Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-02-10
HEROINE OF THE ALAMO.
She Is a Tennessean andI Halls
from Bolivar.

CoTTesposdence of the San Antonio Express.
Texans confess keen interest in facts
affecting the history and fortunes of
David Crockett San Antonio is in
debted to much of its fame to that of the
heroic martyr to liberty, who fell in the
thickest OF the fight within the Alamo
Have you listened to the simplest recital
of the facts given by Mrs. Hannig, for
merry Mrs. Dickinson, nee Wilkerson,
in Green county, Georgian She went,
when very young. to Bolivar, Hardeman
county, Tenn. When hardly sixteen
she married Dickinson, a New Eng
land tradesman, and, in 1885, went
to Texas. When the revolt occurred
and Mexican invasion was threatened.
Dickenson removed his youthful wife to
San Antonio. When Santa Anna appear
ed before the little city one bright spring
morning in 1886. Dickenson, who was
Lieutenant or Captain in local company,
mounted mustang, and his wife was
seated behind him with child six months
old in her lap. He entered the Alamo.
He and his wife had an apartment given
them in the basement of the stone church.
Crockett occupied an adjoining room.
Here, when not engaged in loading and
firing sort of ''loHg TOm," a primitive
eighteen FOUNDER, he was accustomed to
saw his fiddle aud abhor confinement
within stone walls He was impatient of
imprisonment and especially anxious TO
have fight with the Mexicans in an open
field, where he might use his native
weapon, Betsy" his old fashioned
soap stick rifle. Through tea days Mrs
Hannig was within the Alamo, encoun-
tering Crockett almost hourly till the
last day of the seige, when the massacre
occurred. That fatal morning Dicken-
son, long before the sun rose, came to
his wife and bid her adieu. have heard
her tell the story with fearful eyes
forty-three years after the sun went
down ON the terrible day. She saw Dicken--
son but once afterward He was then
of her apartment Men rushed into her
room. There was volley of mus
ket1y. When consciousness was restored
her room was full of gunpowder smoke.
A bullet had pierced her leg just
below the knee. She was lying on the
bed, her infant, six months old, beside
her, and richly dressed Mexican officer
standing near. She remembers, as for
got to state, that simultaneously with the
hand to hand fight between her husband
and the Mexicans at the door way, two
little boys, sons Of German gunner, ran
into her room. They were pursued by
MeXicans shot down and bayoneted in
her presence, the smoke from the guns
filling her room and enabling her to escape
observation. Almonte was educated in
New Orleans. lie interposed when the
Mexicans sought to take her life, and
caused her to be taken to Santa Anna.
This man sought to induce her to accom-
pany him to Mexico. When she refused he
concluded to send her to Sam Houston,
that the terrible story she would tell
might intimidate the little band of Texas
patriots. Wounded as she was, she set
out alone on a mustang, with her child
in her lap, across the open prairies for
Cor zales. She, her infant and the ne
gro Ben, the servant of Travis, who was
in command. were the sole American |
survivors. But San Antonio should |
hear Mrs. Hannig, now growing old, !
tell the story as | have heard it. She
would tell, too, of her flight, ac-
by the negro Ben; of
the intervention of Deaf Smith, who
saved her when almost dying of thirst,
fatigue and of the pain caused by |
her wound. Hear her tell of her inter |
view with Houston, and how the hero of |
Texan independence used the hideous
story to exasperate his followers. She
told him that when she was leaving San |
Antonio the town and country were per
tuned with odors arising from the holo-
caust made of the bodies of those
who fell within the Alamo. She beheld |
The flames that consumed the body of
her husband and of Crockett and Ira,
Wis, and was instructed by Santa Anna
10 describe the horrible scene to Houston |
and his followers. She executed the, or.
Ter with painStaking care Tne effect |
vas little dreamed of by the bloody |
Mexican leader,