Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution

224 Pages·2004·2.09 MB·English

by  James E. Crisp

Sleuthing the Alamo
New Narratives in American History
Series Editors
James West Davidson
Michael B. Stoff
Sleuthing the Alamo
Davy Crockett’s Last Stand and
Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution
James E. Crisp
North Carolina State University
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
2005
Oxford University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crisp, James E., 1946-
Sleuthing the Alamo : Davy Crockett's last stand and other mysteries of
the Texas Revolution / by James E. Crisp.
p. cm.—(New narratives in American history)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-19-516349-0 (acid-free paper)—ISBN 978-0-19-516350-6 (pbk. :
acid-free paper)
1. Alamo (San Antonio, Tex.)—Siege, 1836. 2. Alamo (San Antonio,
Tex.)—Siege, 1836—Historiography. 3. Texas—History—Revolution,
1835-1836. 4. Texas—History—Revolution, 1835-1836—Historiography.
5. Texas—History—Revolution, 1835-1836—Biography. I. Title. II.
Series.
F30.C79 2004
976.4'03—dc22 2004049255
Printing number: 9 8 7 65
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To the memory of my mother and father—
who made it all possible
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C
ontents
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Chronology: Major Events of the Texas
Revolution, Autumn 1835–Spring 1836 xiii
Pride and Prejudice: A Personal Prologue 1
• One • Sam Houston’s Speechwriters 27
• Two • With Santa Anna in Texas 61
• Three • Looking for Davy 103
• Four • The Paintbrush and the Knife 139
Afterword: The Silence of the
Yellow Rose 179
Recommendations for Further Reading 199
Color plates appear after page 174.
vii
• •
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F
oreword
I
n matters of professional etiquette, most historians
believe that it is far better to be heard than seen. The historian’s
voice—magisterial, judicious, assured—pervades traditional nar-
ratives and sets their tone. It tells the tale of others with proper
distance from them. As for the historian’s own history—his or
her upbringing, personal predilections and passions—that re-
mains well concealed behind the prose, except perhaps for a few
words in the preface. Such an approach makes sense. The sub-
ject matter, after all, is the history, not the historian.
But in this riveting study of the Texas Revolution, James E.
Crisp not only breaks the rules of etiquette but tramples them
front to back. He makes himself a central character in this nar-
rative, beginning with his own West Texas upbringing in the
small town of Henrietta. There he was exposed to the myths of
Texas history through a remarkable series of cartoons, mislead-
ingly titled Texas History Movies, assigned to students all across
the state. And in the chapters that follow, as Crisp moves on to
untangle many of the myths of the Texas Revolution, he is seen
and heard. How could Sam Houston, Crisp asks, have rallied
Texan troops with the overtly racist speech found in his official
ix
• •