Texas Rangers at the Battle of the Alamo
by Stephen L. Moore
In Texas, there are few historical icons more legendary than the Alamo
and the Texas Rangers. After 167 years, the Alamo continues to garner
attention and the Texas Rangers continue to serve.
In the Alamo’s darkest hour, the last full company to fight their
way past Mexican soldiers into the fortress was a group of thirty-two
men from Gonzales. Led by returning Alamo defender Captain Albert Martin
and his Texas scout John W. Smith, this group included a small, separate
company of Texas Rangers under Second Lieutenant George C. Kimbell.
Lieutenant Colonel William Barrett Travis, commanding the Alamo forces,
acknowledged that the Gonzales men did reinforce him. In a letter written
on March 3, he says, “A company of thirty-two men from Gonzales
made their way into us on the morning of the first inst. at three o’clock.”
In his new book, Alamo Traces: New Evidence and New Conclusions,
author Thomas Ricks Lindley writes that these thirty-two Gonzales riders
were only half of the force that attempted to enter the Alamo. He asserts
that another group of Rangers and volunteers entered the stronghold
several days later, eluding both the Mexican Army and most Texas historians.
Further review of available documentary evidence does show that at
least sixty men were organized for the ride into San Antonio. Lindley’s
new account claims that the other Texas Ranger company, under Captain
John Tumlinson Jr., reached Gonzales on February 28 and operated near
San Antonio with Captain Martin’s volunteers and Lieutenant Kimbell’s
Rangers. Finally, he claims that some of Tumlinson’s men actually
entered the Alamo during the morning of March 4, 1836.
Two mornings later, on March 6, the Alamo and its gallant defenders
fell to Santa Anna’s Mexican Army. Any Texian defenders who entered
the fortress after March 3 are not clearly identified, leaving this
question open.
Based on Lindley’s new assertions, it is worthy to debate several
points concerning the Texas Rangers and their involvement at the time
of the Alamo’s fall in 1836:
1) Who commanded the Gonzales Mounted Rangers?
2) Did Albert Martin organize a second group of volunteers for the
Alamo?
3) Did Captain Tumlinson’s Rangers also enter the Alamo?
The Gonzales Mounted Rangers
Of the thirty-two Gonzales men who entered the Alamo on March 1, author
Lindley writes that Albert Martin seems to have been the unit’s
captain and that First Lieutenant Thomas Jackson was second in command.
Before exploring Martin and Jackson’s company, it is important
to first establish that Second Lieutenant George C. Kimbell was properly
in command of his own Ranger company.
During early February 1836, the General Council of Texas (the acting
government body) took steps to help develop frontier forces. A regional,
three-company regiment of Rangers had been authorized in November 1835.
The commander was designated as Major Robert McAlpin Williamson, better
known in Texas history as “Three-Legged Willie.”
On February 4, the council’s special advisory committee found
that Williamson’s Ranger corps had failed in fully raising its
three companies: only two companies had been partially organized. The
council thus proposed that two new Ranger companies should be raised,
one in the Gonzales municipality and one in Milam. The commissioners
appointed to that task were Byrd Lockhart, Mathew Caldwell, and William
A. Mathews.
The council’s advisory committee decided that a full Ranger company
would consist of fifty-six men and would be commanded by a captain,
two lieutenants, and other subordinate officers. However, as soon as
twenty-eight men were raised in either the Gonzales or Milam municipalities,
the men there could elect a lieutenant to take command of the unit.
The commissioners would continue to recruit men until another twenty-eight
could be mustered into service. The volunteers of the company would
then elect their own captain, first lieutenant, and other officers.
By February 23, Byrd Lockhart had mustered in a twenty-two-man unit
that called itself the Gonzales Mounted Ranger Company. Although the
unit was a little shy of its twenty-eight-man requirement, Lockhart
and his fellow commissioners allowed the men to elect Second Lieutenant
George Kimbell as their leader. Some historical accounts have referred
to him as Captain Kimbell, although he was properly in command as a
lieutenant.
