Yee-haw, or something like that
Posted by TFG on March 2nd, 2007
Fly your flag…it’s Texas Independence Day.
And it is my native-born duty as an insufferable Texian to remind you of the Alamo, and the most moving war letter ever written:
Commandancy of the Alamo
Bexar, Feby. 24th, 1836To the People of Texas & all Americans in the World– Fellow Citizens and Compatriots–
I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna–I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man–The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken–I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls–I shall never surrender or retreat.
Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all despatch–The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country–Victory or Death.
William Barret Travis, Lt. Col. comdt.
P. S. The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels & got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves.
[Updated with Travis' postscript...an important part that got left off my copy-n-paste...
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:39 am
Flag’s up. I’ve often wondered why, even in the olden days when this day was commemorated rather more than it is today, there was no particular observance of March 6, the day the Alamo fell. At any rate, Happy TID!
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
“PS I know God is on our side since we have been here we have found 20 bushels of corn and 10 head of beevies.” or something like that on the end of the letter right?
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Absolutely — it was bad copy-editing on my part.
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Sounds like a hard-headed man. Must have been from South Carolina.
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Nobody includes the stupid beeves P.S. It blows the tone of the preceding right out of the water. Have to wonder how distracted Travis really was to blow up his own declaration like that.
March 2nd, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Oh, I don’t know…it sounds like he was trying to say that the Divine was on their side, if he could see to their provisions.
They sent three messangers to Goliad, to ask Colonel Fannin to come to their aid, but all who came was a troop of thirty men from the Gonzales militia, who sneaked through the Mexican lines.
Together, they bought fourteen days with their lives… just enough time.
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I like to think it shows that Col. Travis was an eloquent AND a practical man….plus, you know what they say about pros and logistics, heh heh. But, yeah, I imagine he was a little distracted by that horde of Mexican soldiers outside the gates.
March 2nd, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Here’s another take: the P.S. shows he was not quite serious about the death part of his victory or death ending. It had a nice ring, but he wasn’t suicidal. Which helps give the lie to the line-in-the-sand stuff which most historians have by now buried without military honors.
March 3rd, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Not serious? Nice ring? Hell, you’ve got to be kidding me. He did what he said he was going to do — sustained himself as long as possible, and died like a soldier. He clearly was serious about the victory or death part.
March 3rd, 2007 at 6:54 pm
My housemate, God love her, is a Yankee and she’d never heard Travis’ letter. I read it to her and was so choked up by the end of the first paragraph I could hardly finish it.
March 4th, 2007 at 9:38 am
I get that way too, especially when I hear Brian Burns’ reading of it from his cd The Eagle and the Snake: Songs of the Texians. (Over a lone acoustic guitar, it leads in to “Ballad of the Alamo.”) A deathless missive, indeed.
March 4th, 2007 at 10:52 am
All right! A blogging Brian Burns fan. Very rare, sir.
March 4th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
He clearly was serious about the victory or death part.
Well, on the morning of the 6th when the Mexicans attacked, sure. But maybe not at the time he wrote the letter. He wrote a bunch of letters before and after that one. That’s the one people remember, and rightly so. It is, as you say, the best war letter ever written.
March 6th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
A-yep, but we’re out there. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kevin Whited likes him, too.