, a Mexican symbol of no quarter, no surrender, no mercy. The siege at the Alamo begins. As Texans gathered in the Alamo, Travis dispatched a hastily scribbled missive to Gonzales. This letter will be posted in a follow up post.

1836 - Sam Houston and John Forbes signed a treaty giving the Texas Cherokee, Choctaw, Quapaws and Biloxi indian tribes the rights of land between the Angeline River and Sabine River. After the war between Texas and Mexico, the government of the Republic of Texas sought to reduce friction between Texas and the Cherokees -- who had been on land north of San Antonio since 1819 -- so the tribe would not get angry and collaborate with Mexico. The treaty was submitted to the Texas Senate in December 1836 but was rejected on the grounds that it exceeded its powers in extending land rights to the tribe. Despite the rejection, Houston honored the commitment to the Cherokees. His policy honoring the treaty was reversed by Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar. Lamar insisted the Cherokees and Comanches be driven out of Texas, even if their tribes became extinct.

1837 - The steamboat Laura left Columbia loaded with government officials and furniture heading for the new capital at Houston.

1848 - The Texas legislature formally created Gillespie County out of Bexar and Travis counties.

1861 - Voting in a statewide election, Texans voted by 46,153 to 14,747 in favor of secession from the Union. Governor Houston was against secession, having worked his whole life to get into the Union. Governor Sam Houston has consistently refused to take a loyalty oath to the Confederacy, and following this overwhelming vote by the people, was forced to resign. He returned to his home in Huntsville where he later died.

1911 - Quanah Parker, the last fighting chief of the Comanche in Texas, died from an undiagnosed illness in Oklahoma.

1944 - Roderick Random Allen was promoted to major general, Army of the United States. An army officer who served in three wars. Allen was born in Marshall, Texas, and spent his youth in Palestine, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M in 1915.

[joe817]

The commander of the Alamo garrison, William B.Travis, wrote 2 letters on February 23. The first of Santa Ana's invasion consisted of what is reported to be 1.500 calvary, with infantry following close behind. Travis starkly realizes that his position is untenable, and sends out couriers with these letters, pleading for reinforcements.
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About 4 PM on 23 Feb 1836, Launcelot Smithers left the Alamo and made the 76 mile ride to Gonzales where he announced the arrival of the Mexican army in San Antonio de Bexar with a note from Alamo Commander, Col. William B. Travis, to alcalde Andrew Ponton appealing for reinforcements:

William Barret Travis - Alamo Letters

To Andrew Ponton, Judge and Citizens of Gonzales February 23, 1836

" COMMANDANCY OF BEXAR, 3 o'clock p.m.: The enemy in large force are in sight. We want men and provisions. Send them to us. We have 150 men and are determined to defend the Alamo to the last. Give us assistance.

P.S. Send an express to San Felipe with news night and day. "

(On the same day of arrival of the message, Acting Commissioner and Aide-de-Camp to the Provisional President of the Republic of Texas Byrd Lockhart completed the muster of 23 into the Gonzales Ranging Company of Mounted Volunteers which he had been commissioned to be in Gonzales on 4 Feb. The Gonzales Rangers were officially attached to Col. Travis' command within the provisional Republican Army. The official muster roll was completed on 23 Feb, however most individuals who joined the Gonzales Alamo Relief Force on 24 Feb and thereafter are often listed as members of the company even though no official muster roll is available.)

--

From W.B. Travis and James Bowie
To James W. Fannin (at Goliad)
February 23, 1836

" COMMANDANCY OF BEXAR: We have removed all the men to the Alamo where we make such resistance as is due our honor, and that of a country, until we can get assistance from you, which we expect you to forward immediately. In this extremity, we hope you will send us all the men you can spare promptly. We have one hundred and forty six men, who are determined never to retreat. We have but little provisions, but enough to serve us till you and your men arrive. We deem it unnecessary to repeat to a brave officer, who knows his duty, that we call on him for assistance. "

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{This account appeared in the San Antonio Light newspaper on Sunday March 6, 1907.}

