Subject: Governors of Texas 1770-1820
Date: 05/27/2000
From: Randy Sutton

Who where the governors of Texas during the 1770's through the 1820's? What would have been the offical Spanish title for the office?

Randy Sutton
Dallas, Texas

The office of the provincial governor in early Texas has a colorful history. The office was called gobernador (governor) until 1822, when those who held it became known as the jefe politico (chief politician). When the 1824 Mexican constitution created the state of Coahuila y Tejas, the office once again became that of governor.

Spanish governors were present in Texas from the very beginning. They were instrumental in the building of missions, bringing the indiginous population under Spanish control and in the establishment of the major settlements such as San Antonio de Béjar. Unfortunately, many of them were also responsible for the various political maladies that plagued the province over the years.

In 1810, at the beginning of the Mexican Revolutionary period, being the governor of the Texas was not an enviable occupation. In fact, several were forced from office by being executed. Notice from the chart below the succession of ad interim (temporary) governors that held the office between the tumultous years of 1811 through 1817. I might add that none of these men were particularly fond of the job.

Sources:

The New Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association. (Austin, 1996: TSHA)
Chipman, Donald E. Spanish Texas1519-1821. (Austin, 1992: UT Press)
Special thanks to Dr. Jesús Frank de la Teja, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

Subject: Cannon on Display at the Alamo
Date: 05/22/2000
From: Jim Ewing

I just visited the Alamo for the first time in many years and have a few questions. There are a number of cannon on display on the grounds around the Alamo, as well as two more that are outside the entrance to the rebuilt area of La Villita. Only a few of them are actually identified, however. Does anyone know where they all came from? One or two of them seem to be US Army cannon that were lost during the war with Mexico (one of them says so), one odd-looking one is identified as a gunnade that was in place along the west wall of the compound (how do they know this?), but not much is said about the others except who donated them. One is obviously the 18-pounder, but it doesn't say that on the plaque! The two outside La Villita are also nearly as big as the 18-pounder, though one of the two appears to have a slightly larger bore than the other. Is it possible that this larger one outside La Villita is the 16-pounder that was part of the chapel battery? An article in the San Antonio Light says five cannon were found in 1908 during the foundation excavation for an office building near the Alamo. Is that where some of these other cannon came from? Has anyone studied these guns and determined what caliber they are?

Jim Ewing
Mansfield, Texas

The short answer is yes. The cannon tubes that you saw at the Alamo and at La Villita are original 1835-1835 artillery used by the Alamo garrison(both under Cos and Travis). When General Andrade pulled out of San Antonio in May 1836, he hauled the captured bronze tubes back with him to Matamoros. The iron tubes he rendered useless by spiking the vent hole and by cutting off the casabels and trunions. These were dumped into the fosse outside the northwest wall that was later filled in.

These tubes were found during the construction of the Gibbs Building. The cannon came into the possession of the Maverick familiy who eventually donated them to the Alamo. The two La Villita guns were retained and then donated to the City of San Antonio when Mayor Maury Maverick restored the La Villita Quarter.

About fourteen years ago, Philip Haythornthwaite helped me try to identify the bore sizes of the tubes. Thomas Ricks Lindley has done some later research on Alamo artillery. The longest tube is probably the famous 18-pounder. It's important to remember that the Spanish/Mexican system of measurement is different than the US/Texan system. The Mexicans would call the 18-pounder cannon a 16-pounder. The gunade is just that: a naval carronade with trunions.

Kevin R. Young

See Also: Alamo Cannon

Where exactly was the armory for the Alamo defenders. I know it was in the church and I know it was contained within a room or rooms that retained a roof. My belief has been that it was located either in the monk's burial ground or the sacristy. However, there are some references to it being in the baptistry and/or the confessional. I would appreciate any information or opinions regarding this subject. Thank you.

Larry M. Ludewig
Kilgore, Texas

The key to the Green B. Jameson Map (January 18, 1836) notes that "The magazine in the church, San Antonio de Valero. These are two very efficient and appropriate rooms, each 10 feet square; walls around and above are 4-feet thick." These are the confessional and baptistry of the Alamo church. Jamesom also notes that the lower first section of the long barrack is "an armory for small arms." Sánchez-Navarro shows that baptistry is the gunpowder magazine.

Some of the confusion may be that when the Alamo was being by the US Army, the sacristy and so called "Monk's Burial Vault" was being used as an "ordnance Store room"(Everett Plan, 1848).

Kevin R. Young

See:The Alamo Compound

Subject: Crockett's Diary
Date: 06/02/2000
From: Stephen Oleszek

In Lon Tinkle's "13 Days to Glory", he mentions in the Epilogue that at San Jacinto, Davy Crockett's diary was found among General Castrillion's possessions in a trunk. Any truth to that statement?

Stephen Oleszek
Florida

Sorry, but in the case of this Crockett/Alamo book, it really is a fake!

Quoting Crockett expert Paul Andrew Hutton, "Basing the book on a few Crockett letters, newspaper accounts of the Texas war, and his own vivid imagination, [Richard Penn] Smith churned out the manuscript with incredible speed. Pages were delivered to the printer each day as he wrote them. The finished product was marketed by Carey and Hart as Crockett's Texas journal, retrieved by General Castrillion after the frontierman's death, and then liberated by a Texas soldier at San Jacinto. It sold well and helped the publisher unload a large remainder of Crockett's Tour as well. The hoax of authorship was not uncovered for years, and many believed it was truely Crockett's diary. Smith's book is fantasy of course. Although unrecognized as such at the time, it is our first Alamo novel." See Hutton, "An Exposition on Hero Worship" in Michael A. Lofaro and Joe Cummings "Crockett at Two Hundred: New Perspectives on the Man and the Myth" (Knoxville, The university of Tennessee Press. 1989).

Of course, the fake book has had its influence. Both Tinkle and Virgil Baugh used it: Disney and John Wayne also incorporated characters from it into their screenplays.

Kevin R. Young

Subject: Santiago Rabia
Date: 06/03/2000
From: Lura Hyatt

My great-great grandfather, Santiago Rabia was an officer of the Tampico Regiment. Why is he not listed with the officers of the Mexican Army. His papers are in the Alamo Library, so there is no question of his having commanded a regiment of horse soldiers.

Lura Hyatt
Texas

I have a copy of Santiago Rabia's papers from the DRT Library. Looking at them, It appears that he was a Sergeant and not an officer in Company C, Permanente Regimento Tampico (Cavalry).

The list has two Sergeants listed including Rabia and the bugler, followed by the Corporals and then the soldiers. Gregg Dimmick and I have been working independently on large lists of Mexican soldiers mentioned in various sources.

The list on this web site is that of officers in the Mexican Army during the Texas Revolution: we have not broken it down to non-commissioned officers and enlisted men yet.

When we do, the partial list of the Tampico Cavalry will be combined with that of the list of dead and wounded we now have for the Activo San Luis. We are also working on a list of Mexican soldiers captured at San Jacinto.

Kevin R. Young