Survivor: (Of the Alamo)

By Elias Camacho

There is hardly a person alive today that has not heard of the battle of the Alamo and its famous defenders. Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Travis, have all been glorified in book and film. The fourteen-day battle is known throughout the world and is often highlighted to show to what degree men are willing to sacrifice for what they believe in. But, why and how did this final incomprehensible calamity come about? How accurate are these versions that we have been told?

Not till recently have other controversial accounts surfaced. Accounts in the form of affidavits, claims, letters, and diaries of Tejanos living in San Antonio de Bexar at the time, including Mexican Army participants, who were eyewitnesses to the event that unfolded in 1836. This new information details some very different and surprising events.

Many feel that there were other underling circumstances and certain theories even point to possible conspiracies.

I have used a fictitious family and known historical events to give the side of the people living in Bexar at the time and how events unfolded on a day by day basis in this Mexican town we all know as San Antonio. I try and detail what took place behind the scenes.

Although this book is fictional it’s based on true events. The main character , a 12-year-old boy named Temo. Although fictional, could have very well been have lived in Bexar during this time, but by a different name, who knows.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781663205858

Elias Camacho

Elias A. Camacho was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. He attended Jefferson High School and El Paso Community College, where he obtained an associate degree in criminal justice. Elias is a Vietnam veteran having served in the United states Navy for six years, five of which were aboard the USS Constellation CVA 64.(CVA64 is an aircraft carrier.) Elias Joined the El Paso Police Department in 1970, where he served as patrol officer, auto theft detective, Mexico liaison officer, and crime prevention specialist. In 1988–89, he was named Detective of the Year. Additionally, he received a certificate of merit from the El Paso mayor and city council. In 1992, Elias joined the National Insurance Crime Bureau (previously the National Automobile Theft Bureau) as a special agent with a special Texas Ranger commission from the state of Texas. He was assigned as a foreign agent and worked the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Colima, and Nayarit for seventeen years. During the last two years of employment, he also worked the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, and San Luis Potosi. Besides conducting training sessions in Mexico, Elias has also conducted auto theft training in Panama, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, and the United States. Elias has received various awards and recognitions, such as the Texas Director of Public Safety Award. Elias has testified in court as an auto theft expert. He continues to be a member of the Texas Association of Vehicle Theft Investigators and the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators. Elias retired in 2009 from the NICB and is now a Texas licensed private investigator.

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Copyright © 2020 Elias Camacho.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-0584-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-0585-8 (e)

iUniverse rev. date:  08/12/2020

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my sons Elias, Marco, and daughter, Lorena (Camacho) Reyes. You guys are truly incredibly special to me and have always been my inspiration. I’m so immensely proud of you. I love you all.

I also want to dedicate this book to all those Mexicans brothers and sisters, who went before me and who suffered in public and in private and to those who lost their life, simply because of the color of their skin.

Special thanks to Joe Messer for all your help and advise.

Book Cover by Granddaughter Ericka Reyes

(thank you, sweetheart I love you)

Although actual historical accounts, events and people are used in this book, the author has used fictional characters and events to better tell his story. Due to this fact, this book should be considered a fictional biography.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1     San Antonio de Bexar