""The fall of the Alamo has but one peer in the brilliant son of its glory. Thermopylae and the Alamo are side by side on the imperishable tables of history; the names of Leonidas and Travis are synonymous for heroism. The modern altar of liberty almost casts its shadow upon the majority of the readers of The Light.........It is, therefore, the purpose, not so much to give history as to recall and keep green in memory all the patriots who died to give us one of the fairest lands the sun ever shone on, and the free and liberal government under which we enjoy it. Fifty years, a half century, have passed since that awful sacrifice was made. Few men are now alive who then took part in that almost hopeless struggle against the perfidious and bloody tyrant of Mexico, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, and they are old and decrepit. None of the defenders of the Alamo escaped. The most concise account is that of Francisco Antonio Ruiz, published in the Texas Almanac for 1860. Ruiz was the alcalde of this city. Following is the account given:

"On the 23rd of February, 1836, at 2 p.m., General Santa Anna entered the city of San Antonio with a part of his army. This he effected without any resistances, the forces under the command of Travis, Bowie and Crockett having on the same day, at 8 a.m. learned that the Mexican army was on the banks of the Medina river, and concentrated in the Alamo. ""

[ELB]

From Three Roads to the Alamo,The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis, by William C. Davis.

From his headquarters on the Plaza de Las Yslas on Potrero Street, Travis went among the milling tejanos and asked them what they were about. Their answers that they were just leaving to prepare for the spring planting seemd evasive. Travis and Bowie felt especially suspicious when they found the wife of Ramon Musquiz about to leave. Her husband, once prominent in Bexar affairs, remained loyal to the new Mexican regime and even now acted as a guide to the advancing Mexicans. ...Travis meanwhile continued with his court-martial, while his other officers continued to try to find the reason for all the activity among the townsfolk. Nathaniel Lews was just giving his evidence when a messenger came to Travis. He knew why the tejanos were leaving: The Mexican army was almost in sight.

A friendly tejano told Travis that Ramirez y Sesma and his column had just been seen on Leon Creek, not five miles from San Antonio and marching fast in the hope of taking the garrison by surprise. ... Until some confirmation came in, he put a man in the belfry of San Fernando to keep an eye on the southwestern horizon. Then he waited.

The hours passed slowly. Noon came, and no word, and nothing from the belfry. One o'clock...Two o'clock...Three o'clock...and then the sound of the bell in San Fernando pealing and the watchman yelling: "The enemy is in view," almost unheard for the ringing. Travis and others ran to the church and climbed to the belfry, but by then time he got there he could see nothing. The sentry told him he had seen hundreds of mounted Mexican cavalry a moment before, but they had just turned off the road into a mesquite grove out of view. One or two with him thought the sentinal mistaken, but the man insisted on what he had seen. Dr. Sutherland suggested that Travis should send out someone to take a look, and John Smith, called "El Colorado" because of his red hair, volunteered. Sutherland said he would go along, and Travis said that he would watch them as they moved down the road. If they saw the Mexicans, they were to wheel and gallop back, and that would be the signal that the enemy was truly there. A few minutes later Travis spoke to Crockett, who of course had wide experience as a scout in the Creek War, and he started preparing to go out on a more extensive survey.

Joined probably by Bowie, Travis stayed in the belfry and looked on as the two riders cantered down the road toward the Leon. As he watched, they got perhaps a mile and one-half from town to the crest of a low rise.

Suddenly both horses spun about and started to race back...

[joe817]

Wow! That had me on the edge of my seat! Once again, many thanks ELB. Please feel free to add as much as you'd like. This is important for ALL Texans to know.

[budroux2w]

[SwimFan85]

The flag went up today and it's flying until March 6th.

I hope that doesn't make me a terrorist sympathizer.
Santa Ana was the official government in Texas then.

[joe817]

Santa Ana was the official government in Texas then.

That's true. And that's what the Texan's were fighting. The "official government". The one that dissolved the Mexican Congress in 1834, and abrogated the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Mexico's official government was a dictatorship and a repressive one.

[ELB]

Coincidentally enough, I made my post about the same time of day that the belfry lookout spotted the Mexican army (allowing for daylight savings time, which I doubt that neither Travis nor Ramirez y Sesma nor anyone else was observing in 1836).

[joe817]

Coincidentally enough, I made my post about the same time of day that the belfry lookout spotted the Mexican army (allowing for daylight savings time, which I doubt that neither Travis nor Ramirez y Sesma nor anyone else was observing in 1836).

Oh wow. When you think about it, what the lookout was doing and what you were doing almost EXACTLY 174 years apart....well that's kinda spooky!