At the battle of the Alamo, How did Davy Crockett die? Swinging his rifle Betsy as a club, like John Wayne? Or murdered by order of General Santa Anna, like Billy Bob Thornton. Which version of the Alamo movie do you prefer?
The huge controversy began with the 1975 publication by Texas A&M University Press of the diary of a Mexican officer, José Enrique de la Peña, who fought at the Alamo. From de la Peña we learn that Davy Crockett was captured alive and executed by order of Santa Anna. The diary had been in circulation for some 20 years previous, in the form of a self-published volume in Spanish. The TAMU publication brought in to the world's attention and made it serious.
A firestorm erupted. Historians disagreed violently (in print and in person). Was the de la Peña diary authentic? Or a fraud? The question remains open, but learned opinion now leans toward accepting it as valid.
There had been other hints, down through the years, that Davy was executed. Writing in 1920, Robert Sturmberg says “David Crockett, unconscious and mortally wounded, found among a pile of dead, was stood against a wall and brutally murdered…” (History of San Antonio and of the Early Days in Texas).
I heard a Davy Crockett panel discussion at the recent Western Writers of America in Knoxville. The local historians there were most impressive, based on their researches in East Tennessee. Also on the panel were historians Bill Groneman, who has discredited the de la Peña diary, and his officious opponent, Paul Hutton. Their jabs at each other seemed to be in-jokes.
The panel conclusion was, it doesn’t really matter how Davy Crockett died. He was a genuine American hero. His impact on the story of Texas is enormous.
Thanks, Angelica Reyna, for pointing out Robert Sturmburg’s History.
Dac Crossley
7/11/2010
“Life is a gamble at terrible odds. If it were a bet, you would not take it.” – Playwright Tom Stoppard.