Date: 10/25/98
From: Tom Cannon tcannon@ibm.com
I've noticed that the columns on the front of the Alamo spiral upwardswhile the columns on the Bracketville "Alamo " spiral downwards. What wasthe reason for such a noticeable difference?
Subject: Crockett's battle attire
Date: 10/28/98
From: Ron D'Ambrosi
What type of clothes did David Crockett wear during the siege and finalassault on the Alamo? Did he wear a buckskin coat, buckskin breaches anda coonskin cap or did he wear conventional attire? Did he wear a combinationof both? Did he wear moccasins, shoes or boots during the siege and battle?
No one can say for certain what Crockett wore during the siege and battle of the Alamo. Decades after the event, when both Texian noncombatant survivors and Mexican veterans were asked to offer their reminiscences, some details of his dress were mentioned, although these may have been influenced by the popular art and literature that had been spawned by his legend. Thus, we have "long buckskin coat" and "coonskin cap" alongside accounts of his wearing "a coat with capes", or of being dressed "like a gentleman". In fact, all of these are suggestive of what was probably the reality.
In 1835, when Crockett arrived in Texas, the Mexican province wasin its greater part a wilderness. Like all "tourists" in all times, Crockettwould have packed and worn several changes of clothing; and, like mostsensible Western travelers, he would have donned his toughest, most durableoutdoor wear for the wilder stretches of the journey, not his Sunday best.This would mean his hunting clothes; and buckskin was the most durablein this category. Hunting shirts of linen, linsey-woolsey or pure tow werealso worn by the frontiersmen of his day; and Crockett himself was describedduring an 1834 riverboat voyage down the Ohio as wearing a ruffled huntingshirt of calico.
While touring Massachusetts that same year, he visited a factorythat produced a variety of items made of India rubber, and was given apresent of a hunting coat made of the same material. He might very wellhave brought this to Texas, too. In fact, James W. Fannin was wearing anIndia rubber coat at the time of his execution at Goliad. It is thereforeno leap of logic to assume that Crockett would not have worn his very bestclothes during the grim and dirty business that the Alamo siege became.
A warm shirt of flannel or wool, perhaps, and a vest over that;and over that a hunting coat of buckskin or other material; and over that,if the weather grew cold enough, a greatcoat, blanketcoat, or perhaps evenblanket worn like a cloak?this might have been Crockett's attire duringhis last days.
As for the coonskin cap, or any cap made of animal fur, it wouldhave been far more sensible than a top hat?for one thing, you could goto sleep wearing a cap?though Crockett probably also took a common tophat of beaver into Texas. Often it boils down to which account of his dressyou choose to believe. However, it is no stretch to consider the likelihoodthat other members of the garrison wore a variety of hunting clothes, too,perhaps even Travis himself. One merely has to recall the full-length,ca. 1833 portrait of Texas' most "civilized" early colonist, Stephen Austin,dressed not in top hat and tails, but dark, fringed hunting shirt, andaccoutered with bullet pouch and powder horn, knife, long rifle and tomahawk!
What Crockett wore on his feet at the Alamo is as much an uncertaintyas his overall attire is. Naturally, moccasins were the preferred footwearof the southern forests; and since spurs could be attached to them frontiersmencould even wear them while riding. According to Noah Smithwick, the menof Houston's army, after the fall of the Alamo, lacked boots entirely,wearing instead either shoes or moccasins. But chances are that Crockettmight have carried a pair of boots into Texas, and perhaps a pair of plainshoes, or even brogans, as well as the familiar moccasins.
However, the footwear situation in Texas was generally dismal. AtGoliad on February 25, 1836, John Sowers Brooks wrote to his father that"many of us are naked and entirely destitute of shoes." Some of the menof the Alamo might even have made crude hide moccasins from the skins ofthe "beeves" of the garrison's herd that were butchered for their dailymeals.
Gary Zaboly
Subject: One Texan's view
Date: 10/30/98
From: Brady L. Hutchison
I am currently working on a term paper for a college history class.My paper concerns the backgrounds of the lesser-known defenders as wellas their motivations for fighting at the Alamo. I pretty much have everythingdown, but if anyone has any additional information that I might be ableto use, I would appreciate it. In return, I will share the research thatI have done.
Also, I am, on the side, interested in the theory that David Crockettsurrendered at the Battle and was executed on Santa Anna's orders. As aTexan, I find this claim absurd, but I would like to hear others' opinionson the matter too.
Brady Hutchison
Box 30610 SHSU
Huntsville, TX 77341
accommodation in NewcastleWe can do better than that, beginning this month we will be presenting the first in a series of a six part debate between Thomas Ricks Lindley and Dr. James E. Crisp on that very subject. Check out the "Crockett Debates".
Subject: The Degüello
Date: 10/31/98
From: Chuck
I would like to know when the Army of General Santa Anna sounded themilitary bugle call of "take no prisoners." De Guello"??? I think the Englishtranslation means "Cut off all their Heads??" What is the correct Spanishname and spelling of that call and if anyone could provide the musicalscore for the call I'd appreciate that.
According to the ERROR MSGNew Handbook of Texas, The degüelloalberghi a Glasgowwas the music played by the Mexican army bands on the morning of March6, 1836. It was the signal for Santa Anna's attack on the Alamo. The worddegüellosignifies the act of beheading or throat-cutting and in Spanish historybecame associated with the battle music, which, in different versions,meant complete destruction of the enemy without mercy.
