The Mammoth Book of the West by Jon E. Lewis Page A

by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna – I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and 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, and 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 and everything dear to the American character to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and 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 and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honour or that of his country.
    Victory or death.
     
WILLIAM BARRETT TRAVIS
Lt. Col. Comd.
     
    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 and got into the wall 20 or 30 head of beeves.
TRAVIS
     
    The next day, the 25th, the Mexicans received reinforcements, and attempted to set up a battery south of the Alamo. This was prevented by accurate fire from the fort’s ramparts, to the cheer of the men inside. But the respite was short-lived. On the 26th, two of Santa Anna’s batteries were sheltered behind earthworks on the northeast side of the river. From then on they kept up a slow, resolute bombardment. Hardly an hour went past without a cannon ball falling on the fort, and men rushing out with picks and shovels to plug the breach. By now, also, Jim Bowie, fighting despite the grip of pneumonia, had fallen from scaffolding supporting a gun emplacement and broken his hip. He was placed in a cot in a building beside the south gate of the yard.
    The lines of earthworks grew around the men of theAlamo. Each dawn the sentries found new entrenchments, until it was ringed by an unbroken Mexican circle.
    Despite the encirclement, on the night of 1 March, a small reinforcement of 32 men crept through the Mexican lines to join the defenders. They were from Gonzales, a settlement which numbered only 30 split-plank cabin homes. Their arrival crowned a good day for the defenders. Earlier, a lucky round from the 12-pounder on the roof of the chapel had struck Santa Anna’s lodging in the town.
    But already the end was in sight for the men of the Alamo. The enemy were simply too many. Understanding this, Travis rallied the men during the sunset of 3 March. According to a drifter named Louis Rose, who escaped the fort that evening, Travis paraded the men in single file and then stood before them, almost overcome with emotion. He declared that he was intent on staying and fighting it out to the end, but that every man must do what he thought best. Then Travis drew a line on the ground with his sword and said: “I now want every man who is determined to stay here and die with me to come across this line.” Almost before he had finished, Tapley Howard bounded across saying “I am ready to die for my country.” He was followed by every man except the bedridden sick and Rose. “Boys,” called Bowie from his cot, “I wish some of you would . . . remove my cot over there.” Four men lifted him over. Every other wounded man made the same request, and had his bunk moved over.
    This left only Louis Rose. He wrote later in a memoir:
     
    I stood till every man had crossed the line. Then I sank to the ground, covered my face with my hands, and thought what best I might do. Suddenly an idea came. I spoke their [the Mexicans’] language, and could I once get safely out of the fort might easily pass for a Mexican and effect myescape. I stole a glance at Colonel Bowie in his cot. Colonel Davy Crockett was leaning over talking to him. After a few seconds, Bowie looked at me and said, “You don’t seem willing to die with us, Rose.”