Kimbell’s original twenty-two-man company was certainly a mixed
bag. The ages of the men ranged from sixteen-year-old Galba Fuqua to
fifty-year-old Prospect McCoy. John McCoy, thirty-two, had served as
the sheriff of Gonzales. Jacob C. Darst, a forty-two-year-old farmer,
was one of the “Old Eighteen” who had started the revolution.
The copy of the muster roll that survives was written out by former
Ranger Commissioner Byrd Lockhart in Gonzales on June 20, 1838. He certified
that this “is a true copy of the original list officially made
by myself.”
Prudence Kimbell, widow of the late George, was issued a certificate
that her husband had served as Second Lieutenant of Rangers. On the
certificate for the company’s commanding officer’s name,
no superior officer is given. Instead, the certificate shows that Lieutenant
Kimbell’s Rangers were commanded by Major R. M. Williamson.
John Sutherland, an Alamo courier, arrived in Gonzales on Wednesday,
February 24, with word of the Alamo defenders’ plight. “By
Saturday we succeeded in getting twenty-five men who were placed under
the command of Ensign Kimble,” wrote Sutherland years later. While
he does not mention the other group of men under Captain Martin and
Lieutenant Jackson, it is important to note that he claims that Kimbell
was in command. In another version of his Alamo recollections, Sutherland
wrote:
John W. Smith started back with 25 men for the Alamo, the men under
command of Ensign Kimble of the Ranger[s]. They added to their number
on the Cibolo [River] seven more, in all thirty-two.
Benjamin Highsmith, another courier from the Alamo, also encountered
the Gonzales Rangers. In an 1897 interview with A. J. Sowell, Highsmith
said that thirty-two men from Gonzales entered the Alamo and were led
by Captain Kimbell.
Dolphin Floyd, another Gonzales Ranger killed at the Alamo, was issued
a posthumous certificate of service that verified that his service in
Lieutenant George C. Kimbell’s company which had entered the Alamo.
It is important to note that Floyd is not on the February 23 muster
roll for Lieutenant Kimbell’s Rangers. This indicates that he
was recruited after February 23 and that Kimbell was still considered
to be in command of his own men after February 23.
Lieutenant Kimbell’s men and other volunteers rode out from Gonzales
on February 27 for San Antonio. Kimbell and thirteen other Rangers from
his original February 23 muster roll are known to have entered the Alamo
on March 1 and to have subsequently perished. One other man, William
Philip King, was allowed to trade places with his elder father John
G. King, the latter one of Kimbell’s original enrollees.
We therefore know that fourteen Rangers of Kimbell’s command
made it into the Alamo. Therefore, at least eight of his original men
were either replaced by other men, deserted command, or did not make
it to the fort. The service papers of Dolphin Floyd show that Lieutenant
Kimbell did recruit at least some additional men into his company after
February 23, either as additional recruits or as replacements for men
who opted to stay behind. This would bear out Sutherland’s recollections
that Kimbell had twenty-five men total, versus the original twenty-two
who were mustered. We also know from extant military papers that at
least two of Lieutenant Kimbell’s men tried to make it into the
Alamo on March 1 and did not succeed. In a sworn service affidavit of
May 24, 1836, Colonel Edwin Morehouse verified that one of Kimbell’s
original Rangers had been unable to make it into the Alamo on March
1.
John T. Ballard enrolled himself in the company of Captain Kimbell
(who was killed in the Alamo) on February 24, 1836. . . and having been
cut off by the enemies [sic] spies from the fort Alamo, was the cause
of his being separated from his [illegible] officer. Then he joined
the command of Tumlinson on the 1st of March for some days. When Tumlinson
left, he joined Capt. [Thomas] Rabb’s company and was in the battle
of San Jacinto.
This Ballard affidavit thus shows that he was cut off and could not
enter the Alamo. He thereafter joined Captain John Tumlinson’s
Rangers on March 1. (More on the location of Tumlinson’s company
in a moment.)
