THE FALL OFTHE ALAMO ~ page 13
of the west wall from a high commanding position. The smallness assigned to it perhaps referred only to its length. According to Mr. Ruiz, then the Alcalde of San Antonio, who, after the action, was required to point out the slain leaders to Santa Ana, the body of Crocket was found in the west battery just referred to, and we may infer that he either commanded that point or was stationed there as a sharp-shooter. The common fate overtook Bowie in his bed in one of the rooms of the low barrack, when he probably had but a few day s of life left in him, yet he had enough remaining, it is said, to shoot down with his pistols more than one of his assailants where he was butchered on his couch. If he had sufficient strength and consciousness left to do it, we may safely assume that it was done.
The chapel, which was the last point taken, was carried by a coup de main after the fire of the other buildings was silenced. Once the enemy in possession of the large area, the guns of the south could be turned to fire into the door of the church, only from fifty to an hundred yards off, and that was probably the route of attack. The inmates of this last stronghold, like the rest, fought to the last, and continued to fire down from the upper works after the enemy occupied the floor. A Mexican officer told of seeing one of his soldiers shot in the crown of the head during this melée. Towards the close of the struggle Lieutenant Dickenson, with his child in his arms, or, as some accounts say, tied to his back, leaped from the east embrazure of the chapel, and both were shot in the act. Of those he left behind him, the bayonet soon gleaned what the bullet had left, and in the upper part of that edifice the last defender must have fallen. The morning breeze which received his parting breath probably still fanned his flag above that fabric, for I doubt not he fell ere it was pulled down by the victors.
The Alamo had fallen; but the impression it left on the invader was the forerunner of San Jacinto. It is a fact not often remembered, that Travis and his band fell under the Mexican Federal flag of 1824, instead f the Lone Star of Texas, although Independence, unknown to them, had been declared by the new Convention four days before at Washington, on the Brazos. They died for a Republic of whose existence they never knew. The action, according to Santa Ana's report, lasted thirty minutes. It was certainly short, and possibly no longer time passed between the moment the enemy entered the breach and that when resistance died out. The assault was a task which had to be carried out quickly or fail. Some of the incidents which have to be related separately occurred simultaneously, and all occupied very little time.