Texas Tidbits: Words of Texas Hero in 1836

D.P. Cummings

I have become enthralled by the letters from eyewitnesses to the events of the Texas Revolution. Their historical significance can not be underestimated. The letter you are about to read comes to us from the General Land Office of all places. The contnent of the letter is absolutely incredible. see for yourself.

The letter comes from David P.Cummings and is dated February 14, 1838.


  San Antonio de Bexar
                                        February 14th 1835      (1835 is a transcription error)

Dear Father,
                I wrote you from Gonzales and soon after
left there for this place yet under different views from
what I stated in as a sudden attack was expected on
our Garrison here and we were called on for assistance
It is however fully ascertained that we have nothing
of the kind to apprehend before a month or six weeks as
the Enemy have not yet crossed the Rio Grande 180 mi
distant from this place nor are they expected to make
any movement this way until the weather becomes warm
or until the grass is sufficiently up to support their horses
we concive it however, important to be prepared as a
heavy attack is expected from Sant Anna himself
in the Spring as no doubt the despot will use every possible
means and strain every nerve to conquer and exterminate
us from the land – in this we have no fear and are confident
that Texas cannot only sustain what she now holds
but take Mexico itself did she think on conquest.
The northern Indians have joined to our assistance and
the volunteers from the United States are every day flocking
to our ranks which from the liberal promises of the Government
and desireable resources of the Country seem determined
to sustain themselves or sink in the attempt.  Many it is true
have left the Country and returned home to their friends
and pleasures but of such Texas has no use for and
her agents in the U States should be careful whom they
send us for assistance we want men of determined
spirits , that can undergo hardships and deprivation
otherwise they are only a pest and expense to their
fellow soldiers – to the first class (tho I would be the
last to advise in any case) I say come on, there is
a fine field open to you all no matter how you are situated
or what may be your circumstances, at least come and
see the Country, as a farmer, mechanic or a soldier
you will do well – I believe no Country offers such
strong inducements to Emmigration, affording all the
convieniences of life that man can desire – what I write
is from my own observation and from what I hear
from those who have resided for years in the Country
I am to leave this to return to the Cibilo Creek in company
with 10 others to take up our lands we get as citizens which is more than 1100 acres for single men, man of
family 4428 acres our volunteer pay is 20$ per month
& 640 acres at close of the war.
         Any communication to San Felipe de Austin
you may make with postage paid to the Boundary line I will
get or send to Stiles Duncan Natchitoches, he could
mail it to San Felipe as I would be very glad to hear from you all
         It might be that I might be of some benefit
to you here provided any of  you could have a mind to come
out and indeed to speak sincearly this would be the
Country for us all, nothing could induce me from
my determination of settling here, tho my disposition may
not be like most others.  I should like you could once
see it – a visit by Jonathon would improve his health
I have been very healthy since I have been here and am
improving
                                    Yours affectionately
                                       D P Cummings

PS
         There is one thing might be proper for me to add
Members have been elected to a Convention of all Texas
               st
It meet on 1   March, which will make an immediate
declaration of independence – upon the faith of this
event great speculation is going on in lands, tho the office
for disposal of the public lands is not yet opened but
is expectid will be in a short time.  The price of land
has risen greatly since the commencement of the war and
a declaration of Independence will bring them to vie with
those of the U States tho they can be purchased from 50 cts
to 5$ per acre by the League depending on their improvements
or convinience to settlements – No country is now settling faster
-    as I will most probably be engaged in Surveying of public
lands I might be of Service to some of our friends in
procuring desireable or choice locations.
                                      D P Cummings


Two passages of this letter stood out to me. The first, "in this we have no fear and are confident that Texas cannot only sustain what she now holds but take Mexico itself did she think on conquest." Mr. Cummings and his fellow Freedom Fighters were willing to die for the libertion of Texas from that despot, Santa Anna, knowing that their fellow Texans were equally ready to sacrifice everything they owned in order to live life as a free people.

The second part of the letter that caught my eye was this one: "the volunteers from the United States are every day flocking to our ranks which from the liberal promises of the Government and desireable resources of the Country seem determined to sustain themselves or sink in the attempt." Many people in the United States, themselves not far removed from their own War for Independence, were willing to pack up and head to Texas, a foreign country at that time, to make for themselves a life that would be one of prosperity and promise in the Country of Texas.