Another of Lieutenant Kimbell’s Rangers was Prospect C. McCoy.
His 1840 pension papers also show that his service was cut short at
the same time that Ballard was terminated: “McCoy served until
the 1st day of March AD 1836 in Captain Kimbell’s company.”
Another interesting point is that Kimbell’s name is crossed out
on McCoy’s pension papers in two places and replaced with Captain
Albert Martin’s name. McCoy’s pension application also covered
his 1835 service in the fall through March 1836. He had originally served
under Captain Martin in 1835 but was enrolled under Lieutenant Kimbell
in February 1836. McCoy’s choice on the application was Kimbell.
Someone else apparently thought that Captain Martin was more appropriate
because the larger amount of McCoy’s service period in 1835 was
under Martin.
What is also possible is that McCoy failed to enter the Alamo on March
1 and continued to serve for a short period of time with the remnants
of Captain Martin’s other men who also did not enter the doomed
fort. McCoy remained in service until March 10, when he was compelled
to flee with his family for their safety.
Service papers filed by two different attorneys make it a point to
clearly show that Lieutenant Kimbell was in command of his Rangers.
Dolphin Floyd’s service papers were filed on May 24, 1839, by
attorney John Clark. On this service certificate, the pre-printed word
Captain is crossed out. In its place is written
Lt. Geo. C. Kimbell. Less than a year later,
attorney Joseph Clements filed papers for several other Kimbell Rangers:
Andrew Kent, Jesse McCoy, and William Fisbaugh. An audited claim filed
in February 1840 for John Gaston shows that he had also served as a
private in Lieutenant Kimbell’s company of Rangers from February
24, 1836, until the fall of the Alamo.
Captain Martin
and Lieutenant Jackson’s Company
While there is little controversy that a Gonzales Mounted Ranger Company
rode into the Alamo, there is some difference of opinion on the accompanying
volunteers. Some sources have indicated that Captain Albert Martin commanded
this group who returned to the Alamo.
Albert Martin was a twenty-eight-year-old storeowner, originally from
Rhode Island. He was one of the “Old Eighteen” who had helped
defend the Gonzales cannon at the start of the Texas Revolution. Martin
had entered the service of Texas on September 26, 1835, as captain of
the Gonzales Volunteers. By October 1, his company was under the direction
of Colonel John Henry Moore and later fought at the battle of Concepcion
in November.
Martin rode into Gonzales from the Alamo late on February 24 or during
the early morning hours of February 25. At that time, another volunteer
company was in the process of organizing itself there. First Lieutenant
Thomas Jackson was the senior officer present at the original mustering.
Again, per revolutionary government regulations that the Gonzales commissioners
must have been enforcing, the company could not have a true captain
until fifty-six men were mustered in.
What is evident is that Lieutenant Kimbell’s company and Lieutenant
Jackson’s company were not considered one and the same. Kimbell’s
men were mustered into service on February 23 (some pension papers cite
February 24). Jackson’s company was mustered into service the
following day, February 24.
During March 1836, Joseph Clements had been in charge of procuring
food to supply the Texas Army. Four years after the fall of the Alamo,
he filed papers for the widows of some of the Gonzales men who had fallen.
He filed a number of claims on March 4, 1840. In these, he made it clear
that some men had served under Lieutenant Jackson and some had served
under Lieutenant Kimbell. Other than the Clements claims, there are
no other military documents or credible sources which show a Lieutenant
Jackson as having been an officer at this time.
Clements filed papers attesting to the service of First Lieutenant
Jackson, George Washington Cottle, and John E. Garvin. He claims that
Garvin and Cottle served in Lieutenant Jackson’s company from
February 24 to March 6, 1836. It is important to notice that these three
men were not on the Gonzales Mounted Ranging Company muster roll of
the previous date, indicating that they were part of a separate company
that was formed. Clements is clear in indicating that various men served
under either Lieutenant Kimbell or Lieutenant Jackson, and in no case
did he confuse one of Kimbell’s original Rangers to have been
among Jackson’s command. Although mustered in on February 23,
Kimbell’s Rangers are also shown by attorney Clements to have
entered Texas service one day later, on February 24.
