The remains of those who died for Texas rest in the Cathedral.
San Antonio Express newspaper, April 21, 1889, Sunday.
With all the facts and circumstances that have been secured and collated,
either by reminiscences or documentary proofs, contemporary, history is
strangely silent on one important point and the present generation are
ignorant as to the place in which the remains of the men who laid down
their lives in the Alamo were deposited. Many have been under the impression
that the Alameda, where now the post house stands, (E. Commerce Street,
Rivercenter site,) was used as a temporary cemetery, but of this there
was no certainly. Colonel Juan Seguin, who commanded a company of Mexicans
in the battle of San Jacinto and who, after the dispersion of Santa Anna's
army, was ordered with increased authority and rank to the command of San
Antonio de Bexar, has settled the question in a recent letter, the translation
of which is as follows:
Laredo de Tamaulipas, Mexico, March 26, 1889.General H. P. Bee, San Antonio:
DEAR SIR;
In reply to your inquiries in behalf of the Alamo monument association, I authorize you to state that the dead of the Alamo were burned by order of General Santa Anna, and when I took command of that city after the battle of San Jacinto, I collected together the charred and small fractions of the bodies that were scattered around, placed them in an urn, and deposited it in a grave which I had dug inside of the cathedral of San Fernando on Main plaza of San Antonio in front of the altar, close to the railing, near the steps, where they now are.
Respectfully,
JUAN N. SEGUIN.
The foregoing epistle is especially interesting and the descendants
of the men of the Alamo will now, probably for the first time, have the
consolation of knowing that the ashes of their heroes are resting in a
consecrated place, and the time-honored ,battle scarred cathedral will
gain enhanced reverence and be dearer to the hearts of every Texan from
the fact that under her sacred roof rest the remains of those to whose
patriotism and undaunted spirit; Texas owes all the prosperity she enjoys
today.
