HOW DID DAVY CROCKETT DIE? ONE ACCOUNT

I’ve been fascinated by the story of The Alamo ever since I was a boy – which was a LONG time ago! I’d planned to post this on March 6^th 2020, the 184th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo (March 6th 1836.) However, life got in the way etc. So here it is, belatedly, better four days late than never…

Ruins of the Alamo in 1844

I thought I’d give a brief consideration to one of the enduring mysteries of the Alamo: HOW DID DAVY CROCKETT DIE?

DAVID ('Davy') CROCKETT (1786-1836) in 1834

In Walter Lord's historical account of the siege 'A Time to Stand' there are clues. A Mexican captain, Rafael Soldana, describes a notable Alamo defender: 'A tall man, with flowing hair, was seen firing from the same place... during the entire siege. He wore a buckskin suit and a cap all of a pattern entirely different from those worn by his comrades... he rarely missed his mark... this man I later learned was known as 'Kwockey'.'

A Mexican sergeant Felix Nunez then described a Texan he saw in the final battle, who seems very similar in dress, headgear, appearance and military prowess: 'He was a tall American of rather dark complexion and had on a long buckskin coat and a round cap without any bill, made out of fox skin with the long tail hanging down the back... he never missed a shot. He killed at least 8 of our men, as well as wounding several others. This being observed by a lieutenant who had come in over the wall, he sprang at him and dealt him a deadly blow with his sword, just above the right eye, which felled him to the ground, and in an instant he was pierced by not less than 20 bayonets.' Even if this wasn't Crockett, it's a hero's death worthy of him.

Another Crockett portrait from 1834

Of course, the two Mexican accounts here highlight an individual wearing a coonskin cap.

So did Crockett wear such an item?

Rafts of scholarly research have gone into this issue, and I wouldn’t dream of arguing with experts who’ve spent months, if not years, investigating it. My ‘scholarly research’ took fifteen minutes via Google, so can’t be compared to their efforts. But, for what it’s worth, here’s what I gleaned:

The popular impression of Crockett at the time of his death was that he wore one. Here’s a woodcut of the ‘Davy Crockett Almanac’ from 1837:

But did he?

A couple of statements would suggest he did (I need to credit WILLIAM GRONEMAN 111, as I took some of the following information from his April 24 2010 article in ‘True West Magazine.’)

Crockett’s daughter MATILDA described her father the last time she saw him as he left his Tennessee home for Texas in autumn 1835: ‘He was dressed in his hunting suit, wearing a coonskin cap, and carrying a fine rifle presented to him by friends in Philadelphia.’

JAMES DAVIS, seeing Crockett leaving Memphis for Texas, wrote: ‘He wore that same veritable coon-skin cap and hunting shirt.’

And (admittedly long after 1836) Alamo survivor SUSANNA DICKINSON recalled being led out of the ruins of the Alamo in the immediate aftermath of the battle. She said, ‘I recognized Colonel Crockett lying dead and mutilated between the church and two-story barrack building and even remember seeing his peculiar cap lying by his side.’

SUSANNA DICKINSON

However, I expect arguments to continue to rage…

Robert Onderdonk’s ‘Fall of the Alamo’ 1903