Isaac Hamilton: Surviving Amidst the Texas Revolution

By Dennis Riedesel

Isaac Hamilton's unbelievable ordeal of survival is embedded within a day-by-day timeline of the military and political events that occurred during the Texas Revolution.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477269473

Dennis Riedesel

Dennis Riedesel, Ed. D., is a "Living History Re-enactor" who has researched and portrayed the Isaac Hamilton story as a "First Person Impression" many times a year for the last 26 or 27 years. Dennis is a an 18 year veteran of teaching seventh and eighth grade Physical Education and Science as well as coaching seventh grade football, basketball, and track for 13 of those years. He has recently retired as university professor after serving another 18 years dedicated to the training and certification of school teachers. He is also retired from 21 years of service in the US Naval Reserve (meeting his active duty requirement by serving in Viet Nam) and spent the last 10 of those 21 years as a US Navy Deep Sea Diver. Dennis lives in Victoria, Texas and is an avid saltwater fly fisherman. He builds and performs many different musical instruments with a major interest in playing rhythm bones to 18th. and 19th. century "Authentic Americana Folk Music".

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© 2012 by Dennis Riedesel. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/14/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-6946-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-6945-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-6947-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012917122

Cover Photo Credits:

Background Photograph of Isaac Hamilton’s 1852 Affidavit: Reminiscences of Goliad -

courtesy of Texas State Library & Archives Commission.

Photograph of Isaac’s rifle - courtesy of the Lester Hamilton family.

Photography of Isaac’s grave site was taken by the author.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

PREFACE

PROLOGUE

ACT I      Getting To Texas

ACT II      Fort Defiance

ACT III      Escape

Epilogue

Author’s Notes

Bibliography

PREFACE

After I was first introduced to the story of Isaac in 1986 or 1987, I have performed the following First Person Impression of Isaac Hamilton many times a year. I was an eighth grade science teacher at one of the middle schools in Victoria, Texas and it was early in my historical re-enactor career when our seventh grade history teachers decided to take their classes to Presidio La Bahia in Goliad. They asked me and a friend of mine, Steve Trowbridge, to perform some sort of historical presentation for the students.

Steve suggested that each of us perform, what is called in re-enactment circles, a first-person impression of someone who survived the terrible events of Palm Sunday, 1836. We thought that the teachers might call us by our first names so a search through the lists of survivor names ensued. We could not find a surviving member of the New Orleans Grays, a volunteer company from that city, by the name of Steve, but, since Trowbridge had a New Orleans Gray uniform, he performed as one of the survivors from that company. I could not find a Dennis, and the only thing that was close was the middle initial of Isaac D. Hamilton. So I decided to perform as the survivor of the Goliad Massacre, Isaac D. Hamilton. In all of my research of Isaac, I was never able to find what his middle initial D stood for.

When we arrived at the presidio before the bus loads of students, we explained to John Collins, the presidio director, what we were planning to do. He provided Lester Hamilton’s book Isaac Hamilton: Goliad Survivor for me to read. Lester Hamilton was Isaac’s great-great nephew. I read about half of the book before the students arrived, and I performed an abbreviated first person impression of Isaac.

After the students left, I became intrigued with the story of the Alabama Red Rovers and their Second Sergeant, a son of Francis Hamilton’s second marriage, Isaac D. Hamilton (Note 1). Ever since then, I have been examining and perusing the references that Lester used in his book as well as any other documentation I could find that would shed a bit of light about what happened to Isaac Hamilton and the rest of the members of the volunteer company of about 60 men from Courtland, Alabama.

The Crossroads of Texas Living History Association has been the coordinating organization for the Goliad Massacre Living History Program since its inception in 1983. Our members soon realized that many of the spectators who attended the re-enactment did not understand the events that transpired at Fort Defiance in Goliad. In order to illuminate the historical consciences of that event, I started performing this first person impression of Isaac Hamilton during the reenactment.

The inside dust cover of Lester’s book had a photograph of Isaac’s rifle. I traced the family to Palestine, Texas, called, and talked to Francis Hamilton. Frances Edmunds Hamilton was born in September 1918 and at the time of this writing is almost 94 years old. (Side note to any unscrupulous Pot Hunters; Mrs. Hamilton no longer lives in Palestine.) I asked her for permission to view Isaac’s rifle. She told me that I would have to talk to her husband, Lester, but that he was ill and could not come to the phone. A year or two later, I was going on a trip that would take me through Palestine, and I telephoned Mrs. Hamilton again to set up an appointment to see the rifle. Mrs. Hamilton informed me that Lester had passed away some time after I had called the first time. She was gracious enough, however, to allow me and my wife to visit her home and to view and take pictures of the rifle. In the picture printed at the end of Act III, I had to hold the rifle away from the front of my body so that my tears would not fall on the weapon.

001%20Dennis%2c%20Rifle%2c%20and%20Hamilton.jpg

Dennis Riedesel, Isaac’s 50 cal. Rifle,

and Mrs. Frances Hamilton

Multiple citations are listed in the order that correspond to Isaac Hamilton’s story. This use of cross-referencing multiple citations is my attempt to incorporate a triangular validation technique from qualitative research methodology [See Lincoln, Y. and Guba, E. G. (1985), Naturalistic Inquiry]. Many times Lester Hamilton did not document information about Isaac, so I assumed those stories were based on oral histories that were passed down in his family. The multiple citations are my effort to validate and supplement these family oral histories.

I have always been unsure about what was happening throughout Texas while Isaac was involved with his experiences with the Alabama Red Rovers or while he was an escapee from Goliad. So I decided to include the actions of Mexican and Texas Military forces, along with the major governmental proceedings, that occurred to form a backdrop to the events in which Isaac was involved. Unless cited otherwise the events, as presented in the bulleted outline timeline, are taken from the Timeline of the Texas Revolution (Wikipedia Contributors, 2012), Steven Hardin’s Texas Iliad (Hardin, 1994), and/or José Urrea’s Diary of the Military Operations of the Division Which Under His Command Campaigned in Texas as found in Carlos. E. Castañeda’s edition of The Mexican Side of the Texan Revolution (Urrea, 1970).

The day of the week correlation