"Remember the Alamo!"

Who was the first to cry - "Remember the Alamo! Remember la Bahia!" - on the San Jacinto battlefield?

Mirabeau Lamar credited Colonel Sidney Jefferson Sherman. Sherman commanded the left wing of the Texan army that April afternoon and is said to have opened the attack on the Mexicans with, "Remember the Alamo!"

Frank X. Tolbert, in his book, The Day of San Jacinto, wrote that Houston, in his own official report, also credited Sherman as being the first to shout the battlefield war cry.

J. Frank Dobie, in his book, Coronado's Children, attributed the battle cry to Captain Jesse W. Billingsley, concuring with Harry Alexander Davis, who wrote, The Billingsley family in America.

But one thing is certain about the origin of the battle cry - Recollections and Memoirs written by veterans of the San Jacinto battlefield all agree that General Sam Houston was the first to remind his troops to, "Remember the Alamo."

"He said [Houston] when you engage the enemy, let your battle cry be - Remember the Alamo! Colonel Rusk followed with a short but stirring speech - he said let your battle cry be - The Alamo and La Bahia!" Issac Lafayette Hill. Recollections published in the Texas State Historical Association Quarterly, vol. 7.

"The Genl. [Houston] formed us in solid colm [sic] - rode into our midst, and delivered to us one of the best speeches - told us that when we got into battle to make the Mexicans remember the Alamo - Genl. Rusk followed him, telling us to also make the Mexicans remember the massacre of Fannins men." John Harvey. Memoirs in the veterans papers in the University of Texas Archives, about 1874.

" - he [Houston] closed his address by saying let your war cry be "Remember the Alamo!" Memoirs of Major George Bernard Erath by Lucy Erath.

"He [Houston] told them that the battle cry should be "Remember the Alamo. General Rusk followed Houston eloquently, urging them to let the battle cry be "Remember the Alamo," "Remember Labadie." [sic] San Jacinto Veteran James Monroe Hill 1894.

So while we might never really know who was the first to shout the war cry on the field of battle, - we can be absolutely sure of two things: (1) that General Houston and General Rusk were the first to promote the use of the battle cry, and (2) that the Santanista's pleadings of, "Me no Alamo! Me no la Bahia!" show the terrifying effect the battle cry had on the retreating - fleeing - Mexican army.

And - while not generally known - there was yet another battle cry shouted that April afternoon - "Remember Wash Cottle!" Pvt. James Curtis, 64 and the oldest combantant at San Jacinto, had lost his son-in-law, Wash Cottle in the Alamo and was detertmined to make the Mexicans pay for his loss . . . but that . . . well that's a whole 'nuther story.

Veteran Quotes from Sons of DeWitt Colony archives.
http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/archives.htm

Read about the Battle of San Jacinto at the Handbook of Texas On-Line.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/qes4.html

Copyright Mike Kearby 2008

The "Twin Sisters"

During the 3rd quarter of the Cowboy - Bengal game a few Sundays back, a Bengal running back fumbled after his team had just recovered a crucial on-side kick. My wife commented that Cincinnati had just given the Texas lads a real "gift." I replied not as big as the gift the Ohioans had given a bunch of Texas boys in 1836. Photo -Twin Sister Replicas built by the University of Houston College of Technology.


For in 1836, during the Texas struggle for Independence, the citizens of Cincinnati , Ohio, furnished Sam Houston's army with two artillery pieces that later came to be known as the "Twin Sisters."


According to the Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, [Volume 10, 1952 written by E.N. Clopper] on November 17, 1835, a group of Cincinnatians', Friends of Texas, met in the Court House to consider the reports of ward committees on giving aid to Texas insurgents. The Ohio gentleman who presided over this meeting was Nicholas Clopper, also the brother-in-law of David Burnet, who would later serve as president of the Republic of Texas.



Also present at the meeting was a former United States legislator, Robert T. Lytle, who offered several resolutions, one being, "-That we approve and recommend to the citizens of this meeting a plan by which the citizens of Texas, shall be supplied through their agent, Mr. Smith, (William Bryan) by our contributions with such an amount of hollow ware as he (Smith) may deem sufficient, to contain other provisions, by which they shall be filled, according to his judgement and sound discretion."



