Brass and Copper

Numerous fragments of copper and/or brass were found in the excavations, primarily scraps left when larger pieces were cut (Figure 12a). During the Spanish occupation, scarce copper vessels were repaired and reused as long as possible, then cut up to make or repair other objects.

Buttons

The recovered buttons were cast of copper alloy in one piece with a hole drilled afterwards in the shank (Figure 12b). This type of button was used in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Medallions

Religious medallions are found on most mission sites. The one recovered in this project (Figure 12e) bears the head of a woman on one side and the head and upper torso of what appears to be a man on the other. The letters which surround the figures are illegible.

Spoon

A heavy cast copper spoon with pewter plating (Figure 13a) was found in the bottom of the acequia fill, along with the seventeenth-to early eighteenth-century ceramics mentioned above. Such spoons were relatively scarce on the frontier. Mounger (1959:203 and Figure 44) reports one found at Mission Espiritu Santo at Goliad, and Schuetz (1970: Figure 3) illustrates a brass spoon of similar size and proportions which was found at Mission San Jose during the 1930s reconstruction. The spoon from the acequia was cast in a mold, but has no maker's mark. The rattail extension of the handle onto the bottom of the bowl of the spoon appears to be typical of seventeenth-century design (Noel Hume 1976:183). Di Peso (1974: 214) reports a cast copper spoon of similar design found at a Spanish colonial mission near Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, and similar ones have been found on the east coast and in Arizona on seventeenth-and eighteenth-century sites.

Military Artifacts

As might be expected, numerous gun parts and related objects were recovered during the excavations, particularly in Unit D which sectioned the defensive ditch. Represented weapons range from a late eighteenth-century trade gun to muskets in use at the time of the 1836 battle. Identifications were made by Sam Nesmith, military researcher, formerly with the Institute of Texan Cultures.

Gun Parts

Gunflints

Eight of the nine whole and partial gunflints recovered were made of local chert. Three representative flints have been chosen for illustration (Figure 14a-c). A large flint made of local material falls within the range suggested by Hamilton (1960:39) for a cannon flint. Another made of local chert is a "gun spall," made from a large flake on which the bulb of percussion is still visible on the reverse side. A third gunflint is made of a dark, opaque material characteristic of English flints (Caldwell 1960: 187).

Lead balls

Lead balls (Figure 14d-f) for use in weapons of the period were found to be of three general sizes: ca. 36 caliber and 51 caliber for use in Kentucky rifles or pistols, and ca. 71 caliber for use in the Brown Bess musket. The Brown Bess was the standard musket used by the Mexican forces in the 1835 to 1836 period. General Cos's army left many of these guns behind in 1835, so it is likely the Alamo defenders had them to use during the battle of 1836 (Nesmith, personal communication 1980).