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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1832-1853
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despatch to the President of the convention stating that he and his command were entrenched within the fortress of the Alamo, and besieged by a large force commanded by Santa Anna, and requesting the convention to send reinforcements to relieve him from his perilous situation. He did not direct his despatch to the General of the army, because he did not consider that there was any such officer that ranked him. He also sent despatches to Colonel ·Fannin imploring aid, because he was well aware that Colonel Fannin was the only officer in the command of troops. On the 4th of March/ one day after my reappointment, and two days previous to the fall of the Alamo, at the request of members of the convention, I proceeded with all possible haste to Gonzales to collect all the armed forces that could be found with the inten- tion of marching to San Antonio and reinforcing Colonel Travis. I arrived at Gonzales on the 6th 2 and gathered some three hundred and fifty men fit for service, many of them without arms or ammu- nition. In the course of two days I received the lamentable information that Colonel Travis and his noble compatriots had succumbed to overwhelming numbers and had been brutally slaughtered. I immediately sent a courier to Colonel Fannin ordering him to destroy all his artillery that he could not remove and retreat to Victoria, and informed him of the fall of the Alamo. Deaf Smith having returned from a scout reported the enemy advancing. I then determined to retreat and get as near to Andrew Jackson and the old flag as I could. 8 [Long and vocifer- ous cheering.] Had Colonel Fannin obeyed my order promptly his forces and those under my command would have joined several days before his capture and inhuman massacre. These facts so painful to me to detail to you, I defy any high- minded person to come before me and an intelligent audience and deny. Travis, Fannin, Crockett, Bowie, were all brave and gallant spirits; they never, while living employed falsehood and slander to carry a point or injure a character; their acts were open and bold; their policy of warfare was to divide, advance and conquer. My policy was to concentrate, retreat and conquer, and at this very moment could the veil be drawn that divides the earth from heaven, I cannot but imagine that these brave and manly heroes, bending from their exalted position, would look down upon my insignificant and wicked slanderers with withering scorn and contempt.
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