Col. Juan N. Seguin

Colonel Juan Nepomuceno Seguin's
Alamo Defenders' Burial Oration
Columbia (Later Houston)
Telegraph and Texas Register April 4, 1837

"Companions in Arms!! These remains which we have the honor of carrying on our shoulders are those of the valiant heroes who died in the Alamo. Yes, my friends, they preferred to die a thousand times rather than submit themselves to the tyrant's yoke. What a brilliant example! Deserving of being noted in the pages of history. The spirit of liberty appears to be looking out from its elevated throne with its pleasing mien and point to us saying: "There are your brothers, Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and others whose valor places them in the rank of my heroes." Yes soldiers and fellow citizens, these are the worthy beings who, by the twists of fate, during the present campaign delivered their bodies to the ferocity of their enemies; who, barbarously treated as beasts, were bound by their feet and dragged to this spot, where they were reduced to ashes. The venerable remains of our worth companions as witnesses, I invite you to declare to the entire world, "Texas shall be free and independent or we shall perish in glorious combat."

Colonel Juan N. Seguin
Commandant San Antonio, Bexar, Texas
Army of the Republic of Texas

 

Courtesy: Albert Seguin Carvajal Gonzales, The Seguin Family Historical Society