Thursday, March 1, 2012

Thirteen Days Of Glory - Day Eight

March 1

At 3 a.m., 32 brave and dedicated men arrive from Gonzales to the Alamo. The men are led by John W. Smith. The Texans fire two 12 pounders at Santa Anna’s headquarters. One shot hits the general's house. (Source)


At dawn on the first of March 1836 ...32 men from Gonzales and DeWitt's Colony, passed the lines of Santa Anna and entered the walls of the Alamo, never more to leave them.

These men, chiefly husbands and fathers, owning their own homes, voluntarily organized and passed through the lines of an enemy four to six thousand strong, to join 150 of their countrymen and neighbors, in a fortress doomed to destruction. Does American history, or any history, ancient or modern, furnish a parallel to such heroism?

... They willingly entered the beleaguered walls of the Alamo, to swell the little band under Travis, resolved "never to surrender or retreat." In after many years it was my privilege to personally know and live near many of their widows and little ones and to see the latter grow into sterling manhood and pure womanhood. I never met or passed one without involuntarily asking upon him or her the blessings of that God who gave the final victory to Texas.

--John Henry Brown in History of Texas

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