December 1835

Chapter 2     San Antonio de Bexar

Under Seize

Chapter 3     Surrenders and Terms

Chapter 4     The Mexican Army departs

Chapter 5     Americans triumph

San Antonio under American Control

Chapter 6     Santa Anna Arrives

San Antonio under Mexican Control

Chapter 7     Stalemate

Waiting for reinforcements

Chapter 8     Santa Anna allows armistice

Three days are given to defenders

Chapter 9     The Attack

Bloody Sunday

Chapter 10   The Aftermath

The clean up

INTRODUCTION

Having been born and raised in Texas, I have always been intrigued by the battle of the Alamo. When still very young the only things I knew about the Alamo was what I had learned during Texas History class in school and of course what I saw in the movies like the 1955 Walt Disney movie Davy Crockett, King of the wild frontier. There was also the 1960 John Wayne’s movie The Alamo produced by John Wayne in which he also acted as David Crockett. I saw these movies more than once, and just the other day I saw a rerun of Davy Crockett King of the wild frontier. 50 years later and I am still intrigued by these movies, I mean, to have all these brave men, knowing the odds against them, and still willfully and bravely standing there, fighting the over whelming odds to the last men, is hard to comprehend. Where does such valor come from, to be willing to give it all up, just for their belief in liberty and the pursued of freedom. Not one of them ran away or surrendered, they all fought bravely to the end. No mercy was asked for and no mercy was given. Thousands and thousands of Mexican soldiers slaughtering these poor outnumbered Americans, it almost made me ashamed of being Mexican. This was commitment way beyond anything, almost unhuman. It was pride, valor, patriotism, and the American values at its greatest, true Heroes.

Later, while in the military by chance I happen to come across a book written about the Alamo, whose author I cannot recall. While reading the book I read that there had been a Mexican by the name of Juan Seguin who was actually in the Alamo and although he did not die there, he fought alongside the Americans or Texans as they were then called but was not present on the final day. The book also mentioned other Mexican surnames of defenders in the Alamo. It was then that I became a little bit curious and wondered if any more Mexicans could have been involved in the fighting for Texas Independence and if so, why was this never emphasized in the history books or movies.

I started to think, if it was true that more Mexicans were in the Alamo and they were never mentioned, what else was there that I was not aware of? How many other things were left out of the movies and history books?

It seemed that previous authors and movie producers had somehow made it seem as if there were only Anglo defenders. All I knew before then was that all the heroes of the Alamo along with Davy Crockett, James Bowie and Colonel Travis were white Anglo Americans. While some movies did show a black salve and an occasional Mexican, they were mainly on the opposing side or just servants who were there without a choice. If they so happen to be on the American side, hardly any information or much attention was placed on them. It all seemed as if it was an Anglo vs Mexican confrontation. I never recall in the early days of school of ever having read or heard anything about Mexicans defending the Alamo and fighting alongside the Anglos. Seguin was mentioned at times but without much significance.

Throughout the following years as time permitted, just for my own curiosity, I made it my task to find out more of the battle and what lead to this famous conflict. What where the actual reasons that lead these people to revolt and be willing to die for? What part if any did the local Mexican people play?

Besides reading a volume of books, and whatever other material I could get my hands on (and seeing every movie that came out) throughout the years, I have also made various trips to San Antonio to visit the Alamo grounds and surrounding area. These books that I have read have been written both by Anglo and Hispanic (or Mexican) writers and sometimes with opposing views. This more so in resent publications.

Books like A Line in The Sand by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson (Touchtone Press), Duel of Eagles by Jeff Long (Quill Press) are two good examples of a change of view from early printings. The character and personalities of many of the Alamo defenders and Texas defenders are seen in a different light and not necessary a very favorable light and in certain cases there is a great contrast from early history accounts. One could say that many of these heroes were unmasked.

Another thing I have noticed in almost all the literature that I have read, is that there is always a lot of unknowns. For example, it is unknown exactly how many defenders there were in the Alamo. You would think that we would have known just how many there were and who they were. The numbers given is anywhere from 182 or 187 to 257, all depending on the source. Officially 189 are named in the Texas defenders’ roaster. Among those named are eight Mexican Tejanos. I often wonder, could there be more? Maybe one reason for the uncertainty is that defenders were constantly going in and out of the promises.

Not until as late as 1986 was it learned that a Mexican Tejano by the name of Damacio Jimenez was also a defender in the Alamo at the time of the battle and for some unknown (here is another unknown) reason, he was never included. It was learned that he too, perished alongside his other Mexican comrades fighting with the Alamo defenders. After verification, his name was added to the list, otherwise, for many years there were only seven Mexican names on the list.

