I don't believe in the Louis Rose story
I'll confess, its hard to keep straight in memory on who said what, there's gotta be at least four different books out there debating all of this.
It is entirely possible that the French veteran Louis Rose was at the Alamo, and that he slipped out prior to the fall. The highly improbable account of Rose's tortuous journey to the settlements is probably a result of embellishment by Zuber(??) forty years after the fact.
I highly doubt the "Line In The Sand", although I would allow that Travis probably leveled with his men when he realized help wasn't coming.
I find the line in the sand entirely believable, although not necessarily a way of resolving who was determined to die in place. IIRC Ben Milam had used an exactly similar tactic the previous December when calling for volunteers to attack General Cos in San Antonio, the subsequent intense five-day street fight through the city resulting in Cos being bottled up inside the Alamo and his subsequent negotiated withdrawal. Stepping over a line was a clear and unambiguous act, and a vote difficult to deny or retract later.
Around 200 men trapped inside the Alamo, from widely different backgrounds and with different motives, there must have been a whole lot of dissent as the prospects of rescue grew dim. I find the accounts of the Mexican officers De la Pena and Filosoa entirely believable; that Travis was seeking SOME way out on behalf of them all, either a negotiated surrender under terms or a breakout.
Recall the wall was actually breached by that point and food supplies were dwindling, to say nothing about what conditions inside that three-acre compound containing 200 people or more for going on two weeks must have gotten like.
I find it entirely believable that Santa Ann, as De la Pena states, intentionally launched his assault when he did out of concern the Alamo defenders really would surrender, so as to have his victory.
In the same way he suddenly jumps into motion again at the end of March, in response to his rival and future enemy Urrea accumulating a string of victories in the Goliad campaign.
I was wondering how you and your fellow Alamo historians felt about this, and the story of Crockett's capture and execution.
I can state with absolute certainty that I dunno. I do tend to agree with this guy, that is Crockett if was among those handful offered clemency by Carrilon at the end who were then shortly thereafter executed on the word of Santa Anna, Santa Anna himself would have bragged on it.
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/adp/archives/delapena/lind_crisp/lind.htmlOther than that, Joe, Travis's slave, whose accounts shortly from shortly after the battle witnesses say SOUNDED credible, places Crockett's corpse among the dead in battle.
JMHO,
Birdwatcher