From all indications, Albert Martin rode out of Gonzales with about
sixty men for the Alamo. Not all of them made it there, of course. Two
sources point toward Martin having departed Gonzales with more than
just Kimbell’s Gonzales Mounted Rangers. First, Martin’s
obituary, printed in July 1836 in the Manufacturers and
Farmers Journal and the New Orleans True American,
makes an interesting claim:
He had left the fortress and returned to his residence, where
he was apprized of the perilous situation in which in his late comrades
were placed. His determination was instantly taken. In reply to the
passionate entreaties of his father, who besought him not to rush
into certain destruction, he said, “This is no time for such
considerations. I have passed my word to Colonel Trav[is] that I would
return, nor can I forfeit a pledge thus given.
In pursuance of this high resolve he raised a company of sixty-two
men and started on his way back. During the route, the company, apprized
of the desperate situation of affairs, became diminished by desertion,
to thirty-two. With this gallant band he gained the fort and the reinforcement,
small as it was, revived the drooping spirits of the garrison.
From this, one can pick up two important points. First, Martin reached
Gonzales with a pledge from Travis that he would raise help. He immediately
recruited more men, despite pleas from his father. Second, he left Gonzales
with sixty-two men, but only made it into the Alamo with thirty-two.
Some apparently dropped out along the way; others were cut off and unable
to make it through the gates.
In support of Martin riding out with a large number of men is a Major
Robert Williamson letter to Travis written from Gonzales on March 1,
1836. He wrote: “From this municipality 60 men have now set out,
who in all human probability are found, at this date, with you.”
The sixty men Captain Martin left with included twenty-five of Lieutenant
Kimbell’s Gonzales Mounted Rangers. It also included Lieutenant
Jackson’s new company that was recruited on February 24, the day
after Kimbell’s men were mustered into service.
Throughout the San Jacinto campaign, companies of Texas Rangers blended
into the army. Following the Battle of San Jacinto, these companies
then resumed their ranging duties. Oftentimes, the captains held rank
as a private in the cavalry before resuming command. It is possible,
therefore, that Lieutenant Kimbell’s command attached themselves
to that of Captain Martin for the immediate crisis. Following the fight
at the Alamo, they likely hoped to carry out their pledged ranging commitments
in the Gonzales municipality.
Captain Tumlinson’s
Company
On the very date that Captain Martin and Lieutenant Kimbell made their
historic rides through the Alamo’s gate, another Ranger company
was north of Gonzales at Bastrop. In Alamo Traces,
Lindley suggests that this unit joined the Gonzales companies and that
at least some of its members entered the Alamo during the early morning
hours of March 4. A closer look at the movements of this company, commanded
by Captain John Jackson Tumlinson Jr., shows that it did not join the
Alamo defenders.
Captain Tumlinson was already well known in Texas for his fighting
abilities. Before being killed by Indians in 1823, his father had been
instrumental in laying the groundwork for the creation of the Texas
Rangers.
Commissioned on November 28, 1835, to organize a Ranger company under
Major Willie Williamson’s supervision, John Tumlinson Jr. was
briefly delayed in doing so by the December siege of Bexar. Returning
back to the Colorado River settlements, he did organize a Ranger company
on January 17 at Hornsby’s Station, thirty miles north of present
Austin. Three days later, his men fought a battle with a band of Comanche
Indians, killing four and rescuing a captive Texas boy. Following this
battle, Tumlinson’s company recruited more men and then spent
the better part of the month of February building a cedar blockhouse
on the headwaters of Brushy Creek, north of Austin in present Leander.
At the time of Lieutenant Colonel Travis’ calls for men to come
defend the Alamo in late February 1836, Captain Tumlinson’s Rangers
were at their new blockhouse. In response to Travis’ pleas, Major
Williamson sent orders from Gonzales on February 25 to Captain Tumlinson
to fall down to Bastrop and await further orders from him.