Furthermore, it was not until over sixty years after the battle of the Alamo that a local reporter from San Antonio located Enrique Esparza (son of defender Gregorio Esparza). Enrique was 8 years old at the time of the battle and was inside the Alamo along with his mother and other siblings while the battle took place. They were eyewitnesses to the actual fighting (where his father Gregorio was killed). Up to that day Enrique had never publicly spoken of the event because he did not think it had much importance. Enrique names other survivors who were also in the Alamo during the battle. I guess he never spoke about it because he just simply felt fortunate to have simply survived or maybe it was something he did not want to recall, who knows. Again, all this new information got me to thinking, could there have been even more survivors? The number of noncombatant survivors are now believed to have numbered over twenty, mostly women and children. Previously it was believed that only Mrs. Dickerson, her infant child, and Joe the black slave had survived. Enrique also mentions some actual combatants who survived.

As to the number of troops that Santa Anna had and which were involved in the assault on the Alamo, it is also another unknown. The numbers are as low as 1500 to as many as 10,000, and again it all depends on the source. Many of these unknowns will never be known, it has been almost 180 years since the battle took place. No one is alive from that time, official records cannot be found and even if they were, I am sure there would be some controversy. And of course, some for various reasons could have been doctored.

A book written by Timothy M. Matovina titled The Alamo Remembered (Tejano Accounts and Perspectives) University of Texas Press, really caught my attention. The book is full of first-person accounts (interviews, testimonies, petitions, dispositions, affidavits, and other published accounts) of actual persons who were eyewitnesses and who lived in San Antonio at the time of the battle. These people witnessed certain events before the battle, during the battle and after the battle.

According to certain accounts the population in Bexar in 1836 was around 2,100 with the greatest majority being Hispanic. The majority of Anglo Americans who settled in Texas settled in east Texas close too and around the present-day area of Houston. San Antonio was the most western frontier of Texas. The area west and north of San Antonio was mainly Indian Territory.

So even if half of these people (Mexicans) who lived there, were to have abandoned (many left for safety knowing a conflict was to take place) the area before the battle, there would have still been around 1,000 inhabitants in San Antonio de Bexar to witnesses the event.

Hours before Santa Anna arrived in Bexar, many of the civilian population from Bexar (Anglo and Mexican) entered the walls of the Alamo for safety. Many Mexicans who had allied themselves with the Americans or who had in some way helped, were afraid of Santa Anna and what he would do to them. Thinking he would seek revenge as he would see them as traitors, they took refuge. Needless to say, it is remarkably interesting to read these eyewitness accounts as to what happened on that sad day.

However, most of these reports were written 20, 30, and as much as 50 years after the fall of the Alamo. Some people were interviewed 2-3 times and it seems that there is a variety of discrepancies in some stories and even from the same witness years later. But I guess this must be expected, the mind cannot recollect certain things as time goes by, things get a little fuzzy.

In my own personal investigative experience as a police detective I can say that very often, witnesses to the same event would often give different details of what they had seen.

In the case of the Alamo, there are also some cases in which there seems to be a disagreement between certain people as to who was inside the Alamo at the time.

There are different views of things and again maybe this must be expected. Then again, as for the actual battle, how much were these noncombatants (eyewitnesses) able to see of the ongoing battle? Most admit to having been locked up in rooms while the battle raged on, fearful for their lives and personal safety. It would not surprise me if most would have been bundled up in corners covering themselves and with their eyes closed. I know I would.

There are also letters from surviving Mexican soldiers who were actual combatants. They too give first person accounts of what took place during the battle. One of the Mexican Army commanders, Col. Juan N. Almonte kept a journal which gives daily account of events. But then, and again, it is from the Mexican perspective. Both the accounts of actual fighting from Mexican soldiers who survived the battle and the journal of Col. Almonte, give the Mexican perspectives. They saw the Anglo Americans as intruders, rebels, and traitors. It is with understanding that there was a certain enmity between the Texans and Mexicans and that bias would certainly reflect on their feelings, how things were perceived and in their writings.

