Victory Or Death

[mongrel]

Taken from Yahoo News:

Commander's ''Victory or Death'' letter finally to return to the Alamo
By Jim Forsyth

AUSTIN, Tex. (Reuters) - An 1836 letter penned by the commander of the small force of Texans defending the Alamo, a pivotal battle in the Texas Revolution that led to its break from Mexico, will be displayed for the first time at the San Antonio mission.

With its dramatic ending - "Victory or Death!" - the letter by William Travis, written on both sides of a single sheet of paper, is considered one of the defining documents of 19th century American history.

"I call on you in the name of liberty, patriotism, and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch," Travis wrote in the open letter, in which he pleaded for reinforcements, addressing the letter to "the People of Texas and All Americans in the World."

The letter will be on display from February 23 to March 7 at the Alamo, which typically gets 2.5 million visitors a year.

"It is amazing to think of Travis and 150 men surrounded in that little compound, and he is putting this ink on this paper," John Anderson, the preservation officer at the Texas State Archives, told Reuters this week as a colleague removed the document from the iron casing where it is carefully preserved.

Travis and his men had been ordered into the Alamo, which at the time was a disused Spanish colonial mission, as Mexican forces arrived in San Antonio to crush what to them was a provincial rebellion. Texas at the time was a part of the Republic of Mexico.

Twelve days after Travis wrote the letter, the Mexican Army stormed the Alamo and Travis and his entire command were killed.

Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, two frontiersmen, had gone to the Alamo before Travis sent the call to arms, and their deaths ensured their places as American heroes.

Six weeks later, the Texan Army under newly appointed General Sam Houston routed the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto, and Texas was declared a republic. Nine years later, in 1845, Texas was admitted to the Union as the 28th state.

Mindful of that history, State Conservator Sarah Norris, who is responsible for making sure the 13-by-16-inch letter is not damaged, is taking precise precautions.

"We have to establish very strict guidelines for temperature and relative humidity," she said. "Paper will very quickly yellow, turn brittle and break down."

She says the ink used by Travis, called iron gall ink, has already begun to damage the paper. The document has to be kept away from light to avoid further damage.

The letter's journey from Austin back to the Alamo won't be as dangerous as the journey it took out.

Travis' courier, Albert Martin, had slipped through the Mexican Army's siege lines under cover of darkness. This time it will receive a state police escort from the Texas Archives to San Antonio on February 22, and then be exhibited in a specially built display cabinet, said Mark Loeffler, a spokesman for the Texas General Land Office.

The letter is now valued at $1.2 million.

[mongrel]

From all of world history, other than Thermopylae I can think of no better example than the Alamo, of how to die well.

[Watauga]

From all of world history, other than Thermopylae I can think of no better example than the Alamo, of how to die well.

That is Exactly Right Mike! they died so well as to live on in history forever!

[William]

Being just 15 miles from San Antonio I watched the local newscast of the preparations for the Travis letter to be brought to the Alamo museum and not only will it have a police escort provided by Texas Department of Public Safety but will arrive in an armored car.  I have plans to go see the letter in person and will try and post some pics here as well.  

Curiosly though, just three weeks after Travis penned this letter, the fort at Goliad under the command of Colonel Fannin fell and the 400 hundred militia that had surrendered were then executed by the Mexican army. Some 20 Texians managed to escape and report back to Sam Houston and while the world remembers the rallying cry of "Remember the Alamo", few know that "Remember Goliad" was also a source of inspiration as well and motivated the forces under Sam Houston until they ultimately defeated the Mexican Army on April 21, 1836 at the Battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna was captured the following day and the Mexican army retreated back to Mexico City, ending the Texas Revolution.

[mongrel]

The commander at Goliad, James Fannin, had started out to reinforce the Alamo, but dilly-dallied and used such inconveniences as a broken wagon wheel as an excuse to call it off. He then managed to get his entire command trapped in the open and had no choice other than to surrender. He was no fan of either Travis or Jim Bowie, the co-commanders of the Alamo, and doubtless this personality issue had much to do with his reluctance to move his troops from Goliad to San Antonio.

It is estimated by military experts that given the extent of its perimeter, the Alamo would have required about 1000 men and several times more cannon than it had, to be properly defended. Original estimates placing the number of defenders at between 150 and 200 have been revised based on documentation fairly recently discovered; it seems there were actually somewhat over 250 men in the Alamo. Had Fannin followed through and gotten his 400 men and cannon into the Alamo, that still would have been barely half what the mission-fortress needed to be sufficiently garrisoned -- but given the damage that about 250 doomed men did to the Mexican Army in the 90 minutes of the final assault, roughly 650 fighting men could likely have broken Santa Anna's forces in San Antonio.

This we shall never know, but I would love to see a reputable "what-if" program by the History Channel or something similar bring in experts on 19th century military matters to consider the possible outcome, had Travis, Bowie, and Fannin succeeded in combining forces.