Williamson sent a copy of these orders to the General Council in San
Felipe, which in turn recommended on February 27 that Captain Tumlinson’s
Rangers should proceed immediately to Bexar to aid the army there. From
all indications, these recommendations either did not reach Tumlinson’s
hands or were countermanded.
According to one of Tumlinson’s Rangers, Noah Smithwick, “The
invasion of Santa Anna necessitated our recall from the frontiers. Somewhere
about the first of March we were called in to Bastrop.” This actually
coincides well with Williamson’s orders of February 25. According
to Smithwick, Captain Tumlinson’s company was ordered to operate
from Bastrop, conducting spy patrols toward San Antonio. Once word of
the Alamo’s fall spread, the fleeing citizens of the Runaway Scrape
needed protection. “We were ordered to cover their retreat, and
afterwards join General Houston,” says Smithwick.
Although everything in Smithwick’s recollections seems to have
documentary support, Lindley discounts it completely, claiming that
Smithwick was not even serving with Tumlinson’s company at this
time. Before dealing with Smithwick, an examination of facts showing
the location of Tumlinson’s company is in order.
There are no direct sources claiming that Tumlinson’s Rangers
rode to Gonzales or that some of his men actually entered into the Alamo.
This belief by Lindley is based loosely on the previously cited John
Ballard affidavit that says that he joined Tumlinson on March 1. Lindley
believes that Tumlinson’s men were left camped at the Cibolo River
near San Antonio on March 1 as Martin’s Gonzales volunteers entered
the Alamo. What is also possible is that Ballard, when cut off by the
enemy spies from the fort, was forced down the Old San Antonio Road
toward Bastrop, where he must have found and joined some of Tumlinson’s
scouts.
The fact that Captain Tumlinson’s Rangers were stationed at Bastrop
during early March is supported by sources other than Noah Smithwick.
When Tumlinson reached Bastrop, his men found a volunteer company there
under the direction of Captain Jesse Billingsley. This group was preparing
to march out for Gonzales. Among Billingsley’s volunteers was
Lyman W. Alexander, who later served as a witness to another man’s
service. In 1858, Alexander swore to the fact that J. G. Dunn belonged
to the company of Rangers left or stationed at Bastrop under R. M. Williamson
in 1836 at the time that Billingsley’s company marched out for
Gonzales on March 3.
On the same date, Captain Tumlinson donated one of his oxen to the
Mina Volunteers for use in hauling their supplies to Gonzales. Two of
Billingsley’s men, Edward Burleson and John McGehee, signed an
appraisal note that they had received from J. J. Tumlinson one ox for
the use of their men. Signed at Mina on March 3, 1836, this note valued
Tumlinson’s ox at twenty-seven dollars, as appraised by Edward
J. Blakey and Reuben Hornsby. Hornsby was a man who was serving with
Tumlinson’s Rangers.
Another man, Harrison Owen, claims that Tumlinson’s Rangers were
still at Bastrop as of March 10. On that day, Owen and several young
men left the settlement of Tenoxtitlan for the purpose of giving assistance
to the brave boys with Colonel Travis. When they reached Bastrop, the
people of the town were beginning to pack up and leave. “We met
them two miles east of Bastrop,” relates Owen. R. M. Williamson
was there under the order of General Sam Houston to cover the retreat
of the families.
Major Williamson and the Tumlinson Rangers remained at Bastrop until
March 18. From the Texas Army camp on the Colorado River, Colonel Edward
Burleson sent scout David Halderman back to Bastrop with a dispatch.
Williamson wrote, “I received an additional order from Colonel
Burleson, on the 18th of March.”
General Sam Houston did get this letter from Williamson, which he still
had in his possession in 1855. While mentioning the correspondence,
Houston clearly shows that the Tumlinson Rangers had remained stationed
at Bastrop after the Alamo’s fall.