Likewise, the Anglo-American perspective of the Mexican Army as being, invaders, dictators, and abusers was felt. It is also well known that for many Anglo Americans the conflict was racially motivated. So, what can one expect? One must also keep in mind that human nature being the way it is, and for obvious reasons, many exaggerated their own valor and things that they saw and did and downplayed the actions of the opposing army.

Did all the American Alamo defenders actual die in the Alamo fighting to the last man? Did anyone try to escape?

It seems to me that self-preservation would surely cause one to try and flee when the odds were too great, and things were helpless. Could there have been some Alamo defender who survived?

Manuel Loranca a second sergeant with the Mexican army and a participant in the battle would later write that sixty-two Texans (it is assumed that they were all Anglos) jumped over the east side barriers of the Alamo trying to escape but were put to death by the Mexican Lancers.

Maria Jesus Peña claimed to have seen through a window after the cease fire, some Texans who had been hiding in a small room come out with a little white flag kneeing down cowardly to surrender but were quickly pierced with bayonets by the Mexican soldados. Maria de Jesus Delgado (later Buquor) who was a little girl at the time and living with her family in a small house close to the river, would in later years’ state that she saw seven Texans who were trying to escape towards the river from the Alamo, killed close to the bank of the river next to their home by Mexican soldiers. Could there have been some who did make it?

According to some reports two Alamo defenders, one a twenty-four-year-old named Henry Warnell although wounded was able to slip by the Mexican Army and make it to safety. According to his family who filed an affidavit, Henry died three months later of his wounds. There was supposedly another wounded survivor who also showed up in Nacogdoches in late March.

As late as 2019 there were still human remains being found in the Alamo grounds. 3 sets of human remains were found in the Chapel area. Who’s were they? Where they defenders, Mexican soldiers, or civilians? Who knows, and it will be sometime before they can determine that. But as I mentioned before there are many things we don’t know and possibly will never know about who was at the Alamo at the time of the battle and if some were forgotten to history.

The tomb of the unknown soldier in Arlington reads Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God. Maybe we can say of those remains found in the Alamo Here rest in honored glory a fellow human being known only to God

My point is, given the fact that at the Alamo we are talking of hundreds (if not thousands) of men, who were fighting at the same time, in different places of the Alamo (as well as outside), with many and different things occurring at the same time, it was just before sunrise and still dark, doesn’t it stand to reason that different people would see different things. Because in fact, different things were occurring in different locations. Also, it would have been a perfect opportunity for someone to escape within the melee.

In that moment of fear, confusion, and rapid actions taking place, maybe there were cases where people thought they saw something when they didn’t. Maybe the fear and nerves bleared their perception. Maybe the scene of unusual and brutal occurrences influenced their perception, and many were simply in shock. Maybe not everyone knew everyone inside the Alamo. Maye there were more Mexican Tejanos then what is mentioned defending the Alamo. Maybe there were more survivors then what is believed. Maybe some combatants did escape. Maybe some things didn’t actual occur as it is believed. There must have been so much confusion at the time due to the rapid occurrence of things and the danger of losing one’s own life that for sure it would have made people act, see, hear and react differently than under normal circumstances. Maybe not everything that happened was recorded and many people kept quiet of what they knew and saw. Not only that, if someone did escape and survived, I think their fear of ridicule, shame, and embarrassment would for sure keep them from saying anything.

Call me bias if you wish, but one point that I can’t believe, is that given the fact that during this time in the area that was so highly populated by Mexican Tejanos that there were so few Mexican Tejanos involved in the fighting defending the Alamo. And If so, why?

It seems that except for Davy Crockett, James Bowie and William Travis everyone else is forgotten. Almost every letter or statement given, (both American, and Mexican) the witnesses will always for sure mention one or all three of these people, (Crockett, Bowie, and Travis) as if mentioning their names will give more creditability to their story. It is humanly impossible for these three persons to have been at so many different places and having done so many things and to have personally been known by everyone in town as it’s often mentioned. Except for Bowie, they were all newcomers.

