. Our pioneer heroes and their daring deeds . stedby privations and toils ; they didnot believe that Santa Annawould enterthe state again; therewould be volunteers from theUnited States to assist them, ifthey waited; and the quarrelsof the civil authorities had a par-alyzing effect upon the invasion was a thing not tobe denied by the civil or mili-tary officers, however, and Gov. Smith despatched Col. Travis,Gen. Houston and Col. Bowie, each with a force of thirty men,to the relief of Bexar. On the twenty-third of February, thetown was regularly invested by a force of five or six th
. Our pioneer heroes and their daring deeds . stedby privations and toils ; they didnot believe that Santa Annawould enterthe state again; therewould be volunteers from theUnited States to assist them, ifthey waited; and the quarrelsof the civil authorities had a par-alyzing effect upon the invasion was a thing not tobe denied by the civil or mili-tary officers, however, and Gov. Smith despatched Col. Travis,Gen. Houston and Col. Bowie, each with a force of thirty men,to the relief of Bexar. On the twenty-third of February, thetown was regularly invested by a force of five or six thousand,the besieged numbering but one hundred and forty-five. Theseare the numbers as stated by Col. Travis, in a letter written dur-ing the siege. On the sixth of March, 1836, the Alamo fell. Thegarrison had held out a long time, and had fought desperately;the commander, Travis, fell, mortally wounded by a ball; a Mex-ican officer rushed towards him with drawn sword; the hero ofthe Alamo, rousing himself with the energy of despair, drew his. GENERAL SAM HOUSTON. TEXAS WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 3^1 own sword, and tlie two enemies closed in a fatal union, thesword of each sheathed into the breast of the other. Such was thespirit with which these men fought for their independence. Everyprisoner was slain. The corpse of Travis was hunted out fromthe heaps of slain, that Santa Anna might run his sword throughit. Two officers were detailed to pile up the bodies of the defend-ers and burn them. In the search they found a man still alive,lying sick on a stretcher. Do you know him? asked one. I think, replied the other, it is the infamous Col. Bowie. They berated him for fighting against the Mexican government;he replied by denouncing them for fighting under such a tyrantas Santa Anna; they commanded silence; he answered : Not when ordered by such as you. Then we will relieve you of your tongue, rejoined one ofthe officers. The brutal order was given to the soldiers near by, and speed-ily
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