I have a letter from Major R. M. Williamson of the battalion
of Rangers, who was stationed at Bastrop to defend that portion of
the frontier, as well as to watch the upper division of the Mexican
Army under Gen. G[a]ona, on its advance to the Trinity.
Captain Jesse Billingsley agreed that Houston called on Colonel Burleson
to furnish him a man from his regiment of volunteers. The purpose of
this soldier was to bear dispatches to Major R. M. Williamson, commander
of Rangers at Bastrop.
In addition to Captain Tumlinson’s Rangers, another small scouting
company was operating between the Alamo and Bastrop during late February
and early March. Prior to Captain Billingsley’s Mina volunteer
company being organized, former army commander Edward Burleson ordered
out a small group of scouts on February 24, 1836. Captain Thomas G.
McGehee was placed in command of the unit, which included David F. Owen,
Martin Walker, David Halderman, and Michael Sessum. Sessum was an interpreter
of Spanish and Indian languages.
Concerning the service of Captain McGehee’s spies, the pension
papers of Halderman state:
. . . the company was on duty in the country between San Marcos
and San Antonio and continued in said service until about the 1st
of March 1836. At this time, applicant joined Captain Jesse Billingsley’s
company of volunteers then at Gonzales and was with said company as
a soldier until about the 1st of April 1836, that being crippled with
rheumatism in the retreat of the army near the Brazos River, applicant
received a 20-day furlough from Captain Jesse Billingsley.
Captain Billingsley clarifies in another service document for Halderman
that these men were in Bastrop later than March 1. The service papers
of David Owen shows that Captain McGehee’s scouts continued to
operate near San Antonio until joining Sam Houston’s Texas Army
on March 16.
The Trouble With Smithwick
The trouble with throwing out the memoirs of Noah Smithwick—which
place Tumlinson’s company at Bastrop during the Alamo’s
final days—is that the basic facts he asserts in his recollections
can be verified. In my years of detailed research of the Texas Rangers
from 1835 to 1841, I have found that extant archival documents and muster
rolls generally bear out his writings.
Aided by his daughter in the late 1890s, Smithwick wrote a book of
recollections of his early Texas days, which was published in 1900.
Obviously written from little more than his own memory, these reminiscences
have few exact dates for events. His recollection of names is quite
good, however.
During his service in the Texas Rangers in 1836 and 1837, Smithwick
served under the commands of Captains John Tumlinson, Isaac Watts Burton,
Dickinson Putnam, and Micah Andrews. In Alamo Traces,
Lindley claims that Smithwick was confused about his Ranger service.
Instead of fighting Comanches on January 20 with Tumlinson’s company
near Austin, Lindley believes that Smithwick had gone to the Sabine
River and joined Captain Burton’s Ranger unit, which was newly
formed. This was another company under Major Williamson’s direction.
Based on this belief, Lindley says that Smithwick could not have been
anywhere near Bastrop.
In reality, Smithwick did serve under Captain Burton, but it was not
until late April 1836, after the battle of San Jacinto. Smithwick’s
memoirs are clear on his having served under Captain Tumlinson during
January to March at the height of the Alamo crisis. Two men who were
in Tumlinson’s company, Reuben Hornsby and William Johnson, later
swore that Smithwick was a member of John J. Tumlinson’s ranging
company in the year 1836.
Smithwick served his term of twelve months and finally, after spending
time in different companies, finished his tour under Colonel R. M. Coleman.
Smithwick’s public debt papers and pension claims support this
fact. John Tumlinson’s Rangers signed on for a twelve-month service
period. Noah Smithwick served from January 1836 through January 1837,
originally enlisting under Captain Tumlinson. On November 2, 1836, Smithwick
received payment for his services thus far, including three months’
payment for service under Captain Tumlinson. The same November 2 payment
also covered Smithwick’s service under Captain Burton and finally
Captain Dickinson Putnam.
