364
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1836
on the testimony of the whole army." Caro was Santa Anna's private secre- tary in 1836, and his statement is doubtless true. The most careful stu- dents of Texas history have accepted his statement concerning the number of Texans who were thus killed. 4 James Bowie. See Houston to Fannin, November 13, 1835. 5 The best authorities of Texas history accept Mrs. Almaron Dickerson's own account of this supposed leap made by her husband, and she said that it was positively not true. Her story is that they had but one child, &. little girl only fifteen months old at the time of the fall of the Alamo. She said that when the Mexicans entered the inner walls of the fortress on the morning of March 6, her husband, Captain Almaron Dickerson, ranking officer of artillery, whose station during the last assault had been at a -cannon on the walls of the old chapel, came to the room that they had occupied and told her that all was lost, for the Mexicans were within the walls. He then kissed her, and told her to save their child if it might be possible; after that he returned to his guns on the walls of the old church, and she never saw him again. Various documents in the archives of the Texas State Library show that Almaron Dickerson was a brave, cool-headed man, and one can feel secure in believing that he died at his post, fighting bravely although hopelessly. Of course, in this letter Hous- ton is merely repeating rumor, for he had not at that time verified the report of the fall of the Alamo. Statements here are taken from the account that Mrs. Dickerson told to her grandchildren, Mr. A. D. Griffith, and Mrs. Susan Sterling. Mr. Griffith still (1937) lives at Austin, Texas; Mrs. Sterling died there in 1929. Headquarters, Gonzales, March 11, 1836. To Colonel J. W. Fannin, commanding at Goliad, Sir: On my arrival here this afternoon, the following intelli- gence was received through a Mexican, supposed to 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 Mexi- cans 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 called 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 Ugarteche.-1
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