Both of these excerpts from Mr. Cummings' letter show that men yearn for freedom and liberty as much as they crave food and water. This is an instinct that is instilled in the soul of every human being by the Merciful Almighty God Himself. With unbreakable resolve and a Spirit in need of Freedom in each man that fought for Texas Independence, Santa Anna was doomed from the beginning of his military campaign. His fatal mistake was that he overlloked the fact that Texans are men and women are a people forged of a hotter fire.. God bless these men and women. And may God continue to bless Texas.

Texas Tidbits: A Letter of Defiance and Anger

Monument to Liberty

You'll recall that yesterday we looked at a time line for the Texas Revolution for the month of March, 1836. During the first week of the month, the Alamo had fallen and Texas had declared its Independence from Mexico. News of both these events were spreading like wildfire through Texas and the United States. Many Americans were getting the news of these events by way of letters from family members in Texas. I found one such letter that is both sad in its announcement that the writer's brother had died at the Alamo and defiant in the fact that the Texas Army would avenge the deaths of of its fellow Texans at the hands of that tyrant General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana.

I am going to reprint the letter in its entirety. It comes to us from thealamo.org.

Benjamin Briggs Goodrich

Little attention has been given to how the news of the Alamo's fall was spread from Texas to the United States. The close family ties and community relationships bound the Texans to their former homes. In this letter, Benjamin Briggs Goodrich, who was a member of the Convention meeting as Washinting-on-the-Brazo, informed his family of death of John C. Goodrich--his brother--on March 6, 1836.¹
                                                    Washington Texas, 15^th March, 1836
Dear Edmund,
    Texas is in mourning, and it becomes my painful duty to inform my relations in Tennessee of the massacre of my poor brother John. He was murdered in the Texas fortress of San Antonio de Bexar (known as the Alamo) on the night of the 6^th of this month, together with one hundred and eighty of our brave countrymen, gallantly defending that place against an invading army of Mexicans, eight thousand strong; not one escaped to tell the dreadful tale. The Alamo had been surrounded for many days by a besieging army of the Mexicans, variously estimated at from 3 to 8 thousand men,² commanded by Genl. Lopez de Santa Anna in person; the fortress, as before stated, was besieged, and it fell and every man was put to the sword. They effected their purpose by a general charge aided by scaling ladders. Upwards of five hundred of the enemy were killed, and as many more mortally or dangerously wounded. Col. Travis, the commander of the fortress, sooner than fall into the hands of the enemy, stabbed himself to the heart and instantly died.
    Seven of our brave men, being all that were left alive, called for quarter and to see Santa Anna, but were instantly shot by the order of that fiendish tyrant. Col. Bowie was murdered, sick in bed.³ Amoung the number of your acquaintances, murdered in the Alamo, were Col. David Crockett, Micajah Autry, formerly of Haysborough, John Hays, son of Andrew Hays of Nashville, and my unfortunate brother, John C. Goodrich: but they died like men, and posterity will do them justice. Santa Anna is now in Texas with an invading army of eight or ten thousand men strong--determined to carry on a war of extermination. We will meet him and teach the unprincipled scoundrel that freemen can never be conquered by the hirling soldierly of a military despot.⁴
   The struggle is great and our difficulties many--but the army of the patriot is doubly served, when his fireside and his liberties are invaded-- We rush to the combat, and our motto is Revenge, Liberty or Death. Approach poor old mother cautiously with this awful news, for I fear her much worn out constitution will not survive the shock. -Publish this information if you think proper--We ask for help and in the name of everything that is sacred to Liberty and Independence.
    So soon as the Convention (of which I am a member) adjourns, I shall proceed forthwith to the army.-- The blood of a Goodrich has already crimsoned the soil of Texas and another victim shall be added to the list or I see Texas free and Independent.-- Give my love to my dear mother, sisters and brothers, and friends generally--
                                                                Benj. Briggs Goodrich
P.S. News has just reached that the enemy are on the march to this place and we know not at what moment we shall be compelled to move our women and children beyond their reach. Their mode of warfare is strictly savage; they fight under a Red Banner,⁵ and we ask nor expect no quarter in the future,--I will advise you from time to time (if alive) and would highly appreciate hearing from you.-- Direct your letters to Cantonment Jessup, pay postage and I will be sure to get them.
                                                        Sincerely your brother
                                                                    & relative
                                                                    Goodrich
[Addressed:]
Free to the U. States, 1836
B. B. Goodrich
Memb. Convention
Mr. Edmund Goodrich
Nashville
Tennessee