The resolution was unanimously accepted.


The cannon were manufactured at the Eagle Foundry [also referred to in some documents as Eagle Iron Works] in Cincinnati, and later shipped down the Mississippi to New Orleans to Galveston to Harrisburg and finally to the Texian army at Groce's Plantation. The Eagle Foundry was owned by Miles Greenwood and Joseph Webb. The "Twins" were passed through customs as "hollow ware" which was the customs designation for glass ware and bottles. The fact that United States customs allowed the pieces through is indicative of Andrew Jackson's "neutrality" during the conflict.



Nicholas Clopper personally contributed half a ton of cannon-balls to the cause.



Greenwood's Iron Eagle Works burned to the ground in 1852. Later, after re-building his foundry, Greenwood put together Cincinnati's first fire department and the United States' first paid fire department complete with a horse-drawn steam engine water pumper.



In the Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, [Volume 11, 1953, written by E. N. Clopper] Clopper offers a letter excerpt from Hugh C. Mitchell of Washington D.C., written by his grandmother, Elizabeth Rice. Elizabeth's father, Dr. Charles W. Rice, joined the Texas Navy in 1836. Elizabeth and her twin sister, Eleanor, were aboard the same steamboat as the cannon in April 1836. All arrived in Texas together. Legend has it that Elizabeth and Eleanor were taught a short presentation speech to formally present the cannon to Texas . . . and from that time on the cannon were referred to as the "Twin Sisters." Elizabeth also wrote, "I have not made much noise in this world, but my Namesake did."



And the "Twin Sisters?" Well as the Texian troops departed Groce's Plantation on April 14, 1836, businesswoman, Pamelia Dickinson Mann, agreed to allow the army use of a yoke of her oxen to pull the "Twin Sisters" through the mud and to the safety of Nacogdoches. Days later at the famous "fork-in-the-road", Houston's men marched toward Harrisburg, Santa Anna, and their victorious destiny.



But Mrs. Mann would have nothing of it, and when Wagon Master, Conrad Rohrer refused her request to take back her stock, Mrs. Mann let loose with a fit of swearing that made Houston throw up his hands in exasperation. Mrs. Mann jumped from her horse, cut her oxen loose, and headed up the road toward Nacogdoches. It's said that Captain Rohrer later gave pursuit of Pamelia to retrieve the oxen. . . but that . . . well that's a whole 'nuther story. . .

Read more about the Twin Sisters at The Handbook of Texas Online.

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/TT/qvt1.html



Copyright 2008 Mike Kearby

Alamo Defender, Robert Evans

In the 1960 John Wayne production of the Alamo, the action ends with the "Duke" (as Davy Crockett) impaled to the door of the ordnance room in the Alamo. In dramatic Hollywood fashion, Wayne breaks the lance, frees himself, stumbles into the ordnance room, and blows himself and the gunpowder up. This is Hollywood at its worst.

(Photo United Artists, The Alamo, 1960)

For during the actual battle that March morning in 1836, it was Robert Evans, ordnance chief of the garrison, who attempted in the final moments of the battle to "fire" the Texans' powder magazine.

Susanna Dickinson, maybe the most noted Alamo survivor, tells that after the front door to the chapel was breached by the Mexican army, Evans raced for the ordnance which was stored in the rear of the chapel. Evans was gunned down as he attempted to torch the room.

Evans not Crockett made the heroic yet futile attempt to keep the remaining gunpowder supply out of Santa Anna's hands.

Not much is known of Evans. What we do know is that he was born in Ireland in 1800 and traveled to Texas from new York. He became master of ordnance of the Bexar garrison in 1835, after the December seige of the city led by Ben Milam.

Milam was killed during that siege, but after four days of fighting, Bexar and the Alamo were surrendered to his rebel force. The Texans hoped their victory would make Santa Anna re-think any further actions . . . but that . . . well that's a whole 'nuther story . . .

Read more about Robert Evans at The Handbook of Texas OnLine.

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/EE/fev22.html

Copyright 2008 Mike Kearby