In 1835, I visited Texas with a view to making it my home, and it was my lot to witness her in that struggle with the tyrannical power of Mexico which terminated in securing the liberties we now enjoy.

Having acknowledged allegiance to the Provisional Government of Texas, and enlisted in the service of the army for one month, et. cetera, I proceeded, in company with Captain William Patton and ten others, to San Antonio, which place we reached about the eighteenth of January, 1836. From that time until the twenty-third of February, I was cognizant of all that occurred of importance within the garrison of the Alamo, and remember well its hopes, fears, and anxieties for the safety of the country, and her interests.

I propose to state such facts as came within my personal knowledge up to the time of my departure from Bexar,² and such information as I have derived from the statements of others who were witnesses of the siege and fall.

How I escaped the fate of my comrades, being crippled by my horse falling on me, will appear in its proper connection with the other incidents which I propose to relate. I have frequently conversed at length with one who was in the Alamo for some days whilst the siege was going on, and with others who were there during the whole of it, and witnessed its beginning, its progress, and its unfortunate termination. The first alluded to was John W. Smith, whose name not only stands prominently connected with this tragic affair, but deserves a conspicuous place in a great portion of the history of our country. The latter were those who were spared from the massacre, Mrs. Dickinson, and Colonel Travis’s servant. I had also an interview with Colonel Almonte, General Santa Anna, and his private secretary, all of whose accounts agree whenever they relate to the same incidents, and with the other three mentioned, as well with my own knowledge of what took place whilst I remained at San Antonio. I should not under ordinary circumstances be disposed to credit the Mexican authorities, for they are not always reliable when left to stand upon their own merits, but since they agree substantially with other witnesses upon whom we may safely rely, there can be no good reason why their statements should not be adopted as true. These statements being made separately, and at different times, and corroborating each other as they do, build a weight of evidence which is not to be obtained from any other source, and which seems substantial and conclusive.

Though many years have elapsed since the Alamo fell, I have never, until recently, thought it necessary for me to publish anything in regard to it, supposing the facts would appear from some other source substantially correct. But, since several conflicting accounts have been published, some of which differ widely from my own knowledge of facts, I have deemed it my duty to history and to the children of the worthy patriots, to write out and publish my version of the last noble struggle of the gallant Travis and his noble band.

When reaching San Antonio we found the forces there in a manner destitute. Grant and Johnson had left but a short time previous with their companies taking with them almost everything in the shape of supplies and more than their share of the scant allowance of clothing, blankets and medicines. The Government, of course, at that date was not able to meet their demands. They lived upon beef and corn bread. The former they obtained from the numerous stocks of cattle in the country and the later from the few farmers who raised corn by irrigation in the vicinity of the town. But the consumption of these commodities at Bexar had been so rapid for some months past that both were becoming scarce and not easily obtained. They were also out of money.

They were all volunteers and their own resources upon which they had relied most of the time were now exhausted. There being no treasury they, of course, had not received anything in the shape of pay. A small amount was obtained from a few individuals from time to time and distributed amongst those in the greatest need, but the liberality of these few soon reduced them to a like degree of want. This state of affairs, with no prospect of relief, was fast bringing about dissatisfaction among the men. Colonel James C. Neill, who was then in command, readily foresaw that something must be done, and that, too, without delay, or his position would be abandoned and left subject to recapture by the enemy should they return. He therefore determined to procure, if possible, a portion of a donation of five thousand dollars which had been given to the cause of Texas by Harry Hill of Nashville, Tennessee, and accordingly he left Bexar about the twelfth or fifteenth of February for that purpose.