13 - Conclusion

Chapter 13: Conclusion
Covers Crockett’s heroic stand at the Battle of the Alamo and reflects on his legacy as an American folk hero. Summary by Dream Audiobooks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter thirteen of David Crockett, His Life and Adventures. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Recording by Brett W. Downey. David Crockett,
His Life and Adventures by John S. C Abbott, Chapter

(00:23):
thirteen conclusion. The Fortress of Alamo is just outside the
town of Bayer on the San Antonio River. The town
is about one hundred and forty miles from the coast
and contained at that time about twelve hundred inhabitants. Nearly
all were Mexicans, though there were a few American families.
In the year seventeen eighteen, the Spanish government had established

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a military outpost here, and in the year seventeen twenty
one a few immigrants from Spain commenced a flourishing settlement
at this spot. Its site is beautiful, the air salubrius,
the soil highly fertile, and the water of crystal purity.
The town of Bayer subsequently received the name of San Antonio.
On the tenth of December eighteen thirty five, the Texans

(01:09):
captured the town and citadel from the Mexicans. These Texan
rangers were rude men who had but little regard for
the refinements or humanities of civilization. When Crockett with his
companions arrived, Colonel Bowie of Louisiana, one of the most
desperate of Western adventurers, was in the fortress. The celebrated
Bowie knife was named after this man. There was but

(01:31):
a feeble garrison, and it was threatened with an attack
by an overwhelming force of Mexicans under Santa Anna. Colonel
Travis was in command. He was very glad to receive
even so small a reinforcement. The fame of Colonel Crockett,
as one of the bravest of men, had already reached
his ears. While we were conversing, writes Crockett, Colonel Bowey

(01:52):
had occasion to draw his famous knife, and I wish
I may be shot if the bare sight of it
wasn't enough to give a man of a squeamish stomach.
The he saw I was admiring it, and he said, Colonel,
you might tickle a fellow's ribs a long time with
this little instrument before you may make him laugh. According
to Crockett's account, many shameful orgies took place in the

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little garrison. They were evidently in considerable trepidation, for a
large force was gathering against them, and they could not
look for any considerable reinforcements from any quarter. Rumors were
continually reaching them of the formidable preparations Santa Anna was
making to attack the place. Scouts ere long brought in
the tidings that Santa Anna, President of the Mexican Republic,

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at the head of sixteen hundred soldiers and accompanied by
several of his ablest generals, was within six miles of Bayer.
It was said that he was doing everything in his
power to enlist the warlike Comanches in his favor, but
that they remained faithful in their friendship to the United States.
Early in the month of February eighteen thirty six, the
army of Santa Anna appeared before the town with infantry, artillery,

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and cavalry. With military precision. They approached, their banners waving
and their bugle notes, bearing defiance to the feeble little garrison.
The Texan invaders, seeing that they would soon be surrounded,
abandoned the town to the enemy and fled to the
protection of the citadel. They were but one hundred and
fifty in number. Almost without exception. They were hardy adventurers

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and the most fearless and desperate of men. They had
previously stored away in the fortress all the provisions, arms
and ammunition of which they could avail themselves. Over the battlements,
they infurled an immense flag of thirteen stripes and with
a large white star of five points, surrounded by the
letters Texas. As they raised their flag, they gave three cheers,

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while with drums and trumpets they hurled back their challenge
to the foe. The Mexicans raised over the town a
blood red banner. It was their significant intimation to the
garrison that no quarter was to be expected. Santa Anna,
having advantageously posted his troops in the afternoon, sent to
some to Colonel Travis, demanding an unconditional surrender, threatening in

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case of refusal, to put every man to the sword.
The only reply Colonel Travis made was to throw a
cannon shot into the town. The Mexicans then opened fire
from their batteries, but without doing much harm. In the night,
Colonel Travis sent the old pirate on an express to
Colonel Fanning, who with a small military force was at
Goliad to entreat him to come to his aid. Goliad