And what about the hundreds of ordinary people living in San Antonio at the time? Those that were not directly involved in the conflict, or where they? Maybe just for the simple fact that they lived there at the time, they must have somehow been affected by the melee. But did they take sides? Stay away? What? What were their thoughts, I wonder? These people who for the most part only strive to make it from day to day and keep to themselves.

My children laugh at me and my wife gets angry every time that we are in San Antonio because it seems that I can’t go to San Antonio and not go to the Alamo. That movie again my wife will say. I want to go to the mall, women!

I don’t know what it is, but just being on those grounds gives me a weird feeling, I get goose bumps. I can spend the whole day there if they let me. I can imagine the walls at the time of the battle, I can see people running around, I can hear the cannons, and I can even smell the gun powder and horse manure. I picture things in my mind going on during the battle. I don’t know how many times I have seen the Alamo movie at the mall close by. I even have a movie (two) of the battle of the Alamo in a DVD at home.

I don’t believe in re-carnation, but if I did, I would say that I was there. I was in the Alamo. Which side? I don’t know, but I feel as if I have a connection with that place. All I can do now is walk around the grounds and daydream and wonder.

But I think I can do better than that. I can go back and live through those historical events. Of course, I can’t do it literally, but I can do it literary with my writing. I will be allowed to see, hear, smell, and feel things through the eyes of make believe. I can use a fictional family of the time. I will choose a main character and though him go back and relive those days. I will follow my gut feeling. My character will need a name, so I think I will call him Cuauhtémoc (Temo), why Cuauhtémoc? I don’t know, it just seems to me that it’s a good name for someone who would have been there and besides it’s a warrior name from the Aztecs.

I don’t want to rewrite history. I don’t want to change things. But, for obvious reasons in this book, there will be some name changes and additions, I will stick to the actual known history facts as much as I can. What happened, happened and we can’t change that. Who was there was there, and I can’t make them disappear? But what about all the unknowns? The unknowns give us the liberty to use common sense, traditions, and customs from that time to fill in the blanks, or at least make some suitable explanations to the story.

So, go back with me in time and relived those days, before, during, and after the Alamo. And experience how it was in Bexar in 1835-1836 through the eyes of Cuauhtémoc Temo Pacheco.

PROLOGUE

American Anglos in México Tejas.

I think that it is appropriate for one to know what brought the battle of the Alamo to be. Not necessarily what we have been told for years about freedom and such, but any underlying historical facts we have not normally been told. Unfortunately, some of these facts have been kept hidden and out of public view by many early history writers.

I believe it was Walter Benjamin who wrote History is written by the victors. For many years we have been given the Anglo version of what happened. But what about the Mexican version, or is there one? Of course, there must be one, but nobody ever wanted to hear it, like John F. Kennedy said Victory has a hundred Fathers and defeat is an orphan.

What were the actual events that led to the conflict? Who were these people, the leaders that got the movement going? We have been told that the struggle was for independence, but independence from what or why? Under what conditions were the people in Tejas (Texas) living under at the time that led them to pick up arms and revolt against their host, and to some, their neighbor.

Were the people in Texas overtaxed, suppressed, enslaved, what? Normally people will revolt when they are oppressed, was this the case? Were conditions so bad to the degree that they were willing to fight and risk losing everything, including their lives. Or maybe it was not the people living in Texas, but newcomers or a combination thereof that stirred things up.

Maybe the best thing to do is to start at the beginning and see how things gradually unraveled and what the circumstances were at the time in order to get a better picture. I for one, never knew what brought this about until I started doing some research for this book. I thought the answer was simple, but it’s not. I was left somewhat bewildered, What? (I would say) I didn’t know that!

Where the masses deceived by some subtle people or a group of people who had planned a skillful scheme to take over Texas, by any means possible?