The anger and defiance in this letter are palpable. The eloquence visible and the determination of the people of Texas unmistakable. The defiance, determination and anger of the citizens of Texas would be well served in a few short weeks after the time this letter was written by Mr. Goodrich, with a swift and decisive Victory at San Jacinto. It was men like those who perished at the Alamo and the men who took up their cause at San Jacinto that are proof that Texans are indeed forged of a hotter fire.

Texas Tidbits: Letters from the Alamo

The Flag of Heroes

There are several reasons why I do this blog, but no two are more important than the fact that I am a Texan and I love my home State and I can't get enough of the history of Texas. The State and its history are the object of endless fascination to many people, from the ordinary guy like me to the most learned of scholars. I would hazard a guess that the single most written about event in the history of Texas is the Battle of the Alamo. It is certainly one of the best known battles in the annals of military encounters.

One of the things that gripes me the most is a bunch of touchy, feely anti-Texan morons that try to "revise" the facts of the Battle of the Alamo. You know who I am talking about. The idiots that want to make General Santa Ana seem like a misunderstood benevolent leader, when in fact, he was a murderous tyrant who could care less about the people he ruled. In the process of doing that, these Liberal asswipes simultaneously do their dead level best to make the Revolutionaries, (read: white guys) appear to be racist war-mongers or worse. These same dickweeds tend to forget how many Mexicans fought on the side of the evil gringos. How about we bypass any and all prejudice for either side of this story, by using the actual handwritten words of the participants in the Battle itself?

Colonel William B. Travis was the commander of the troops defending the Alamo. Here are his own words as the superior forces of the Mexican Army closed in on the Mission. "Do hasten on aid to me as rapidly as possible, as from the superior number of the enemy, it will be impossible for us to keep them out much longer," wrote Travis in his famous letter of February 25, 1836. "If they overpower us, we fall a sacrifice at the shrine of our country, and we hope prosperity and our country will do our memory justice. Give me help, oh my country! Victory or Death!" Those are the words of a man who knew his days were numbered. Colonel Travis and the almost 200 other defenders of the Alamo must have come to realize early on that without re-enforcements they were surely to die. Yet, they fought until the end, refusing to surrender to Santa Ana, preferring Death to tyranny. Heroes. Every. Damn. One. Of. Them.

An ordinary Mexican soldier had this to say after the battle: "Poor things - no longer do they [Texans] live - all of them died, and even now I am watching them burn…their leader named Travis, died like a brave man with his rifle in his hand at the back of a cannon." Confirmation. Travis died a hero, not a sniveling coward as some would want you to believe. Screw the bastards that write otherwise.


Here's the closing paragraph of the article by Murray Montgomery from which I drew my source material.

"No, we don't need anyone to re-write our Alamo history for us - it has already been written by our ancestors. We have a rich heritage in Texas and it came about by the sacrifices of a tough breed of people who made their homes in the wilderness. Personally, I would like to see even more tribute paid to the lesser-known men who served in both those armies - Mexican and Texan, alike - after all they too, were patriots. The Mexican was protecting his country and the Texan was fighting for his independence. I don't know if defending your country or fighting for liberty is politically correct nowadays, but it seems pretty noble to me."

One more note from Colonel Travis written near the end of the battle, "Take care of my little boy," he wrote a friend in the last days of the siege. "If the country should be saved, I may make for him a splendid fortune. But if the country should be lost and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the son of a man who died for his country." With those words, I leave you with this: all you revisionist dumbasses, stick with the facts. If not, get the hell out of Texas. We don't cotton to liars. And we damn sure don't cotton to those who would turn our history into a fairy tale.