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was about four days march from Bayer. The next morning,
the Mexicans renewed their fire from a battery about three
hundred and fifty yards from the fort. A three ounce
ball struck the juggler on the breast, inflicting a painful
but not a dangerous wound. Day after day, the storm
of war continued. The walls of the citadel were strong,
and the bombardment inflicted but little injury. The sharpshooters within

(04:50):
the fortress struck down many of the assailants at great distances.
The bee hunter, writes Crockett is about the quickest on
the trigger and the best rifle shot we have in
the fort. I have already seen him bring down eleven
of the enemy, and at such a distance that we
all thought it would be a waste of ammunition to
attempt it. Provisions were beginning to become scarce, and the

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citadel was so surrounded that it was impossible for the
garrison to cut its way through the lines and escape.
Under the date of February twenty eighth, Crockett writes in
his journal, last night our hunters brought in some corn
and had a brush with a scout from the enemy
beyond gunshot of the fort. They put the scout to
flight and got in without injury. They bring accounts that

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the settlers are flying in all quarters in dismay, leaving
their possessions to the mercy of the ruthless invader, who
was literally engaged in a war of extermination more brutal
than the untutored savage of the desert could be guilty
of slaughter is indiscriminate. Sparing, neither sex, age nor condition.
Buildings have been burnt down, farms laid waste, and Santa

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Anna appears determined to verify his threat and convert the
blue Dooming paradise into a howling wilderness. For just one
fair crack at that rascal, even at a hundred yards distance,
I would bargain to break my betsey and never pull
trigger again. My name's not Crockett if I wouldn't get
glory enough to pease my stomach for the remainder of
my life. The scout's report that a settler by the

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name of Johnson, flying with his wife and three little children,
when they reached the Colorado, left his family on the
shore and waded into the river to see whether it
would be safe to ford with his wagon, when about
the middle of the river he was seized by an alligator,
and after a struggle, was dragged under the water and perished.
The helpless woman and her babes were discovered gazing in

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agony on the spot by other fugitives, who happily passed
that way and relieved them. Those who fight the battles
experienced but a small part of the privation, suffering, and
anguish that follow in the train of ruthless war. The
cannonading continued at intervals throughout the day, and all hands
were kept up to their work. The next day, he writes,

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I had a little sport this morning before breakfast. The
enemy had planted a piece of ordnance within gunshot of
the fort during the night, and the first thing in
the morning they commenced a brisk cannonade point blank against
the spot where I was snoring. I turned out pretty
smart and mounted the rampart the gun was charged again.
A fellow stepped forth to touch her off, but before

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he could apply the match, I let him have it
and he keeled over. A second stepped up snatched the
match from the hand of the dying man, but the
juggler who had followed me handed me his rifle, and
the next instant the Mexican was stretched on the earth
beside the first. A third came up to the cannon.
My companion handed me another gun, and I fixed him

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off in like manner. A fourth, then a fifth seized
the match, who both met with the same fate. Then
the whole party gave it up as a bad job
and hurried off to the camp, leaving the cannon ready
charged where they had planted it. I came down, took
my bitterers, and went to breakfast. In the course of
a week, the Mexicans lost three hundred men, but still

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reinforcements were continually arriving, so that their numbers were on
the rapid increase. The garrison no longer cherished any hope
of receiving aid from abroad. Under the date of March
fourth and fifth, eighteen thirty six, we had the last
lines which Crockett ever penned. March fourth, shells have been
falling into the fort like hail during the day, but

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without effect. About dusk in the evening, we observed a
man running towards the fort, pursued by about half a
dozen of the Mexican cavalry. The bee hunter immediately knew
him to be the old pirate who had gone to Goliad,
and calling to the two hunters, he sallied out of
the fort, to the relief of the old man, who
was hard pressed. I followed close after. Before we reached

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the spot, the Mexicans were close on the heels of
the old man, who stopped suddenly turned short upon his pursuers,
discharged his rifle, and one of the enemy fell from
his horse. Was renewed, but finding that he would be
overtaken and cut to pieces, he now turned again, and,
to the amazement of the enemy, became the assailant. In
his turn. He clubbed his gun and dashed among them