John Tumlinson left the system in August 1836, but discharged a number
of his Rangers just days after San Jacinto. Remaining men such as Smithwick
were moved into other Ranger commands as the Texas Army moved down toward
Victoria. By June 24, Captain Burton was promoted to major, and Putnam
was promoted to captain of his company. Thus, Smithwick served first
under Tumlinson, then Burton, then Putnam, and finally in Colonel Robert
Coleman’s Ranger battalion during his first year of Ranger service.
Smithwick’s memoirs also list and describe a number of the men
he claims to have served with in Captain Tumlinson’s company between
January and April in 1836. They include: George M. Petty, Jim Edmundson,
Ganey Crosby, James Curtis, Andy Dunn, and Felix Goff, all of whose
service with Tumlinson is verified by audited military claims and pension
papers. The service periods for these men begin as early as January
17, 1836, and end as early as April 17, 1836, prior to the battle of
San Jacinto. George M. Petty, first lieutenant and acting commander
of Tumlinson’s company during the Runaway Scrape, resigned from
the company on May 13, 1836. Taking these dates into consideration,
Noah Smithwick had to have served his verified three months of service
with Tumlinson’s company somewhere between January 17 and May
13, 1836.
Smithwick’s payment voucher of November 2, 1836, states that
he was due all pay for nine months as a Ranger. Soon after San Jacinto,
he then transferred into Captain Burton’s company. Burton was
promoted to major on September 24, passing his command to Captain Putnam,
whose company just happens to have been disbanded on November 1, one
day prior to Smithwick’s receiving his final payment.
Revolutionary Rangers
In short, Lindley’s new research is good for showing that more
men than the Gonzales Thirty-Two attempted to enter the Alamo during
its final days. It is possible, as he suggests, that another group of
men did make it in on March 4. While Captain Tumlinson’s Rangers
were not among those reaching the Alamo, there is no discounting the
fact that the Texas Rangers played a role in the Texas Revolution. More
than eighty revolutionary Rangers were present at the historic battle
of San Jacinto, six weeks after the Alamo fell. These men were either
guarding the army’s baggage at Camp Harrisburg or defeating the
Mexican Army on the battlefield.
Sources
The DeWitt Colony Alamo Defenders: Sons of DeWitt Colony, Texas.
http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/alamocouriers.htm
Hansen, Todd (editor). The Alamo Reader: A Study in History.
Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2003.
Lindley, Thomas Ricks. Alamo Traces: New Evidence and New Conclusions.
Republic of Texas Press, 2003.
Louis Wiltz Kemp Papers (Paul Samuel Houston biographical
sketch), The San Jacinto Museum of History.
Muster Rolls of the Texas Revolution: Daughters of the Republic
of Texas. Austin, 1986. p. 25.
Texas State Library:
George W. Cottle Audited Military Claims, Reel 20, F 676.
Gany Crosby Audited Military Claims, Reel 21, F 744.
James Curtis Sr. Audited Military Claims, Reel 23, F 357.
Andrew Dunn Audited Military Claims, Reel 124, F 231.
James Edmundson Pension Claim, Reel 213, F 568-72.
Dolphin Floyd Audited Military Claims, Reel 32, F 122.
John Gaston AC, R 34, F597. John E. Garvin AU, R 34, F 504-506.
Felix W. Goff Audited Military Claims, R 36, F 231-237.
David Halderman Pension Claim, R 218, F 376.
Thomas Jackson AU, R 51, F 291.
George C. Kimbell Audited Military Claims, Reel 57, F 63.
Alexander W. Lyman Unpaid Claims Collection, Reel 248, F 46-47.
Prospect C. McCoy Pension Claim, R 228, F 176-180.
Harrison Owen Pension Claim, R 232, F 123.
Henry P. Redfield Audited Military Claims, Reel 87, F 54.
Elizabeth S. Sessom Pension Claims, R 238, F 19-31.
Noah Smithwick Public Debt Claim, Reel 187, F 105-111.
Noah Smithwick Pension Claims, Reel 239, F 470.
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