THE FALL OF THE ALAMO ~ page 19
equal number of honorable men, who, like Bonham and Crocket, had an honest faith and generous zeal in the cause they espoused. There were probably few among the lowest of that garrison who lacked the redeeming trait of bravery, and among men of that character common danger is sure to bring out the better qualities in all who share it. When no enemy was in sight the bad element showed its numerical strength, but when peril came over all, the good asserted its power, and the evil in a measure assimilated to it. It requires no stretch of charity then to believe that many a rough wight whose highest aspirations had heretofore been for plunder felt a thrill akin to that of the patriot when he died for a land which he could not yet claim as his own.
Of the details contained in my former brief publication and in this article, I obtained many from General Bradburn, who arrived at San Antonio I think two days after the action, and gathered many of its particulars from officers who were in it, one of whom went over the ground with him.4 A few incidents I had through a friend from General Amador. Others I received from three intelligent sergeants, one of whom, Sergeant Becero, I have already mentioned. They were men of fair education, and I think truthful witnesses. From men of their class I could generally get more candid statements as to loss and relative strength than from commissioned officers. I also gathered some minor particulars from local tradition of a reliable kind, preserved among the residents of San Antonio. When some of the details earliest learned were acquired I had not seen the locality, and hence I afterwards had to locate some of the occurrences by inference, which I have done as carefully as possible. After my publication of 1860, as already mentioned, I obtained some additional information from Colonel Seguin 5 and Mr. Lewis of San Antonio. The former had had better facilities than any one else in the service of Texas for obtaining and comparing the statements of Mexican officers captured at San Jacinto. These new lights enabled me to correct some errors and many omissions in regard to the fort, its armament and garrison, as well as the siege and assault.
The stranger will naturally inquire here lie the heroes of the Alamo, and Texas can reply only by a silent blush. A few hours after the action the bodies of the slaughtered garrison were gathered by the victors, laid in three heaps, mingled with fuel, and burned, though their own dead were interred. On the 25th of February, 1837, the bones and ashes of the defenders were, by order of General Houston, collected as well as could then be done, for burial by Colonel Seguin, then in command at San Antonio. The bones were placed in a large coffin, which,together with the gathered ashes, was interred with military honors. The place of burial was a peach orchard then outside of the Alamo village, and a few hundred yards from the fort. When I was last there in 1861, it was still large inclosed open lot, though surrounded by the suburb which had there grown up, but the rude landmarks which had once pointed out the place of sepulture [sic] had long since disappeared. Diligent search might then have found it, but it is now densely built over, and its identity is irrecoverably lost. This is too sad for comment. A small, but finely executed monument, made from the stones of the Alamo in 1841 by an artist named Nangle, was subsequently purchased by the State of Texas, and now stands in the vestibule of the Capitol at Austin; but neither at the Alamo itself, nor at the forgotten grave of its defenders, does any legend or device, like the stone of Thermopylae. remind the passer by of those who died in obedience to the call of their adopted country.