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 6th 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