Or were there some spurious or ambiguous reasons given for the uprising by some greedy, selfish, and self-serving individuals who stood to advance financially, and politically by the outcome. Were there some unknown and hidden unscrupulous forces working at the time from afar? Were the Texas inhabitants mislead? Did the United States have anything to do with it? If so, this would not be the first time.

In 1803 the United States bought from France (The Louisiana Purchase) what amounted to what is now the central portion of the United States with Spain in its southern and western boundary and the Oregon Country (which was being claimed by Great Britain, Russia, Spain and the United States) in its northwestern border and Canada to the north. Everything east from the Louisiana Purchase already belonged to the United States starting up to the Atlantic Ocean. The only thing keeping the United States from reaching the Pacific Ocean was the land to the west owned by Spain. The United States wanted to expand from coast to coast and needed that land to do so.

In 1810 Mexico declared its Independence from Spain and assumed all the Spanish territory. Mexico at the time of its independence encompassed of what is today the western part of the United States. It included present day Texas, part of New Mexico, part of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California and part of Montana and Wyoming.

After its independence from Spain, Mexico had very few inhabitants for its huge area. Mexico realized that this was especially true at its northern and eastern border (Texas). With its close proximity to the United States and its very unpopulated area, it was in danger of being lost to expansion from those living in neighboring Louisiana and further up north along the Mississippi. The United States with its increasing population and expansion from the north could jeopardize the Mexican border. Mexico needed to reinforce its boundaries and needed people to populate the area. Spain in the early years had tried to do just that, especially along the Rio Grande.

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Louisiana purchase

Many Mexicans were relocated from the interior and brought into the land commonly referred to as Tejas. But the area was far away from large and populated cities and was not very desirable. Not even the Mexican soldiers wanted to be stationed in Tejas. It was exceedingly difficult for Mexico to get enough people to populate the immense area. Mostly the people who were there at the time had been part of the Spanish explorations and settlements. The only other people living there were the Native Americans Indians who had been there for centuries.

For the purpose of this book, I would like to divide into five groups the people living in Texas at the time (1820-1836).

Americans, those who were not actual settlers or legal immigrants in Texas and who recently came to Texas from the United States in search of fame and fortune, without legal status or permits. Included in this group of course are some who were running away from legal, economical, criminal, and spouse problems. As President Trump would say, they were illegal aliens and criminals.

American Texans (Tejanos), those who also came from the United States but who had previously obtained permission to legally enter and settle in Texas from the Mexican Government and were living in Texas as Mexican citizens. These were mainly farmers and ranchers with families who were looking for land to make a living and raise their family.

Mexican Texans (Tejanos), those of Spanish or Mexican descent who were living in Texas. Some having been born there and who had been there for many generations.

Mexicans, those of Spanish or Mexican descent but not actually living in Texas, such as soldiers and traders and businesspeople who were frequently in the area but had their homes somewhere else in Mexico and had not set roots in Texas.

Indian, native Texans, many of which had intermarried and mixed with the Spanish and Mexicans throughout the years. Sometimes called half breeds, but not accepted as Mexican or American and in cases rejected by Indians.

Let’s now look at a chronicle date of events and you be the judge as to what brought this conflict to being.

1810: (September 16) Mexicans revolt against Spain.

1812: Mexican Congress is organized, and a declaration of Independence is made. Slavery is abolished.

1813 (early August) Filibusters from the U.S. led by American officer Augustus William Magee, funded by U.S. Money, and monitored by President Monroe, take advantage of the situation in Mexico, and invade Texas and capture Goliad and San Antonio.

1813 (mid-August) Mexican General Joaquin de Arredondo enters Texas with Mexican troops, defeats the Filibusters at the Medina River and most all Americans are killed. Among the Mexican soldiers at the time is young Lt. named Antonio de Santa Anna.

1821 (September 27) Mexico obtains its independence.

1823: Stephen Austin (it was his father Moses at first) was given permission to settle 300 families in Texas. The only conditions from Mexico for the settlers to settle