Whether the above particulars are all true may be questionable. Sam Houston. P.S. The wife of L~iut Dickinson is now in the possession of the officers of Santa Anna. The men, as you will perceive fought gallantly, and in corroberation of the truth of the fall of the Alamo, I have ascertained that Col. Travis intended firing signal guns al three different periods of each day, until succor should arrive. The signal guns have not been fired since Sunday; and a scouting party have just returned, who approached within five or eight miles of the fort, and remained for eight hours. s. I-1. (2303] [HOUSTON to FANNIN]
Headquarters, Gonzales, March·ll, 1836.
To Colonel J. W. Fannin, commanding at Goliad,
Sir: On my arrival here this afternoon, the following intelligence was received through a Mexican, supposed lo be friendly, though his account has been contradicted in some parts by another, who arrived with him. It is therefore only given to you as a rumor, though I fear a melancholy portion of it will be found true. Anselmo Borgara states that he left the Alamo on Sunday, the 6th inst.; and is three days from Arroche's rancho: that the Alamo was attacked on Sunday morning at the dawn of day, by about two thousand three hundred men, and carried a short time before sunrise, with a loss of five hundred and twenty-one Mexicans killed, and as many wounded. Colonel Travis had only one hundred and fifty effective men out of his entire force of one hundred and eighty-seven. After the fort was carried, seven men surrendered, and call for Santa Anna and quarter. They were murdered by his order. Colonel Bowie was sick in bed, and also murdered. The enemy expect a reinforcement of fifteen hundred men under General Condelle, and a reserve of fifteen hundred to follow them. He also informs us that Ugartechca had arrived with two millions of specie for the payment of the troops. The bodies of the Americans were burnt after the massacre. Alternate layers of wood and bodies were laid together and set on fire. Lieu tenant Dickinson, who had a wife and child in the fort, after having
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