(09:12):
like a wounded tiger, and they fled like sparrows. By
this time we reached the spot, and in the ardor
of the moment, followed some distance before we saw that
our retreat to the fort was cut off by another
detachment of cavalry. Nothing was to be done but fight
our way through. We were all of the same mind.
Go ahead, cried I, and they shouted go ahead. Colonel

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We dashed among them, and a bloody conflict ensued. They
were about twenty in number, and they stood their ground.
After the fight had continued about five minutes, a detachment
was seen issuing from the fort to our relief, and
the Mexicans scampered off, leaving eight of their comrades dead
upon the field. But we did not escape unscathed, for
both the pirate and the bee hunter were mortally wounded,

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and I received a saber cut across the forehead. The
old man died without speaking as soon as we entered
the fort. We bore my young friend to his bed,
dressed his wounds, and I watched beside him. He lay
without complaint or manifesting pain until about midnight, when he spoke,
and I asked him if he wanted anything. Nothing, he replied,

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but drew a sigh that seemed to rend his heart
as he added, poor Kate of Nacodochus. His eyes were
filled with tears as he continued. Her words were prophetic, colonel,
and then he sang in a low voice that resembled
the sweet notes of his devoted Kate. But whom came
the settle a blooty to see and hame came the steed,

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but Hame never came. He he spoke no more, and
a few minutes after died. Poor Kate, who will tell
this to thee The romantic bee hunter had a sweetheart
by the name of Kate and Nacodochus. She seems to
have been a very affectionate and religious girl. In part,
she had presented her lover with a Bible, and in

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anguish of spirit, had expressed her fears that he would
never return from his perilous enterprise. The next day, Crockett
simply writes, March fifth, pop pop pop boom, boom boom
throughout the day. No time for memorandums. Now go ahead,
liberty and independence forever. Before daybreak on the sixth of March,

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the citadel of the Alamo was assaulted by the whole
Mexican army, then numbering about three thousand men. Santa Anna
in person commanded the assailants swarmed over the works and
into the fortress. The battle was fought with the utmost
desperation until daylight. Six. Only of the garrison then remained alive.

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They were surrounded, and they surrendered. Colonel Crockett was one
He at the time stood alone in an angle of
the fort, like a lion at bay. His eyes flashed fire,
his shattered rifle in his right hand, and in his
left a gleaming bowie knife streaming with blood. His face
was covered with blood flowing from a deep gash across

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his forehead. About twenty Mexicans, dead and dying, were lying
at his feet. The juggler was also there dead. With
one hand he was clenching the hair of a dead Mexican,
while with the other he had driven his knife to
the haft in the bosom of his foe. The Mexican
general Quastrillon, to whom the prisoners had surrendered, wished to

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spare their lives. He led them to that part of
the fort where Santa Anna stood surrounded by his staff.
As Qastrillon marched his prisoners into the presence of the president,
he said, Sir, here are six prisoners I have taken alive.
How shall I dispose of them? Santa Anna seemed much annoyed,
and said, have I not told you before how to

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dispose of them? Why do you bring them to me? Immediately,
several Mexicans commenced, plunging their swords into the bosoms of
the captives. Crockett, entirely unarmed, sprang like a tiger at
the throat of Santa Anna. But before he could reach him,
a dozen swords were sheathed in his heart, and he
fell without a word or a groan. But there still

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remained upon his brow the frown of indignation, and his
lip was curled with a smile of defiance and scorn.
And thus was terminated the earthly life of this extraordinary man.
In this narrative, it has been the object of the
writer faithfully to record the influences under which Colonel Crockett
was reared and the incidents of his wild and wondrous life,

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leaving it with the reader to form his own estimate
of the character which these exploits indicate. David Crockett has
gone to the tribunal of his God, there to be
judged for all the deeds done in the body beautifully
and consolingly. The Psalmist has written, like as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

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For he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust.
End of chapter and end of David Crockett, His Life
and Adventures. Recording by Brett Downey,