The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 159
xiii, 358 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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De Witt's Colony.
The news of the siege of the Alamo spread rapidly, and it was
rumored that the Mexicans were again on the march to Gonzales.
Once more the Texans hurried to this frontier settlement in order
here to hold the enemy in check and to prevent his entrance into
the colonies. On March 4, preparatory to the new campaign,
Houston was made commander-in-chief of the army. On the 11th,
at four o'clock in the afternoon he reached Gonzales to take com-
mand of the troops that were gathering there.
Just at dusk on the day of Houston's arrival Anselmo Bogarra
and another Mexican came bringing the news that the Alamo had
fallen.2 Astonishment, grief, and terror were the conflicting emo-
tions produced by these sad tidings. The town became a scene of
general confusion and panic. Only ten days before it had given
thirty-two of its citizens to the defense of the Alamo. Now there
was scarce a home in the town that had not been bereaved of a rel-
ative or friend." To grief was added terror, for it was also
rumored that an advance division of the army, two thousand
strong, was on its way to Gonzales.
In order somewhat to calm the people Houston pretended not to
believe the report, and accordingly he had the two Mexicans ar-
rested as spies and placed under guard. But nevertheless, on the
White, Amos Pollard, John Cane, Charles Despalier, George Tumlinson,
Johnnie Kellogg. Brown (History of Texas, I 565) says that Albert
Martin commanded this company of men from Gonzales. Besides these
thirty-two there were other persons from Gonzales in the Alamo, among
whom were Lieutenant Almeron Dickinson, his wife, and infant daughter
(ibid., 566).
'J. H. Kuykendall, who was in Gonzales at this time, says that before
the arrival of Houston Mosely Baker was chosen to take charge of the
troops, and that while he was in command he noticed that across the river,
opposite the Texan encampment, was a bluff, which might be occupied to
advantage by the Mexicans. To defend the camp, in such an event, he
constructed in front of it a circular breastwork of hewn trees. THE
QUARTERLY, IV 293).
2 Brown, History of Texas, I 587.
S'TIE QUIARTERLY, IV 293. Captain Handy, who was an eye-witness
to this scene, says: "For four and twenty hours after the news reached
us not a sound was heard, save the wild shrieks of women and the heart
rending screams of their fatherless children. Little groups of men might
be seen in various corners of the town, brooding over the past and spec-
ulating on the future, but they scarce spoke above a whisper, for here
the public and private grief was alike heavy; it sunk deep into the heart
of the rudest soldier." (Captain Handy's report as dictated to J. J.
R. Pease in 1836, printed in the Abilene Reporter and reprinted in the
Gonzales Inquirer of October -, 1903.)159
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905, periodical, 1905; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101033/m1/161/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.