Dac Crossley's Western Blog

Defending the Alamo -- The Original Commander

General Sam Houston dispatched James Bowie, he of the famous knife, to San Antonio. His orders: Destroy the Alamo! James Neill stopped him.

James Neill was the original commander of the Alamo. Sam Houston gave him command soon after a rag-tag troop of Texians had ousted the Mexican General Cos and his army. Neill studied the deficiencies of the Alamo compound and set out to remedy them. Walls were repaired; defenses reorganized. When Bowie arrived, Neill soon convinced him that the Alamo was too valuable to destroy. What were they thinking? It was never designed to be a fort; it was too big. General Cos could not hold it with a thousand troops. How did the Texans propose to do so with 300?

Neill, originally from North Carolina, joined the militia when hostilities broke out. Rumor has it that Neill fired the first shot of the Revolution – at the “Come and Take It” cannon melee at Gonzales.

He left the Alamo and raised funds for its support. On the day that the Alamo fell, he was on his way back with medical supplies for the troops. He fought and was wounded in the ultimate battle at San Jacinto. He was in charge of the “Twin Sisters,” the Texas cannons.

So we are left with “what if.” What if James Bowie had followed orders and destroyed the Alamo? Then would a Texas Army coalesce? What if Santa Ana had accepted “surrender with parole” at the Alamo? Would the revolution have died right there? What if Texans from Gonzales and Goliad had arrived in time? Would a flank attack have turned Santa Ana away from the walls of the Alamo?

Where would our heroes be?

Dac Crossley
February 25, 2015.

“Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.” – Jawaharlal Nehru.

About All That Snow...

Mid-February, and my mother’s image appears to remind me of the approaching anniversary events in the Texas War for Independence. The gauntlet had already been tossed with the Gonzales cannon episode – “Come and Take it.” Mom recited for us those events so crucial in Texas history – Santa Ana’s advance from Mexico, the perfidy of Fannin at Goliad, the storming of the Alamo, the Runaway Scrape, and the Battle of San Jacinto. (We Texans pronounce it “Jay-cinto,” don’t you know). February led to March.

In mid-February 1836, Santa Ana’s Mexican army suffered a devastating blizzard while still in of the State of Coahuila, Mexico. Record cold and more than a foot of snow brought the army to a stop. It wasn’t going well for Santa Ana anyway. His stashes of supplies along the army’s route had been looted by Comanches. He was hampered by the usual camp-followers, women and children. Then came the blizzards. Conscripted soldiers from tropical Yucatan froze in the snow and ice. And yet, the army survived to reach the Rio Grande at Presidio, and march into history.

February, 2015 has seen record snowfalls in the northeastern US. I don’t know about in Mexico. Here in Athens, Georgia this year, we’ve seen snow – on television. We’ve had it cold this winter, but the mixture of arctic air and Gulf moisture hasn’t found us. Not yet, but there’s still time. Is this part of a new climatic pattern?

Snow was not part of my childhood in south Texas, in Kingsville. Mom said it snowed every eleven years, part of a sunspot cycle. Maybe so. It did snow once when I was about three years old. Mom made snow ice-cream (ugh!). Dad hit me with a snowball.

Another snowfall in Kingsville when I was starting high school. And I recall my classmate Jackie Smith complaining, “Mother, what’s snow for it you can’t play in it?”

Indeed, Jackie. What is snow for? Our friends in the West could give you a good answer.

Dac Crossley
February 16, 2015

“Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.” – Winston Churchill.

Imagining Sam Houston

General Sam Houston, first President of the Republic of Texas, first senator from the State of Texas – a man whose life swept him through more adventures than most of us could endure. Historian Johnny D. Boggs gives us a concise yet accurate account of Houston’s life, in the April 2015 issue of Wild West magazine. I recommend Boggs’s article as a refresher for all us Texans.

Book-length biographies abound. My mother brought home Marquis James’s version of Houston’s story – The Raven. It’s still my favorite. But I also treasure Walk in my Soul, Lucia St. Clair Robinson’s delightful story of Sam Houston’s Indian wife, Tiana Rogers.

In the first movie depiction I saw, Sam Houston was played by Richard Dix. That’s the way I’ll always picture him. Heaven help the younger generation who may think he looked like Sam Elliott or Richard Boone! There are a slew of Houston portraits on the web.

Houston rarely went to the trouble to explain himself. And that reticence has left us with some unresolved questions for historians to kick around. What went wrong in his first marriage that led him to resign as Governor of Tennessee and take to drink with the Cherokees? And for us Texans – what was Houston thinking on that long, long retreat of his army toward the Sabine River and Louisiana?

I’ve tried to imagine myself in his predicament: a rag-tag army of volunteers eager to fight but sure to be defeated by Santa Anna’s larger army. Hurrying his troops through swamps and across rivers, all in the company of civilians fleeing beside and among his army. He never told anyone of his plans, if indeed he had any. If he crossed the Sabine – would President Andrew Jackson come to his aid? Would he enlist his friends the Cherokees to help him? Would he lead his scraggly troops out of Texas, perhaps to invade later? Did he envision Santa Anna’s foolish decision to divide the Mexican army, giving the Texans a chance for victory?

The Government of the Republic of Texas, themselves on the run, accused Sam Houston of cowardice. No way! Houston was a seasoned warrior, unlike his comrades Crockett and Bowie. Sam had earned his stripes. At San Jacinto he had two horses shot from under him and sustained a major gunshot wound. No cowardice there.

I ask myself, what drove Sam Houston? He’d only been in Texas for a couple of years. Why did he rise to that particular challenge? And a challenge it was, appointed General of an army that just didn’t exist.

It’s been suggested – Marquis James, maybe – that Sam Houston wanted an empire to present to his hero, Andrew Jackson. Maybe so. Houston fought under Jackson’s leadership and truly seemed to admire him. Was that Houston’s plan, after all?

He never said.

Dac Crossley
February 9, 2015

“How much does one imagine, how much observe? One can no more separate those functions than divide light from air, or wetness from water.” - Elspeth Huxley, The Flame Trees of Thika.