The Struggle for Independence, I835-I836
possessed merits. There was an incredible indifference throughout Texas. The apathy of the public was appalling. Colonel Neill reported on January 24 that the effective garrison in San Antonio had been reduced to about one hundred. Many men were leaving at will almost every day. They had neither arms nor supplies. They had not been paid for more than a month. Neill, himself, had not enough money to have his shirt· washed. Although the defenses of the Alamo were worth- less, Neill, nevertheless, pleaded for men, supplies, and means for strengthening the fortifications. He made not the slightest suggestion of abandoning the place; on the contrary, he urged holding the Alamo at all costs. But on January 17 Houston had ordered Colonel Bowie, then back in Goliad, to proceed immediately to San Antonio with thirty men to demolish the fortifications. Bowie arrived in San Antonio two days later, but took no steps to carry out the order. Governor Smi.th, who did not agree with Houston, now relieved Travis of his recruiting duties and ordered him to reinforce San Antonio with as many men as he could raise. Only after great difficulty Travis succeeded in enlisting about thirty regulars. By January 28 he was ready to march to San Antonio. The lack of money was such that he had to spend $143 of his own to outfit the men. Travis appears to have had a premonition of the seriousness of his assignment. In a letter to Governor Smith he said, "I shall do my duty, even if I am sacrificed, unless I receive orders to countermarch." 39 By February 3 Travis was in San Antonio with his small band. Bowie and Travis immediately declared their firm resolve to defend the Alamo to the last man. "We had rather die in these ditches than give them up to the enemy," they wrote Governor Smith. Dissension between the two leaders, however, soon developed. On February I I Colonel Neill left San Antonio because of illness, and named Travis commander in his absence. The next day Travis wrote Governor Smith again to reassure him. "I am determined to defend it to the last, and should Bejar fall, your friend will be buried beneath its ruins." He had just learned that Santa Anna was about to cross the Rio Grande with a force estimated to be between five and six thousand men. No sooner had Colonel Neill left than the volunteers, who outnum- 39Williams, "Critical Study . .. ," Tiu Quarterly, XXXVI, 273, The summary given here is largely based on this study, the most complete on the siege of the Alamo.
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