www.famousgrouse.com

The CRYPT Mag

Survivors of the Alamo

> Some of the people who survived the battle were women, children and slaves. Others were the outriders and messengers used to take letters for reinforcements, who didn't arrive or failed to return. Santa Anna used the women to spread the news about the capture of the Alamo hoping to end the rebellion. He did not appear to have spared them purely from a kind heart.

> Susanna Dickinson, wife of Capt. Almeron Dickinson and Angelina Dickinson, their 15-month old daughter, were sent to Gonzales, with two dollars and a pony. Ben, the black man who went with her, is sometimes said to be a survivor of the Alamo, but this former seaman was actually Mexican, and was serving Santa Anna as personal cook. Whatever the conditions were like in Santa Anna's service, Ben seemed perfectly willing to accompany the Dickinsons into slave territory.

> Joe, Travis' slave, caught up with them on the road. A year later he would escape from his new owners and probably ended up a free man.

> Gertrudis Navarro, 15, and Juana Navarro Alsbury, 28, sisters by adoption to James Bowie's wife, Ursula Bowie, with Alijo Perez, 18-month-old son of Juana Alsbury by a previous marriage. Alijo grew up to become a San Antonio policeman. He died in 1918.

> Ana Esparza, wife of Gregorio Esparza, and their four children, Enrique, Francisco, Manuel, and Maria de Jesus Castro.

> Trinidad Saucedo

> Petra Gonzales

> Brigido Guerrero, who had deserted from the Mexican Army about four years earlier. He had talked his way out of being killed by claiming to be a prioner of war in the Alamo.

> Not Present During the Battle

> Francis L. Desauque was a San Antonio merchant who loaned Travis $200 to keep the fort operating. He was sent to Fannin with a message from Travis, and was captured with Fannin's command and executed with them.

> James L. Allen, aged 21 at the time, was sent out as a courier the night before the assault. He later became a Texas Ranger and a Confederate officer, dying in 1901.

> John Walker Baylor was sent out as a courier shortly after the siege began. He joined Fannin's command and escaped the final collapse because he had a horse. He was wounded at San Jacinto, and died the next year of complications.

> Robert Brown, a teenage courier sent out during the siege.

> Antonio Cruz y Arocha was an orderly for Capt. Juan Seguin, and left with the latter.

> Alexando de la Garza, one of Seguin's men, who was sent out as a courier.

> Benjamin Franklin Highsmith, a teenage courier who was sent to Fannin just before the siege began. Returning, he was turned back and pursued by a Mexican cavalry patrol but managed to escape. He met James Bonham, another returning courier, and urged him to turn back, but the latter pressed on. Highsmith took another message later to Fannin for Houston, and was at San Jacinto. He joined the Texas Rangers, and died in 1905.

> William P. Johnson was a courier who was evidently sent to Fannin at the start of the siege and died with the latter.

> William Sanders Oury was sent out as a courier and was later at San Jacinto. He was with the Mier Expedition, and joined the Texas Rangers in the Mexican-American War. He joined the California gold rush, and ended up as sheriff of Tuscon, Arizona.

> Lewis (or Louis or Moses) Rose elected to leave before the assault, possibly on 3rd March. He claimed to be the man who is mentioned as not crossing the line drawn by Col. Travis in the sand at the Alamo before the battle. A former French soldier, he later became a butcher in Nacogdoches, eventually moving to Louisiana, where he died in 1850.

> Juan Seguin left the fort on 22nd February to rally reinforcements. He did gather 25 men, and met another 12 coming from Gonzales, but the fort fell before they could return. Later he was at San Jacinto. After the war he was active in local politics, including a term as mayor of San Antonio, but was forced into exile by political opponents after the hostilities renewed in 1842. The Mexicans arrested him after their brief recapture of San Antonio. He moved back to San Antonio after the Mexican-American War.

> John William Smith was sent out as a courier shortly after the Mexican Army arrived. He returned as a guide with the Gonzales Ranging Company. He was sent out again on 3rd March to organize reinforcements. He had a group of 25 men to return with him when the fort fell. After the war he was mayor of San Antonio several times and was a political opponent of Juan Seguin.

> John Sutherland was sent as a courier to Gonzales shortly after the Mexican Army arrived.

> Henry Warnell who died of wounds in Port Lavaca in June 1836. He was either wounded during the final assault and managed to escape, or while serving as a messenger on 28th February.

> Identified With the Alamo

> Philip Dimmit was a Texas Army captain outside the fort when the Mexican Army arrived, and he decided to return to his former post on the coast. He was captured by a Mexican Army raiding party in 1841, killing himself in prison after other Texan prisoners, held seperately, escaped without him.

> Byrd Lockhart apparently rode into the Alamo with the Gonzales Ranging Company, and then was sent back to Gonzales to organize relief supplies.

> Benjamin F. Nobles left with Dimmit for the coast (see above.)

> William Hester Patton left for another post before the Mexican Army arrived. He was killed by Mexican raiders in 1842.

> Launcelot Smither left San Antonio shortly after the Mexican Army arrived to take word to Gonzales, either ordered by Travis or by his own choice. He was later involved in San Antonio politics with Juan Seguin, and was killed by Mexican raiders in 1842.

> Andrew Jackson Sowell left for Gonzales with Byrd Lockhart (see above.) He was later in the Texas Rangers and the Confederate Army.

> © RIYAN Productions

> www.famousgrouse.com